ramble about writing and narrative structure

[lotesse]

I've been trying something new with my writing.

I gave up on lengthy original stuff last year, having realized that I'm really only good at fic and essays, if anything. The reason: omg I suck at plot so bad. I just do. Plot and I are not on speaking terms, yo. I can work with the internal, but I can't balance it with externality.

What fic allows me to do is bypass the need for plot, because the source text has that covered. I'm free to play with words and circularity and metaphor, to poke about in the holes and corners of said text. And I can do that. I can make pretty little things that fit into those corners. What I'm trying to figure out is whether there's any way that I can apply those abilities to original writing. Because I would like to operate outside of fandom sometimes.

I've got a zygotic story that I started two years ago that I'm quite fond of. It's one of those fantasy stories where the internal is externalized, and I've found some really lovely images. But it's so unbelivably hard for me to string them together coherently. And I'm wondering if I really have to. My poetry professor has been working with me on removing the narrative scaffolding from my poems and letting them stand free. And I want to do the same thing with my prose.

So: a story made up of short ficlets, all fitting in to a narrative, but sometimes out of order or from different POVs. Think it could work?

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a good thing to try! I completely share your plot concerns. I'm trying to think of a plot to go along with some elements I have now...we'll see if I ever do it. Sometimes it's just easier to borrow a known plot and have fun with it.

[lotesse]

I think there's also a correlation between lit-geekiness and fanfic-writing. Fic is very much interpretation made flesh, in the same way that Shakespearian theater can be.

And I know that I'd much rather interpret and re-vision and deconstruct a plot than come up with one. For one thing, I always start poking holes in my own plots before I can ever write them out. I start ficcing them before I fully contruct the primary text.