Vive le FRAUD!

So it's first Wednesday, right? And you all know what that means...





Yeah... me and my 800 best friends... feeling insecure... but feeling insecure TOGETHER, so that is good. I encourage you to get out there and visit oodles of insecure writers today to make them feel better.



As for the topic HERE?



IMPOSTER SYNDROME



If you haven't had it yet, don't worry. It's coming. Most of us have survived it several times over. Some of us have been debilitated for a while, but mostly we get past it and keep going.



This writer blogging circle is SO amazing, but it CAN be the source of some of this angst.





I remember my first time... the topic? Snowflake plotting.





I read the blog and found myself more confused than anything. It was a ringing endorsement on how STRONG her book was because she'd used this method that I couldn't make heads or tails of. I tried to understand what I was missing, but it mostly just really irritated me. (seems like a lot of work, eh? but the bigger problem is by day I am a statistician and my big analytic brain can go all hulk and become surprisingly DULL when I try too hard in a creative domain)



This has happened for the Hero's Journey. Character Arcs. Themes. (do my novels have themes? Um... what?)



And then things like this article I came across yesterday cross my screen... This is an interview with a half dozen VERY famous authors on their use of symbolism.



Symbolism Interview



You know how many of them use symbolism intentionally? John Updike. Do I want to write like John Updike. NO. Mostly because I take the man to be a misanthrope based on his characters--though his arrogance in the interview supports that conclusion "you can't write a classic without symbolism"--um... yeah (frankly I'd rather take my cues from Bradbury, but thanks), but never mind. The REAL point (HA!  GOT YA, because I HAVE ONE!) is for SOME PEOPLE intentional adoption of very meticulous techniques is REALLY helpful, and more power to them. If you do any or all of these things that is FABULOUS, but the process is DIFFERENT for every last one of us and we should never be hard on ourselves (or anyone else) for NOT using something when it seems to in fact get in the way. And if we DO use them, we should take caution to make sure the TECHNIQUE doesn't overshadow the STORY (I've seen this—it's a bit painful, but I've also seen ALL of these put to great use.)





TRY STUFF. If something works, GREAT. If it doesn't, it just is a mismatched tool for you—nothing more--not your fault, doesn't make you a fraud. I have an MS in psychology. I like to think that whole character arc thing is just how I see characters—they grow and change—sometimes that is a result of plot, sometimes a cause, sometimes it is just a lovely side story. But like most of these guys interviewed... I'd prefer my themes and symbolism to occur organically. Of course they will happen. And isn't it almost more beautiful when a reader reads your work and comes up with a theme you never noticed (it really makes you feel smart, but it also makes your work three dimensional). And it just was a lovely accident.