The Question, "What is it about?"

Think the hardest question to answer when people ask about my writing is, "What is it about?" That's hard to answer because what you're asking for is a statement about the story. But I wrote the story, because I could not describe it in a statement thus my reason for writing it AS A STORY. Not only that, but everything I write has a deeper meaning. Giving only a statement can disrupt that meaning and create a type of bias for the reader before a word is even read. They will take what they can from it in either two ways: They can read it just for the sheer pleasure of being entertained, or, they can be "intelligent readers," and look for the meaning of the story since it is something to be EXPERIENCED, not TOLD. Writing is showing, not telling. 

As much as I want to tell people, "well, if you like to read, then you should read it. If not, then I can only hope I ENTERTAIN you since that's what you want." But I don't. (not trying to sound mean when I said that I just don't want to destroy the meaning and allegories in my work by answering a question that really says, "What's so good about your story that I would read it?") But instead, the world today isn't filled with those kind of readers. They exist, yes, but those kind of readers are like an endangered species that is facing extinction.(and most of those readers, are in fact, writers).

I understand that we have to tell people what the story consists of and sadly, some would decide, "It's not for me," without even knowing what's the message behind the story. The readers I love are the ones who don't ask for a summary or a theme or whatever. They just say, "Let me read it." But, it's cool. So I live with the fact that everyone has their own motives for reading. I just want people to understand that you'd be surprised of how many books you think are "boring," yet applies to you directly. Writing is an art. Keep in mind that not everything written is just words on a page strictly for enjoyment. Sometimes, the writer is simply saying, "This needs to be addressed."

A Recent Screw-up

Yesterday, for my Creative Writing: Fiction class, we were to post our drafts online of the assignment, "Point Of View." The objective of the assignment was to focus on third-person perspective and build a plot with characters that are so compelling, it could not have been told from any other perspective. The comments that I had received from my classmates of my draft titled, "Nearview," was very much appreciated and positive. The one thing that they did point out, however, was that some of the dialogue and turn of events had happened so fast in which I should have elaborated more. (Condensing can really work against you).

Now, when I was first writing my story, I was in love. Maybe that sounds a bit bias, but we all are to our work because we cherish it. But anyway, while I was writing the story, my mind was racing and fingers were punching keys like, "Click! Click! Click! Click! SPACE! Click! Click! Click! Click! SPACE! DELETE! DELETE!" That once I clocked how many pages I had so far, my heart skipped a beat. (Did I just rhyme?)

I had remembered that our instructor had posted to aim for five pages if it were double-spaced. MIND YOU! I was only quarter of the way done with FOUR PAGES SINGLE-SPACED!

I PANICKED! Big Time! I'm like, "how am I suppose to make this five pages double-spaced, when I'm already at four pages singled-spaced, needing ANOTHER four pages at least to get the story across?" So...what I did, after calming down and pacing back in forth in my study room over a million times then making a large 20oz coffee--yes...20 ounces, I started to condense the story a bit....more than a bit. Like....ALOT.

When everything was condensed, I was still over the requirement. I sighed and deleted a few dialogue pieces here. Descriptions there. It...was.....PAINFUL. I posted my draft online and waited for the comments to roll in. Apart from being surprised from the amount of feedback, I noticed that no one at all was upset about the length of my story. They all wanted MORE. So I started to think, well, maybe if I just wrote the whole thing the first time, being that it was a FIRST DRAFT and not the FINAL DRAFT, maybe it would not have mattered if it was even ten pages.

In a nutshell, I should have done it to its completion how I planned so that the story didn't seem rushed. I'm going to edit and add everything back to the story that I had previously removed since we can re-post. (Thank God I save EVERY DRAFT). I made it known that length was my fear. That because of the five page requirement, I took ALOT out of my story that I thought the story could still survive without. 

EEEEHHHHH!!! WRONG! 

I could have waited until I was TOLD to condense it....if I would have been told that is and in which I probably won't be. The happy ending? I get to write the story to my liking and not disrupt the art behind it while my teacher, Mrs. Keren, gets to read a story that's longer than expected, but hopefully worth her time! :D