Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Comfort Zone

Push talked a little bit about writing outside the comfort zone and it got me thinking about it as well. I think we each have certain aspects of writing that we feel far more comfortable delving into than others. For me, I do not feel as comfortable writing drama as I do with writing something more light-hearted or comedic. So what am I writing right now? Something more on the dramatic side. Which is why I've had more trouble with it and felt far more insecure with every bit of it that I type. It's also why it almost never got read by anyone in the first place. Months ago I sat at the computer one night and wouldn't stop typing and there it stayed for weeks and weeks until I let it slip that I hadn't been completely idle and Push finally forced me to send it to her and has been helping me out with it as I publish.

I think a big part of the apprehension on writing drama for me is that it implies that I'm trying to take myself seriously. So it seems like I'm expecting any readers to take me seriously. Where as if I'm writing something comedic, it's quite obvious I'm just doing it for fun. I don't know, it's like whenever I try to do something serious I fear that people will find it to be over-dramatic and contrived. Then again, I don't think I could write all of my stories as near complete farce such as "Careles Wager" and "Sexiest Man Alive!". Then again, my light-hearted stories have very few reviews, where as the other ones only have... few reviews, so perhaps I'm the one who's wrong on this one. Maybe you're all sitting back (all three of you, thanks, followers!) and thinking, Wow, she thinks that comedy is her strong suit? Yikes.

But we can't always do things the easy way. Sometimes it's fun to challenge ourselves with something out of the comfort zone. Sometimes it's not fun at all, but we persevere and get the job done, anyway!

As a side note, thanks to those of you who are following us and reading and commenting on this blog. I think us Han and Leia fans will have a lot more fun if we actually interact!

And to reward you for reading, here's another cute picture:







2 comments:

  1. I think writing drama is also a bit more revealing of the writer than comedy...I mean, you're pulling things from yourself and laying them out on the table for everyone to see. That's not the most comfortable feeling. Of course the more you work at something, the stronger you'll get, usually.

    By the way, I thought both of the stories you mentioned were pretty hilarious.

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  2. I think you make a great point about laying it out on the table. I think writing drama makes the writer feel a lot more vulnerable, which is quite scary. And in the same sense, writing, um, adult scenes makes the writer feel immensely vulnerable!

    And thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed those stories, they were a lot of fun to write!

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