the problem with creative writing

the problem with creative writing is that it messes with your "serious" writing. when you're in creative mode, you can do whatever you want. there are no rules. you can get away with a hand-wavy explanation of something under the guise of being an artist or whatever.

it's not that creative writing doesn't have well thought out narrative structure or word choices or whatnot. it's that you can choose whether or not to abide by the typical best practices that are espoused by so called experts.

i can't tell you how many times i've seen the same tweet. it's always from someone who tweets about writing constantly. they'll give you a list of words to cut from your writing. words such as "just" "that" "very" "like" "pretty" "so" and almost anything that ends in "ly".

how boring.

but check this out:

"My only advantage as a reporter is that I'm physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember: writers are always selling someone out."

you know who wrote that? that lovely paragraph that happens to have a bunch of "rule-breakers" in it? Joan Didion. a writer who many people consider one of the greatest of all-time.

all that being said, i do find it challenging to write essays that need more airtight arguments, especially on potentially controversial subject matters like i do for my work. i find myself getting stuck trying to phrase a tweet in a way that captures all the nuance when i should probably just toss a strong opinion out there and see what happens. it would probably do better anyway, sadly.