Beyond practicing the basics of writing, there comes the choice on where to ultimately focus one’s attention on: form or idea. Scott McCloud’s book, “Understanding Comics” highlights this concept in Chapter 6, and I think that this is an important choice to make when you’ve mastered discipline in writing.
To better explain what’s going on, form is all about technique, being able to tell a story well, while Idea is about what the story says about life, the whole of humanity, and the human experience. These days, I’m focusing on improving on the latter, and sending snippets of my thoughts to a friend.
“Scars are the evidence that life has happened”
“I don’t have the patience to lie”
“Being an adult is about managing expectations”
“Lying is bad habit to have, and a harder one to break”
“Children hope; adults cope”
Etc, etc, etc, etc.
The process is very liberating, and is a much different direction to take my writing.
I have a background in poetry, and I think poetry really helps when trying to write truly fantastic and beautiful pieces:
“Once upon a time, there was a meadow, and it was beautiful and good. In this meadow were butterflies with wings of every color and hue; prismatic blues and greens, brilliant oranges and reds, violets and purples the envy of any robed emperor or king. The butterflies would spend their days, floating from petal to pistal, drinking in the sweetness of morning, and the yawning glory of night.”
Wow, pretty… but what does it say about life?
I think a step beyond that, is that a story must somehow address contemporary issues. Take Watchmen for example:
“Heard a joke once. Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says ‘Treament is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.’ Man bursts into tears. Says ‘But doctor, I am Pagliacci’”
Watchmen was written during the time of the Cold War. People were scared someone will push a button and end the world. The poor are starving, AIDs is becoming an issue, everyone is holding their breath, in an uncertain world where the future seems vaguely threatening. To say that the audience at that time could relate would be an understatement.
Very often I hear people talking about the issues of this generation, but they are not talking about the problems that we are dealing with as much as they are addressing specific, isolated instances. We have to widen our gaze and look at what we are dealing with today and now. What are the issues that our generation is dealing with? What are our feelings towards them? What can we do to solve them?
Classics become classics because they speak to us across the ages. Les Miserable talked about the unjust persecution of the poor, something we are still dealing with, and Watchmen talks about how one slip-up in our technology can decimate all human life on Earth. What will you write about? Will it stand the test of time? Will your words be “modified in the guts of the living”?
Keep writing. Keep dreaming.
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