It's been a looong time since I promised this entry, but finally, for those waiting, here it is. Keep in mind, though, despite the lapse in time, my comments are just as ill-thought-out as ever.
In the wake of my announcement that my story, "Fading Light", has been sold to PSEUDOPOD, I find myself thinking once again about the metamorphosis of a writer over time as he refines his craft. When I wrote "Fading Light" it was really only the second tale I'd penned — at least, the second once I became serious about writing. As a result, the story reads differently than my later work. I was still trying to find my voice then for the most part and what this story has is a more clipped tone than what I do now. I think it makes it a perfect candidate for a reading, but I have to admit I feel distant from that sort of story, and not just because it's been seven years since I've really written one. If not for the strong reaction it's received over the years, I'd probably have retired the piece and chalked it up to youthful folly.
You see, the style of my fiction has changed over the years as I close in on just what my strengths are and how best to display them. I think we see this from most, if not all, writers. It's one of the explanations as to why we can like the early work of a writer and not the later. Time changes a writer, changes who he is and what he cares about, but also changes the tools he uses. Sometimes, to his fans' disappointment.
The same thing happens with music, of course, perhaps more dramatically as well. The band that played pop to great success at the beginning plays reggae-infused island pop at the end when nobody cares. It happens (though not always that drastically). The artist, he wants to change sometimes, needs to in order to keep his work refreshing and exciting and new. The reader, he's not bothered by all of that. What he wants is what he had before, just more of it. Or, rather, he wants what he thinks he had before, because getting what he had before will soon be boring. The reader expects something that will affect him like the work originally did, and that doesn't come from art staying the same or from deviating too far from its beginnings.
But, again, the changes in a writer's work come primarily from his or her endeavours to be "better", or if not better then to at least create a challenge — not to the reader but to the writer himself. After a while, one finds that writing the same sort of story over and over loses its lustre. Unless one gets very rich — rich enough that being repetitive is incentivised — most writers will long for something different. After all, the act of writing is a long process, and a lonely one. To spend that amount of energy on something one's heart isn't in is difficult, and it only leads to further problems with the work. So, the writers says to himself, "What can I do differently this time? What might be fun to try?" and that first step outside his box can lead him very quickly to a land none of his readers recognise. All because he followed his muse.
The reason I initially mentioned the changing styles of a writer was in reference to Richard Gavin's novella "Primeval Wood" (available on its own from Burning Effigy Press or in his new collection, THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM). The tale seems a departure in style somewhat from anyone familiar with Gavin's work from his two previous collections. That departure, though, is in fact a natural progression of his work. I like to imagine his journey was similar to mine. My early work is coloured at times with an urge to show off. Imagery is bright, language purposefully florid, all in an attempt to say: "Look here! This is writing!". In the years since I've worked on removing the most egregious examples of this from my work, and perhaps Gavin's done something similar. Or perhaps as above he feels he's reached a comfort level with writing in that style and wants to push out in another. Will it lose him readers? It may, as people resist change, but I'm sure we can all agree that becoming stagnant will only lose an author more in the long run, whether by the reader becoming bored or the writer.
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