posted
Continuing from a digression in the college for writing thread, what are the value of non-humanities areas to study for creative writing? I think most of us would agree that humanities, such as history and philosophy, can be tied into writing very easily, and some people on the board have argued that they must be for certain kinds of fiction. But what about mathematics, computer programming, or physics? Beyond the idea that a wide breath of all sorts of knowledge is of value to a writer, do they have something particular to offer? Do they lend a certain skill set that can be valuable to a writer, either in the analytical skills they require, or in certain thought processes they encourage?
Obviously, if you’re writing hard science fiction, the answer is obvious – such areas are the bread and butter of your story ideas. But what about other genres?
In my experience, I think they do. Some of the same thinking I use to generate a computer program goes into formatting the structure of a story so it all hangs together logically. And seeing the pattern of mathematics makes one aware of patterns in other places. There is also a certain rigidity of evidence and structure required, which I didn’t feel was present when I went to write an English essay, that induces a sort of solidness that can make fiction more satisfying. But I don’t know how much of what I’m saying here is a result of how I my mind personally processes things, or if there is something more universal to it.
posted
I have found that my skills with developing software do have some connections with writing. When designing software you have to look at it from multiple angles and see the different impacts certain choices would make. If you go with one idea it has an effect on other parts of the overall goal. The same applies to writing. When you decide to have something happen in a story, it can (and usually does for me) change other events in the story. Some chnages are better than others, and you have to choose ones that make the story better.
Even fantasy needs a set of rules to go by. If you have magic in a fantasy story it has to be consistant. I am amazed at the harry potter books because the magic system is created along the way. I could be wrong, but as I read all the harry potter books I felt that each new bit of magic was created on the spot to achive the desired goal. What is incredible is that she makes it work. In my novel I'm playing with, I have already created pages of rules that define how the magic works, what can be done with it, and how one can affect the other. I could just write and make it up as I go, but that doesn't work well with my way of creating. Structure and logic have to exist to keep the consistancy needed to make it seem more real. That is the programmer in me. I guess you can do it any way you want...but sound construction seems the way to go for me.
posted
I'll just get a list of uses started. 1. Logic (including internal consistency) 2. Science Fiction (even if you're writing the soft stuff like I do, you have to have SOME idea about the physics involved, even if you're borrowing other's ideas for the science.) 3. Different characters. We could get sick of hearing about writers, soldiers, politicians, and historians all the time. Why not throw in a doctor, engineer, or mad scientist? If you do, you might want to have at least a basic understanding of their field. 4. Counting. Actually, this is basic math, but I'm one of those readers who needs the numbers to add up. If you tell me that someone has a twenty year old child and didn't have that baby until she was thirty, you'd better not get her pregnant again or if you do, you'd better mention what a miracle that was. (Yes, it happens.) There are so many other examples, but I count years, dates, ages, salaries, income in and income out, etc. 5. I'd say the biggest reason for your well rounded education to include the study of math, science, and technology, however, is that otherwise you miss out on half the roundedness. I can't always explain how my studies effect my stories, much of it is subtle, but I do know that they are fuller and richer for it.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
|
posted
Business classes haven't been mentioned (so far as I can tell), but if you are planning to have a career as a writer, you need to know something about running a business or you will have to use some of that hard-earned money to pay someone else to run your business for you.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
|
posted
Can't claim to be any sort of real software engineer, but took a class and did some programing for some sheer data handling necessity for Chemistry Higher Educational needs.
I wasn't thinking about that side of things, but good points about the business and legal aspects coming in. There's stuff they don't seem to teach in school just as a general course study (Why? Where is the practical stuff sometimes?), but those are the sort of things that affect almost everybody.
One of my pet peeves from a lot of liberal arts types (at the college level) is the way they sneer at any engineering type for being illiterate unrounded semi-humans, all the while they tell you how they don't need to concern themselves with math, or sciences, or any of that stuff. BTW I did graduate in a liberal art major, so I heard this a lot. Unlike most of them, I had been programming professionally before I started college. So I saw the irony, even though they didn't. Dave
posted
Not to take sides, but there does seem to be a split in the college level academic community. Some of the liberal arts types do just as you say, while some of the engineering types joke about liberal arts majors by asking "Do you want fries with that?"
Not that this helps the discussion, because there is merit in going either way, depending upon what you ultimately want to do, but it is an interesting thing to realize about humans. Whatever we do, we want to believe we are right, and we surround ourselves with people who help bolster that opinion.
posted
You know being a maths teacher I can not say I ever use maths explicitly or implicitly in my writing, but that does not mean that I will never use it. I guess one of the joys of writing is that it is a joy to emcompass new things, and who knows what our future novels will consist of? Maybe one day that knowledge will be useful. I for one hate to dismiss any form of education or knowledge as being inferior. Everything has its uses, and as writing emcopasses everything ...
Posts: 575 | Registered: Dec 2003
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
