Is your writing your 'letter to the world'? Why? How?

It is so touching that Emily Dickinson’s letter to people of the world in her time is still ringing true, and is still being read. Did she do this purposefully? One would assume so. The way she has titled the poem, and the very first line reinforces that she is writing this for it to be read. And why does one write a letter? In order to send a message.

But if we think about it, there are billions of stories in the world that have been made to send a message. So, are these stories ‘letters to the world’? Consider Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty – all extremely well known stories, and each one of them have a moral, a message

Every piece of writing that gets published is a ‘letter to the world’. Your work, your words, they’re out there for people to read, and as an author, that’s an awful lot of responsibility.

Personally, everything I write now, I compose to be read. When I was younger, I kept a diary, and was thoroughly mortified about anyone finding it and reading it. When it was found, writing for myself became somewhat traumatising. So back then, that was written for privacy, not to express a meaning – it wasn’t my ‘letter to the world’. Nonetheless, everything that an author tries to get published and writes about will show some sort of view, some sort of moral, an opinion – acting as a global message.

 

Reformat your letter/text/email into a poem...

My kitten is so cute.
But she's so -
naughty.

As I bathed in
a bath bomb infused tub
with candles
music and rose petals, this
little one learned to place both
paws on the drawer knob
and stand on her little back legs
with her little white socks
and pull.

She pulled, pulled, and pulled some more
until it was
completely open.
She dived in and tore open
her Valentines day treats.
She ate every single one.

And now she'll get no presents.

Your interal conflict + modern war imagery.

In a year and three months, my life will change forever - if I chose to go. If I go, I expect my apartment to look as though a bomb has hit it - he's just so messy. And, oh, Dear Lord, the constant battles between us. We're both so damn stubborn, that a mixture of our opinions explode like a freakin' hydrogen bomb. I'll be away from my family, and pretty soon, we'll buy those tanks of a 'family car'. Goodbye dreams of having a Smart Car.

But then, saying that, I'd get to wake up next to him every single day. We'd have our own lives, away from all the drama, just to create our own. But at least our own is ours. Our wars belong to us, and I'd rather fight World War Three with you than be with anyone else.

A protagonist that embodies the flaws and weaknesses of the writer distracts the reader from the narrative itself. Agree/disagree?

“The Swimmer” reflects Cheever’s personality through a lot of symbolism, and a pool of subliminal messages. Mainly, Cheever does this through his protagonist, and the severe and obvious flaws belonging to Neddy Merrill make it extremely difficult to sympathise with him.

The first thing that struck me about this narrative is the references to alcohol. In fact, the first line, “It was one of those midsummer days where everyone sits around saying ‘I drank too much last night’” indicates that alcohol is going to play a significant part in this plot. Neddy begins as a strong, independent swimmer, with a wife and a family, who has a drink on occasion. Nonetheless, it becomes evident that he has a mistress, and begins to resort to alcoholism. John Cheever himself had severe troubles with alcohol addiction. In fact, in an interview from The Guardian with his daughter, she stated “without alcohol, he became himself”, openly admitting that her father contorted into a different personality when intoxicated. It’s possible that Cheever explored the ‘drunken version’ of himself through Neddy.

I think it could distract the reader from the narrative itself, but only if you knew about John Cheever himself, and you researched. If you picked it out of the library with no idea as to whom he was chances are you’d be clueless as to his references, and images to the person he was.

Flawed protagonists are becoming increasingly popular. Before World War 2, in novels like ‘The Barsoom Novels’ by Edgar Rice, the protagonist hasn’t one flaw. He defeats the villain, saves the town, and gets the girl. But then comes WW2. Those who survived had a very different view on the world. The written universe was severely affected by it. Look at Han Solo from Star Wars. He was looking out for himself, and his ship. This selfishness made him real making it easier for their reader’s to sympathise.

In today's literature, Harry Potter has admitted that he’d be nowhere without his friends, and it’s obvious that he is awful with girls. Katniss Everdeen can’t say no to a bit of revenge, and gets herself stuck in a greedy love triangle. Flawed characters are all around us, and we love them, because we believe them.

Cheever wrote many short stories in what was referred to as the ‘New Yorker style’. Why might a writer have a style? What is your writing style and why?

John Cheever developed a distinct writing style in the 1950's, which has now coined the term "cheeveresque". I bet he had no idea that his writing style would coin a term.

I believe that a writer's style is one of the most important factors of writing. Recently, I have been assigned as a music reviewer on a social website, and in order to write my first review, a lot of research was needed. It became obvious that the successful, entertaining reviews were different stylistically. And by that, I mean through voice, sentence structure, and vocabulary. These factors contribute to a writing style, which someone can’t choose. It’s throwing a writer’s personality on paper – you can’t change it. You can alter it to suit who you’re writing for, but a writer’s style is their soul, their personality, their very being.

My style? That’s difficult to answer. Simply because, if you asked yourself ‘what is my personality like?’ you’d struggle. Others will notice it more than you, because that’s human nature. I know I write humorously. I like writing in quite a personal tone, also, because it sounds like I’m telling a story – which, I suppose, I am. What’s the best style? Everyone has to discover our own way by writing. Writing teaches writing, and no one can discover your own secret.

 

Turning the truth into a metpahor.

You’re making my head hurt, but you aren’t even shouting. You’re whispering that slithering, sickly, sound every second that ticks by. And you’re murdering me, bit by bit, by bit. So slowly, too. Stop hurting me, please. Go away.

 

Where are you from? What have you read? How does this impact upon your writing life?

Where you are from is a contributing factor as to what makes you who you are. It defines the origins and the culture that you have indulged in. I constantly have the argument about where I am from. You see, I have a British passport, I was born in Wales, and I spent a good three quarters of my life in Spain. I speak both English and Spanish fluently, and have adapted to the way of the Spanish folk. So, am I English? Welsh? Spanish?

I look at it like this.

I am a lady who comes from Europe. I am a tree, and I’ve three branches stemming from each one of these nationalities. They are just three branches out of my many hundreds that make me who I am.  The rest of the branches twist and turn throughout memories, relationships and DNA. 

Without these branches, there would be the trunk – and what good is a tree without any branches or leaves? It’s exactly the same with writing. How could I possibly write without any of my personal experiences and memories?

There are things that one cannot do or speak about in certain cultures. Emily Dickinson wrote under a male name for a reason. Where she was from, and the year of eighteen hundreds impacted her writing so much that she was published under a different name. Gender was obviously problematic to her. It’s reflected in many of her poems; how gender was portrayed in society. Her dark times throughout the war, throughout her parents’ death – it’s bound to have had an effect on her writing.

And consider John Cheever, and the aspect of memories which effects the way he wrote. His father’s business collapsed, turning him to alcoholism – something Cheever himself indulged in later on in life. Alcohol plays a major theme in so many of his short stories, including ‘The Swimmer’ and ‘The Country Husband’.

When I was a child, my mother began to read Alice in Wonderland to me and since then? I’ve had this complete fascination with fairy tales. There are many hidden messages in Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella. They’ve shaped me as a writer. Not limited, but outlined the type of writing I enjoy.