Writing with Emotion

As you know, I'm an emotional writer online with few exceptions. But at work, I bleach the emotion from my writing. My emails, my justifications and memos have no emotion. It's gone. Formal. Perfect. Clear. Business like. And it's succinct. My emails at work are barely more than three sentences.

I think fiction written without emotion is a waste of time. It is my problem with Neil Gaiman's writing and Erin Morgenstern's THE NIGHT CIRCUS and Susannah York's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. I understand the absence of emotion in academic journal writing or legal memos or business writing or non-fiction - which is why I find non-fiction so difficult to read.

But writers who focus on technique or plot over the emotional resonance of story, who lack a true feel for poetry. Who can't find the emotional pulse. Who tend to use the third person distant pov - distancing the reader as well in the process - so that we feel as if we are reading the story from a distance of 5,000 miles, never close enough to truly care if the characters live or die. I might as well be reading a dry journal article.

When I read a story...I want to feel the characters. I don't want to watch them objectively from a distance - with a sort of analytical air. That's for numbers not characters.

It annoys me when people put technique before passion. Slang is about passion. It's an emotional release. People don't smush words for speed, but to convey emotion. Feeling. I play with grammatical rules for emotional effect. As did James Joyce.
He wanted the reader to literally sink inside of Leopold Bloom to walk with his feet not in his mocassins. And the amazing thing is..you do. Just as in John Green's magical The Fault in Our Stars...you find yourself walking with Hazel Grace and August Waters feet. To fall inside someone else is magic. To be able to communicate emotion, pain, love, remorse, guilt - to make the reader feel these things - that is what lies at the root of fiction and why I prefer it to non-fiction.

Work is non-fiction. Work is bleached of emotion. Work is dry and numerical. Prices.
Bleaching rage and anger and sarcasm from my prose. Bleaching the poetry from it. The best writers care little for the technique the pristine plot, and the clever plot-twist. The best writers pull you so deep inside their work, that you laugh and cry buckets. You want to write fanfic about their characters. Their stories live inside your head not as meta, but as raw emotion. The best stories are those that we feel in our gut, in our heart, in our blood...not in our heads.

[PS: Please Don't hurt me if you vehmentally disagree. Mileage varies and all that. And this is in regards to a book I'm reading - it is NOT directed towards anyone on my flist. ;-) ]

(no subject)

So I scanned Mark Watches...

* Odd, I actually enjoyed Beer Bad. It was hilarious. I didn't take it seriously. But I also went to college in the 1980s (like the writers of Buffy did) where we had 3.2 beer and people could drink beer at the ripe old age of 19 and serve it - as long as it was 3.2 - which was the case in Colorado and California. Do they still have 3.2 beer? It was misnomer, it did get you drunk, which is why I think they finally did away with it. I think. So my suspension of disbelief wasn't a problem - since I actually knew people who served beer on campus who were 19. Gotta love the 1980s. [It should be noted that I like absurd comedy. I found HIM to be hilarious too (not the Dawn scenes (I cringed during them) the Buffy-Spike-Wood and the Rocket Launcher sequence...that bit had me dying with laughter, as did the 70's split scene, and Willow trying to turn the Guy into a Girl before Xander and Spike stop her), as well as The Girl in Question. Also Doublemeat Palace made me laugh. But episodes like
Storyteller, The Zeppo and Superstar made me cringe. So I clearly hate parody, but love absurdity? IDEK. (Every time I use that phrase I feel like I'm referencing a company that makes audio cassettes. Today's slang sounds like an ad for IKEA, gotta love the information/technology revolution.)

* I clearly don't have a button regarding slut-shamming and casual sex, mostly because I don't understand why anyone in their right mind would want to engage in casual sex. I don't do it. Never have. Not how I am wired. So...
( cut in case this is a huge trigger for you, if it is, please do us both a favor and ignore )

* Mark's attitude towards Cordy and Xander makes me laugh and bewilders me, because I'm the exact opposite. ( cut to protect pro-Cordy folks on my flist, if you are pro-Xander, go ahead and read, if pro Cordy, you might want to skip for both our sakes. )

* Please do not hurt me if you vehmentally disagree. Mileage Varies. This is just an opinion. I've been known to change my mind on a whim. I'm being careful with comments this round and screening. Because...there's a few things I said in there that could result in some rather violent responses. So protecting myself or trying to. Maybe I should just flock? Will stay unflocked for now.

The shaming room

Originally posted by shadowkat67 at The shaming room

Originally posted by mickeym at The shaming room

Originally posted by arynwy at The shaming room

Originally posted by firefly124 at The shaming room

Originally posted by kikibug13 at The shaming room

Originally posted by bajoransmurf at Please take a seat in the shaming room...

Originally posted by denorios at Please take a seat in the shaming room...

Since a number of US newspapers have refused to republish the latest Doonesbury cartoon strip which highlights the way Republicans are attempting to undermine a woman's right to choose, I feel it's important to make sure the message still gets across.

The shaming room awaits.