(definition further explained in this post if you still aren't satisfied)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

You Don't Have To Be Dead To Be Epic

One of the coolest things I learned from NaNoWriMo was how a writer's values make the story something you can analyze, and in doing so, learn about the way the author's mind works.

It's cool, because I'm an English major (meaning: I analyze literature a lot), and I always figured that the authors I was reading and analyzing thought through all the things they wrote painstakingly.  As if they were hunched over their little story with a pen in one hand and a fork in the other, and any time their work didn't have some huge earth-shattering meaning behind it, they stuck the fork in a wall socket to jump-start their brains into thinking epic thoughts.

At some point during this month, I looked at something I'd written and realized that what I think of as the truth just magically shows through in the things I write.

You can actually mistakenly write a piece of literature that someone else can analyze.  In fact, I might venture to say that all literature does this in some way.

I just thought that was really cool.

2 comments:

Adina West said...

I actually agree - it's pretty cool how this works. And thank heavens it does work that way, because inserting symbolism and deeper meanings into a text which didn't already have them inherent the first time round is a recipe for disaster in my opinion.

The organic birth of ideas which are then translated into our writing and become accessible to others, is truly a wonderful thing.

Natalie said...

I never really thought about that before, but come to think of it that's actually really interesting to point out!