Does one have to 'be in a certain place' to write certain types of stories?

[Michael Colton]

I hope this is in the correct section of the forums and that it has not been asked before - I did not know how to search for it with keywords.

I started thinking about this after watching an interview with William Gibson in which he said that he often has had younger readers discover the Sprawl Trilogy only to be disappointed by his later work that is very different. His answer as to why this has happened is that he quite literally cannot write that type of fiction anymore because he had to be in a certain place in his life and in a certain state of mind/personality in order to write those novels. If I remember correctly, I have heard Stephen King say a similar thing though I cannot find the source.

I was wondering what people think of this? Is it true that certain things can only be written if you are in a certain place in your life? Or is that some sort of excuse for losing interest in a certain sort of writing or work? Or perhaps it is just a sign of an author that is particularly personally invested in their work? We can all think of authors that spent decades writing the same type of story (or literally the same story) - what is different for them? Since I am just starting to try to learn to write fiction, I had never taken notice of this sort of question before but they are beginning to interest me now.

 

[ratsy]

I think that is mostly true for sure. I haven't been writing long enough to have that experience shift but I can see it in every other aspect of life. I look back at 10 years ago and I was a lot different. I lived in a different place, wasn't married, ate different food, had a different job, listened to different music, read different books, watched different tv shows, traveled to different places. I think that our surroundings and experiences have that affect on us. I can only assume that in ten years I will have changed a lot more aspects (but probably less than in my 20's) and my writing style will adjust with that.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Possibly true for some people.
OTH The Chalet School books written from about 1925 to maybe 1969 (the year she died).
Of course they change with time, as by necessity the School because they are all set contemporaneously.
I think too some kinds of stories would be hard for an 18 YO to do convincingly compared to someone in 40s & 50s.
I suspect too, that if you wrote YA fantasy stuff and then spent 10 years writing DH Lawrence or Thomas Hardy level or gritty adult stuff it might be hard to change genre to YA fantasy again.
JK Rowlings better be careful that what she wishes for is really what she wants

 

[paranoid marvin]

Absolutely. Life experiences change perception and open up new avenues; bound to have an effect on what you think, how you act, what you write.

My best writing tends come in the peaks (and also the troughs) of my emotional state of mind.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm not convinced, entirely. I think experiences and what not come into play, but I also think discipline is part of the writing game. So, on the fence, here.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

But why would it be desirable to discipline yourself to stick with a type of book that no longer interests you? How can you write with truth and integrity if you are writing what people expect of you rather than what moves you at that particular time?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Devil's advocate: Some authors want the money

OTH, I agree.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I have never just written one type of fiction or even form of fiction.

The place I am in right now is all new, very exciting and not one I envisaged two years ago when I finished my first novel. Could I go back to writing my almost epic fantasy? Maybe in a few years time but right now stories set in the early part of the 20th Century seem to consume me and I am stuck in that... however there is that idea of the Angel Mafia wanting to increase their share in the distillery.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

But why would it be desirable to discipline yourself to stick with a type of book that no longer interests you? How can you write with truth and integrity if you are writing what people expect of you rather than what moves you at that particular time?

I didn't say it would be desireable.

But, in my real life work I like doing high level training, consultancy and coaching. I can take or leave assessment, and I find multiple training courses in SMART objectives less than enthralling. If I'm offered them, I do them. Because that's work and I have kids to feed and clothe. Ditto writing. If someone came up to me (ha! i wish) and said they wanted a story on xyz and were prepared to pay me, I'd write it, irrespective of where I am with that story. I'm sure where I am would affect the outcome, it wouldn't neccessarily dictate what I write if circumstances (not neccessarily monetary, although that's an obvious one) dictated.

Isn't that what the Stephen Kings and Ian Rankins do? Churn out the book asked of them by the time it's required?

 

[Michael Colton]

Isn't that what the Stephen Kings and Ian Rankins do? Churn out the book asked of them by the time it's required?

I have often wondered what kind of contract King is under. I would assume limited at this point, especially considering he wrote under a pseudonym for a while just to see if his writing would still attract readers without his name attached to it (it did).

