So I got a pretty nice pep talk (ok fine, if you want to share in it too, I can be generous) from Darcy in this post about writing in a genre. While I had been complaining about preconceived ideas of lighthearted fiction, I was making my own judgments on writing in a genre.
Hmmm.
The reality is that I love those little details that (usually) push a book out of the mainstream shelves. Those touches of the impossible which let you wander into a “world of pure imagination” to borrow a lyric that just floated into my head and now won’t leave (thank you Gene Wilder in the best scene of “Willie Wonka.” I think it’s world. Maybe it’s land. Really, this isn’t the point).
A long time ago, I read a book on writing which said that you should write what you love to read. The author (I would credit her if only I could remember her name), said that everyone wants to write the Great American Novel, but very few of those people, when asked, actually read the various versions of the Great American Novel.
I came to terms with that fantasy a while ago (though not as soon as I should have after reading that advice). So where was the big leap from writing something I enjoyed every soul-sucking moment of writing to realizing that I’d done exactly what that book had told me to do, all those years ago?
Writing is about telling the truth, whether it comes from aliens, school teachers, or succubae (can’t get that query for Hell’s Belles out of my brain). I just happened to find my truth after I finished the book.
As an aside, and in the spirit of truth, I would like to state for the record I would never deny my geekdom. Not that anyone suggested otherwise, but I wanted to clarify. It’s been disguised over the years (one of my friends still giggles every time I mention that I was in a sorority in college), but my ambivalence over genre wasn’t the fear that I’d be outed (my geekiness is kind of obvious, anyway). It was just good, old-fashioned snobbishness, as stated above.
I would hate for geeks anywhere to feel maligned, and thus I feel that I must state in the affirmative: I am a geek, I have always been a geek, and I am very likely to remain a geek in perpetuity.
Yay for geeks!
Chris
Absolutely!