Writing Excuses Writing Excuses 8.19: Writing and Convention Culture
May 12, 2013
Exploring the unique writing culture in writing groups and clubs, understanding cultural biases in writing and convention culture, navigating the clash between traditional and modern YA literature, finding commonalities at writing conventions, and valuable advice for navigating convention culture as a writer.
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Experiment With Conflicting Advice
- When advice conflicts with your instincts, try it deliberately to learn why it works or fails for you.
- Keep useful pieces and discard what doesn't help your writing process.
MFA Culture Valued Experimentation
- Brandon described his MFA program valuing experimental work over commercial plotting.
- That culture treated making money from writing as suspect, shaping what students produced.
Genre Is A Cultural Conversation
- Genre communities form their own expectations for both fiction and author behavior.
- Readers and writers co-create these norms, which then reinforce genre conventions.