On the other hand, I remember reading an article about John Grisham having a very long multi-book contract that specified what he could write about. He had five legal thrillers contracted to be written before he could publish other fiction. Interestingly enough, when he did finish that contract and start publishing outside of his normal genre they were not well received by many.

 

[paranoid marvin]

But why would it be desirable to discipline yourself to stick with a type of book that no longer interests you? How can you write with truth and integrity if you are writing what people expect of you rather than what moves you at that particular time?

Maybe they read/watched Misery?

 

[ratsy]

I read Grisham's Playing for Pizza. It's the only book of his I've read!

I'm sure King is asked to produce books on deadlines but his writing has changed a lot too. I still love his writing but when is the last time he wrote something scary? I was reading Carrie recently (didnt finish because I got distracted and didn't get back to it) and it was a lot different than his new books. I had to check Carrie out since reading his On Writing and since it was written so long ago, I wanted to see how he pulled it off.

 

[Michael Colton]

I read Grisham's Playing for Pizza. It's the only book of his I've read!

I'm sure King is asked to produce books on deadlines but his writing has changed a lot too. I still love his writing but when is the last time he wrote something scary? I was reading Carrie recently (didnt finish because I got distracted and didn't get back to it) and it was a lot different than his new books. I had to check Carrie out since reading his On Writing and since it was written so long ago, I wanted to see how he pulled it off.

And in his case, I would assume being clean and sober changed his writing. Supposedly, he remembers very little about writing Kujo whatsoever. But yes, in general he has moved more towards weird/unnerving than actual horror now.

 

[Wicke]

Maybe it depends on how much of yourself you put into your writing, or, to say it another way, how disconnected you are when you write. Maybe people who write more for money are able to treat it more like processing words and less like pouring out a piece of your soul. Me, I find it challenging to get started writing when I am feeling very sad or irritated or angry. Once I get a toehold and get started, I can write pretty much anything, but it's digging into it that is really hard for me.

Except angsty poetry. I mean, you can always write angsty poetry, right?

 

[tinkerdan]

I would have to agree that it would begin to seem tedious to continually write about the very same thing all of the time. Though I'd also agree that if it was selling I might at least keep it up for seven volumes or so.

I can't help but smell something akin to someone saying that they have graduated and could never write quite that poorly again.

I alway thought writing well meant you could sit down and bang out the best about anything no matter how familiar or unfamiliar it its. Writing according to some assignment is not unheard of.

I would agree though that to get the best from the heart, your heart should be in it.

On the other hand; if someone with deep pockets kept sweetening the pot for another Sprawl novel might he not eventually give in? And would it indeed be that difficult?

Oh: that sounds like a story possibility.
A man wants to undo the reputation of a fellow writer and knows that that writer would rather die than write another story in one of his older trilogies. So he keeps offering him money to do one [through an anonymous route.]

Does the author continue to refuse?

Does he consider taking the money and get stuck?

Does he take the money and make something of it?

Does he get paranoid wondering who has it out for him?

 

[Michael Colton]

On the other hand; if someone with deep pockets kept sweetening the pot for another Sprawl novel might he not eventually give in? And would it indeed be that difficult?

Judging by his interviews, it seems the answer would be no. While I highly doubt he has much financial issues at this point, the other issue with the Sprawl trilogy is that the genre does not really exist anymore. There is not really any 'traditional' cyberpunk anymore - it has all moved on to some derivative postcyberpunk subgenres because cyberpunk was so set in the time it was written. As he has said, they were able to write the stories they did because they did not know where the technology would go. So you could have an alternative to what the internet eventually came to be. The romanticized hacker was still plausible. Whereas in real life, what people think of as 'hackers' are nothing more than people organizing DDOS attacks or gaining access to a simple website. And beyond the technological, the 'punk' in cyberpunk should be pretty telling that it was a genre for an era.

But even beyond all of those practical reasons, his wording and intonation heavily implies that he was in some sort of darker period of his life when he wrote them. He even says that it is probably a very good thing he is not in that place anymore, where those novels came out of.