| Fiction
has been a rather late development. And I am afraid to
say, a very incomplete development. Given a choice I
would rather write good stories and novels, rather than
slog over verses- and I am only being realistic about
it. I firmly believe that the age of verse lies in the
past rather than in present or future. Prose has firmly
set in, and it has to remain here. And prose best writes
fiction. Of course there has been fiction in verse, but
they have always been experimental and fringe attempts,
and have always failed to bring home the booty. What
surprises many, and even myself, is that to me writing
verse seems so much easier than writing fiction in
prose. While writing verses they are almost always
lyrics with me, with only a few smatterings of dramatic
experiments. Going beyond the self, bringing about a
total segregation between the author and the narrator is
the capability of a genius. Attaining that total
objectivity of observation and narration is a priority
in writing good fiction, and until that comes about,
fiction remains autobiography or fantasy- as is with me.
Uptil now verse has
been my mainstay in creative composition. Verses never
demand a consistency, a plot, a story, characterisation
and a dozen other things you need to write fiction (as
long as you are writing small lyrics, and most of the
time I am). Verses are, thus, so much easier to write.
Most of the verses being inspirational, you need only a
spur for its composition. Writing of fiction is a much
more harder procedure, in which your real artistic
potential is tested. You need to think, you need to
stick around your considered framework (plot, story and
characterisation), and you need to defy temperamental
handicaps. Writing fiction, in a word, is more
responsible. Writing of verse is whimsical and
temperamental.
My fictional attempts,
immature as they are, have hardly gone beyond that
autobiographical or fantasy stage. In fact one of the
stories turned out to be so much autobiographical and
fantastical upon reviewing, that I had to scrap it from
the website until such time as a reworked version could
be produced. Needless to say, it produced unwanted repercussions
in concerned quarters upon discovery. It will be
observed that the stories are very youthful, the
protagonist somewhat similar to me, and almost all
indulge in omniscient narration. Some stories are built
around real events. Needless to say, I do feel this
inferiority in fictional objectivity. I can only hope
that I may devote my attention to writing better fiction
in future.
Composed:
December 26, 2001 |
