I am currently taking a class that focuses on the teaching and workshopping of writing in the classroom. Of course, there emphasis on technique, process, crafting, etc…..

Reading is foundational to good writing. Thinking on this, and hearing other writers in class, I wonder: Is it OK to write in the style of Hemingway or Sandra Cisneros?-short, concise, not possessing flowering language and extreme imagery. Yes, I think there can be such a thing as “extreme” imagery. Take a peek at the book, The Raw Shark Texts. Um, I’ll let you decide for yourself, but I couldn’t make it past the first chapter. I do, however, appreciate its inventiveness.

I have spent this past week reading Bonnie Friedman’s Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life. Friedman paints some glorious images and dead-on metaphors for the ideas she tries to convey. I find myself stopping every couple of pages just to absorb the painted words. Wow! It’s nonfiction written in lush prose. Even though I find this writing stunning, I have no desire to write in this “elongated” fashion even though it creates an almost communal experience between the reader and the words on the page.

Is there anything wrong with “austere word choice” and “unvarnished descriptions”??? I guess it’s all about the little thing we writers call “voice,” when we all actually have many voices. And, no, we don’t need to find the voice because it’s been there all along…….. It’s just that when I’m in class w/ me peers and write, following a prompt, and then share in class. I either feel like my piece is much more sparse (and I like it that way); I feel pressured to create, or attempt to, a vividly detailed, lush, and clever metaphor. I feel like this is the expected norm in writing-for prose, anyway. Hmmm…..

Perhaps I am realizing that it’s Ok that my voice doesn’t necessarily sing in tune with others-kind of like the penguin in Happy Feet who is booted out because his voice isn’t what it supposed to be and he, therefore, finds a rhythm all of his own.

I warned you about ramblings, right??