"Have you ever noticed that you can never come up with a good joke under pressure? Of course you have. Everybody has. That observation was one of the least interesting observations ever made, and I apologize for it."
As my novel hits the eighteen thousand word mark, I can't help but to be a little depressed by it. Not because it's bad. I knew it would be bad. But I never expected it to be this formulaic.
The formula?
High Fidelity - obsession with music and lists - wit - everything else that makes High Fidelity good + electoral politics = Steve's novel
Anybody else have sources of inspiration that are becoming uncomfortably apparent to you over the course of your novel?
As my novel hits the eighteen thousand word mark, I can't help but to be a little depressed by it. Not because it's bad. I knew it would be bad. But I never expected it to be this formulaic.
The formula?
High Fidelity - obsession with music and lists - wit - everything else that makes High Fidelity good + electoral politics = Steve's novel
Anybody else have sources of inspiration that are becoming uncomfortably apparent to you over the course of your novel?
posted by "Steve Smith" at 1:20 AM
2 Comments:
Well my novel clearly follows genre stereotypes and uses obvious character archetype shorthand, but I always intended to do that because it makes it easier to churn out a thousand words in forty minutes.
So, I guess the answer to the question is "kinda," since I made the novel formulaic on purpose so that I could control the formula versus being controlled by it.
In his works on popular fiction John G. Cawelti talks about the difference between convention and invention, and how using genre convention may make a work more accessible and easier to write (such as the work of the pulp writers who got paid by the word).
Wait, fuck it. It's 2:40 in the morning and I shouldn't be writing half remembered things on literary theory. I'll finish this comment in the morning.
No, nothing that has ever been published resembles my novel, and for very good reason.
God, it's boring. I should have written 50,000 words on the colour pattern of my carpet instead.
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