Metafiction is also referred to as experimental fiction. Consisting of several short stories, the book Fiction was compiled by R.S. Gwynn. The two stories that express what metafiction is: “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, and “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore. Moore describes her writing as “recipe fiction” (Gwynn 397). She explains that “recipe fiction” is a “second person, mock-imperative narrative” (Gwynn 397). Metafiction has distinctive attributes and each of the stories effectively use at least one of the attributes.
How to Become a Writer
“How to Become a Writer” written by Lorrie Moore consists of a story describing how to become a writer from the beginning to the end of the learning process. Moore starts the story by saying that if someone wants to become a writer then they should try and do something else, “movie star / astronaut, a movie star / missionary, or a movie star / kindergarten teacher” (Moore 397) The first step, in the process, is starting as a little kid then transition to high school and write poems and decide that it is not the way to write. The character decides to “experiment with fiction” (Moore 397). Then the character chooses to work with kids and use their stories to try and write her own. Moore’s story continues when the character transitions to college. In college the character takes a bird watching class. When he attends the bird watching class it ends up being the wrong class. “This class is Creative Writing” (Moore 398). The character decides that maybe it is fate that she ended up in the wrong class. As the character attends college she finds inside himself that he likes college, so he continues to write stories. No one likes her stories but she continues anyway. ...
... middle of paper ...
...on, 1998. 397-402. Print.
Lorrie Moore’s story is a great example of metafiction. The story is about a complex character that struggles to become a writer. The character goes through hardships trying to become a writer when no one else believes that she can.
Orlwoski, Victoria. "Metafiction." Postcolonial Studies Emory. Postcolonial Studies Emory, 1996. Web. 12 Feb. 2014
This source is a longer web document about different attribuets of metafiction. The document also refrences Patricia Waugh again. The website gives a more indepth look at where metafiction came from and why it is used.
Taormina, Agatha. "The Postmodern Novel: Metafiction." The Postmodern Novel: Metafiction. The Postmodern Novel, 16 Apr. 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
This website just lists several different attributes about metafiction. These attributes are the main components of metafiction.
Sharon Creech’s childhood memories, college experiences, and creative brain significantly affected her writings. She rarely thought of being an author growing up, but as time progressed, she began to really think about it. Creech first became interested when she entered college and something sparked her career. She wrote multiple books with her much thought and creativeness leading her to an outstanding writing career.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
A short story is a work of literature that is shorter than a novel. Although some may believe the length may not be enough to develop a noble story, in these few pages an author can pack a tight punch that will leave one in awe, disgust, or utter sadness. Whether there is a moral of the story or it is simply for the reader’s enjoyment, each author has their own style of conveying a message through their work in very diverse ways. Through Flannery O’Connor and Chuck Palahniuk’s works we can see this very evidently.
It is said that fiction is an essentially rhetorical art and that the author tries to persuade the reader towards a specific view of the world while reading. This is evident in both short stories, A Secret Lost in the Water by Roch Carrier, and He-y Come on Ou-t by Shinichi Hoshi. Although through A Secret Lost in the Water, Roch Carrier displays how fiction is an essentially rhetorical art better than Shinichi Hoshi in He-y, Come on Ou-t (awkard sentence), Shinichi Hoshi demonstrates it better through the use of prognosis. Furthermore, by utilizing the characters, such as the farmer from A Secret Lost in the Water, and the use of symbolism such as the hole from He-y, Come on Ou-t, it is evident that the author makes an endeavour towards persuading
Stanley, D. A. (Ed.). (1999). Novels for Students Volume 7. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research.
Fiction as we know it today is considered to be a relatively new genre compared to poetry and drama. The tradition of fiction started with myth and legend and allegory. But the fictional characters in these imaginary worlds were mostly one-dimensional abstractions, personified as Love, Greed, War, or even Faith. The evolution from allegory to novel (and short story), from the sermon about an abstraction in human guise to the story of the individual whose personal experience might have universal application, took a long time.
In traditional writing styles, the main element to give the story meaning is the narrative itself. However, with more modern and distinct styles such as the short stories written where the narrative is no longer the primary stylistic device, but the use of metaphors and distinctive different narrators applies meaning to the stories. Though it is easy to judge what is different from tradition as inferior, this change is no different than the rise of cubism in the art world. Even though initially many would comment on the art not being “real,” or in this case, the stories being poorly written, this style has even more of an effect. After
In conclusion, the use of elements of post modernism add a richness to literature and to the reading experience of the reader. Elements such as irony, magic realism and fragmentation cause people to think and make connections between the literature they are reading and how it relates to their own lives and the lives of the authors and other readers. The short stories studied in Ms. Reynolds 4U English class all contained many effective post modern elements that made students go more in depth with their reading and understanding of noted English literature. Perhaps some people were enlightened and adopted a postmodern view on the world.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Revised ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993. 7 vols.
Shepherd, Valerie. "Narrative Survival: The power of personal narration, discussed through the personal story-telling of fictional characters, particularly those created by Margaret Atwood." Language and Communication. 15.4 (1995): 355-373.
...from high school with high hopes that college would add the finishing touches to my writing skills – I knew I still had flaws in my style, and I didn’t know how to fix them. And now here I am, aiming to become a successful novelist or screenwriter of some sort (as long as it allows my imagination to run wild).
Wong, Ning. “Introduction: Historicizing Postmodernist Fiction.” Narrative 21.3 (2013): 263-270. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Various authors. Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Volume 5. Salem Press. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1983.
This book is naturally a nonfiction book, and includes multiple elements of a memoir. Shapiro primarily uses story telling to illustrate real life examples of scripting and walks the reader through the process.
Taking a creative writing class was a good way for me to express my thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read my other classmates stories. Reading stories created by other people lead me into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were, it was an overall exquisite class. I believe that every person has a way of expressing who they are through writing stories of their own, fiction is the best way to express your creative imagination. This class that I took for two years helped me become a better writer and helped me understand the types of writers we have.