I was talking the other day about my writing. She asked me about how much I have been writing, to which I replied “A lot,” because I have been writing just about every day for weeks and weeks. My blogging has been often and intense. 

But when it comes to my fiction, I have been having a lot of trouble getting going and I think I may have found some of the reason. Conflict. 

Conflict is at the very heart of all fiction. Without conflict, that fucked up, things going wrong, rocks flying at your characters’ heads kind of conflict, you have no story. And my life has been going along swimmingly. My only conflicts are instantly resolved in my head when I go effortlessly with the flow. I don’t rage indignantly against reality, I ease along with it, allowing really great things to happen. I get my real conflict from other fictions (comics, movies, games, books) and I gobble it up like a good little American conflict junkie. 

I think that’s why I like Burning Man so damn much, I go there and generate some real internal conflict against the environment. Out there it is survival, and one really could die if he or she didn’t take on survival as a personal choice. Out there, the fictionsuit of Spaceman emerges and I feel more alive than ever before. 

And then there is my own personal belief in the power of metafiction and pantheistic solipsism. That is if I write it, I create it. That if I start writing conflict and real danger to characters that represent me and my life, I may suddenly end up living the dream. In that, it really s a question of courage, and my lack of it. I like my life easy and comfortable.  And then again, when I find myself on real adventures, I am giddy with joy. 

Right now, my biggest conflict is that I am fighting a head cold and really have to do my taxes when I get home.  That’s doesn’t make for good fiction. I want epic battles with intergalactic empires and the saving of space empresses from the deadly clutches of dragons. Is that so much to ask? 

I am open to assistance in getting my fiction writing going. If anyone can recommend a class or a book or a method, I will entertain it.  Better yet though, if you can recommend some solid ways to get more conflict into the adventure in my life, that I am willing to look at.

Tags: Adventure, Conflict, Writing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm and is filed under The Life of A Spaceman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.