The Best You

Maze Runner

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Do you guys think about stuff like that? As far as genre or style or subject matter? Like, what do you have that's particular (but not unique) to you that would inform what you should do to bring out your best work?

This might be a ridiculously pedestrian question. Like, "Of course, don't you?" Or, just a ridiculous one. "No, what? What in the hell are you talking about?"

I'm not sure, but I just have this recurring sense that my best bet would be to try to address this question. I had an acting teacher in college. He'd been a working actor on Broadway, and he said something to the effect of, 'Most people go through life having no idea who they are, but an artist doesn't have that luxury.' Ha, but I do realize that I could be totally off, and that it might just be me looking for an easy way out. Not that knowing yourself enough for it to be useful is ever easy.
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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I haven't, really. I tend to think of my writing itself as purely academic; just a skill. The meat of what I'm writing seems to just sort of...come. (I don't really know how to explain that better and I definitely can't quantify it.) Therefore I don't really think of the "best" part of what I do. I don't know what that is and I don't expect to ever know. I remain openminded.
 

Maze Runner

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Maybe that's healthiest. Still, I know there are things that are beyond me, and things that seem natural to me.
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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Maybe that's healthiest. Still, I know there are things that are beyond me, and things that seem natural to me.

Oh no, no. I wouldn't say "healthiest" at all.

I think we're all supposed to write differently, and to view different things as "important", so to speak. I think that's part of the whole "thing" with writing. The point is to get you into that feeling, that zone, where your writing is your own expression, so it must be true (this is all just opinion, mind you) that we're all supposed to arrive there in different ways, too.

It's like music. You may sing one way and another person may sing another way. You may produce a gigantic amount of vibrato. The next person may hardly use any vibrato, or she may attach it just at key emotional points in the song or just at the ends of each line for emphasis. Or she may be like Stevie Nicks, whose singing sounds like she's riding on the back of a motorcycle (no offense, Stevie, I love ya and you're my hero). But even within these differences everyone will "get there" vibrato-wise differently. You may go deep-belly. You may just sort of feel it tremble. However you get there is "the right way."

I firmly believe this in art in general because without individuality on all parts of any form of art, why bother? If it's about expression why would you only be correctly expressing yourself if you're doing it the way someone else would do it?

Disclaimer: that doesn't mean there are no good rules in writing (or in any art). You can't throw any words out there in any combination and think they'll be received with breathless applause. But within a certain degree of talent plus a certain degree of education (self- or external or both), you do you.

Again...JMO.
 

Maze Runner

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By healthiest, and I should have said "healthier", I just meant that maybe it's better not to give any thought to the question of how who we are or what we are informs our choices. We are what we do and that would include the choices we make, and even what stories we choose to write.

Or, as you said in your first post, maybe we should just let it come. I pose it as a question because I'm not sure. The singing analogy is a good one I think. I remember reading ins Sammy Davis' biography that when he first started singing--he'd started as more of a dancer and impressionist, though he hadn't realized it, he was copying Sinatra's style, so Frank brings him to his house, pours the drinks, puts the music on at just the right volume, and says, more or less, 'I'm flattered that you like what I do well enough to try and mimic me, but as long as you do that you're always gonna be second best. You have to find your own style.'

So, if I recall, it's been a while, Sammy tackled this question and resolved to some truths about himself and came out with a style that was all his own. So my question is really just whether anybody here has tackled that question for themselves, or whether the consensus would be that it's unnecessary, because, as I say, you're making the choices. So, for example, it would be like, hey I'm a funny guy--that's right I'm a clown, I'm here to amuse you. I know I'm funny, people laugh with (at) me most of the time, so why don't I use that? Versus not giving it any thought, but just ending up writing funny, 'cause that's how you see things.