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What Is Fiction? The Problem of Defining Reality

April 8, 2024

creativity, fiction, literature, reality, society, writing

I love deceptively simple questions. “What is fiction?” definitely counts because, on the surface, it appears childishly obvious. One might say “Fiction is writing stories that aren’t real”, or something of the sort. Probably you couldn’t even entirely disagree with that. And yet, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Obviously enough, if we want to talk about fiction and reality (aren’t they, after all, supposed to be antonyms?) there are special cases, too. “What is fiction?” seems to have a different answer if we offered as an example fantasy fiction, and yet a different one if we talked about, say, historical fiction. And what about memoirs? Not to mention the crazy notion (of yours truly) that all books are autobiographical.

The problem of comprehensively answering the question “What is fiction?” boils down to two main issues:

Who is the author of a work?
What is reality?

I told you, I love deceptively simple questions. “The author of a work is the person who wrote it, you dummy!” I hear someone telling me. The same person might even roll their eyes hearing me asking what is reality.

But, as you will see in this post, neither of these questions has a clear answer. And this complicates our attempt to answer “what is fiction?” as well. Though worry not, I’ll face the challenge!

“What is fiction?” is not a question that can be answered with recourse to whether it depicts reality or not, but whether it’s predicated on **affect**

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Confidence and Creativity: What the Drumeo Sessions Reveal

April 1, 2024

Experiencing

art, artist, confidence, creativity, music, writing

I recently had an interesting, eye-opening experience regarding the connection between confidence and creativity. I was watching a video of a drummer trying to play along to a song she hadn’t heard before. It was clear she was way outside her comfort zone. There was neither confidence not creativity in her playing.

Eventually she managed to get into the song and (judging by her expressions) have fun with it. After all, she is a professional drummer who, as I read, has played with some known artists in Quebec, Canada, and has appeared in several big shows.

Yet there is a difference between having played for “known artists in Quebec” (I can’t name anyone, but that’s just me) and, say, having played drums professionally for decades, touring with bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Megadeth. Respect to her and Quebec, but it’s simply not the same thing.

The drummer outside her comfort zone was Domino Santantonio who faced the challenge of the unknown on Drumeo, that has offered the same challenge to (among others) Chad Smith and Dirk Verbeuren, drummers for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Megadeth respectively. I will share the videos below, but as you might guess, their confidence was supremely evident. When you’ve played in huge stadiums next to musicians like Flea or Mustaine (with all their quirks), a little studio session for a YouTube channel can’t scare you.

The difference was so pronounced that it inspired me to write this post about the inseparable connection between confidence and creativity. Only someone truly comfortable with themselves can be creative.

The topic is more complex than what it might appear – not the least so because both confidence and creativity are peculiar concepts – so let’s try to unpack it.

confidence and creativity. painting of chair and window — I have some very rudimentary painting skills, but not artistic confidence. I can create something like this, which displays very low technical skill and even lower artistic one. Unsurprisingly, I would be far, far more confident creating an **artistic instantiation** of the same scene with words

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Strengths and Weaknesses as a Writer: a Pointless Question

March 11, 2024

Writing

art, creativity, fiction, genre, writing

I recently had a hilarious (as it turned out) experience in a professional capacity. A Gothic writer wanted to hire a freelancer and I was one of the candidates. One of the interview questions was, What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this question. Lazy recruiters have been using this for a long time and equally lazy and conformist candidates have been giving nice canned responses.

The thing is, al this falls apart once fiction writing enters the picture.

So this ridiculous experience – I’ll offer you more details in a while – inspired me to write this post, to clarify why What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? is a profoundly pointless question. Any writing adviser, guru, coach, or whatnot who tries to sell you a course or method to “fix your writing weaknesses” is just after your money.

strengths and weaknesses as a writer, AI render of a dystopian city made of files and folders — Those who are dead set on finding “strength and weakness” in everything, will end up living in a city made of files, folders, and boxes.

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