Why So Serious?

I want to ask this to pretty much everyone in my creative writing workshop.  Everything is so depressing in this class!  Out of a group of 15, I swear that I'm the only one who wrote something vaguely uplifting.....and my narrator is dying of cancer!

I just don't understand.  Literature doesn't have to be sad to be good.  True, you don't want to read something sappy, but you can still have an uplifting ending without making it cheesy.  But, I feel like student writers always feel that they need to bog down their readers in depressing tales that leave them feeling forlorn and empty inside.  Here's just a few examples from my class:

• One protagonist is eaten by a werewolf
• Two find their significant others dead at the end of the piece
• One gets arrested
• One commits suicide
• One suffers a devastating breakup
• Two are insane
• Two stories are about 9/11
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

I know it's always suggested that writers use experience to create art.  And I'll be the first to admit that I have so much pain in my past that I could easily dredge up to write something passionate that would reduce the toughest among you to tears.  But, why would I want to do that?  I don't want to make people cry.  Literature is not all about pain and frustration.  It's about conflict and overcoming this conflict, reaching past it.  But, I feel like I'm the only one in this workshop who understands that.  Halloween is this Wednesday.  And I really want to just show up in class dressed like the Joker and rant about how this class needs to lighten up a bit, asking them "Why so serious?"  Maybe, while I'm at it, I'll see if they'd be interested in learning "how I got these scars."  In the meantime, though, I'll just be sitting in the corner writing pieces with conflict and ultimately uplifting endings.  True, I do write depressing pieces now and again, but there's no fun in only writing the same type of literature all the time.  That's like only eating one flavor of ice cream or only playing one board game for the rest of your life!

I've reached the conclusion that people are crazy.

What Do You Want From Me?

I know I haven't been writing much lately.  I've just been very busy, and on the rare occasions when I actually have time to write, I can't think of anything worth saying.  So, my dear readers, I'm turning to you!

What do you want me to write about?

Did you like it better when I blogged about books?  Ranted about guys?  Reviewed films?  You tell me what you'd like to see on this blog, and I'll see what I can do with your suggestions :)

I look forward to hearing from you!

The Beauty of the Artist

I know I haven't been a very good blogger lately, and I apologize.  I don't want to bore you all with my random thoughts, but, the more I think about it, you guys (and gals) have signed up to follow my blog (hopefully) because you don't mind my ramblings.  So, I'm going to try and post more, even if it's just to ramble and rant a little.

I was watching some Jerome Pradon videos on YouTube, and a thought came to me.  It always amazing me when I find an artistic piece (song, movie, video clip, painting, quote, etc.) that really stirrs me to the core; that awakens something within me.  I always come away from the experience feeling a little changed.  I think that's the most beautiful aspect of art: the ability to change, to transform, to make the mundane less so, and to leave you better than you were before.  It depresses me that so many people use art in a negetive way, using talents for smut and crap.  Although, I guess it does make the beauty of former all the more beautiful; all the more magnified. (Not that I'm condoning it, of course).

I've always wanted to be a writer.  But, I didn't just want to be your dime-a-dozen-mass-market-paperback-grocery-store-potboiler variety of author.  I wanted my writing to transform the reader.  Lately, I've felt as though my writing has been mediocre; not that the writing itself is poor, but that the topics are mediocre.  I have one novella that I've been working on (but my inspiration dried up) and I think that if I could finish it, it would be an amazing piece.  It's personal at points, and detatched at others, but it is, by far, the best writing I've ever done.  I want to write about that more, but I can't seem to find my muse for that piece.

Perhaps, if I watch some more videos; listen to the lyrics of so many songs; think about people, and places, and things; what could be and what could have been; then, perhaps I'll get my muse back.  In the meantime, I want to envelop myself in the beauty of other artists' creations, and bide my time with my own.