I respect you for sharing this. And for writing it in such an honest and vulnerable way. I was having a rough day today and letting my head get to me and reading your piece helped remind me that it happens to everyone and that we have overcome these things before and we can again. I also, like that you chose to write the piece in a different way to your normal style — it’s good to mix things up and take chances. Sometimes before I write a piece I try to think about what format, what style, what tone etc etc., would best suit the piece to capture the idea I’m trying to convey and I think you did that very well here. :)
Thank you, Michael. I’m sorry to hear that you were down, but I’m glad you found something reaffirming in this. I tend to think of a piece like this as being dark or heavy, but it’s as much about stomping our roaches as being beaten down by them. I’d like to think someday I will not need to be surprised by that realization, but I’m happy that it reinforced that resilience for you.
As for the structure: it felt nice to do something different. When I write fiction, first draft dialogue tends to look like this, long stretches of back-and-forth. There I have to revise to build around the dialogue; here, I got to embrace that structure, which was nice.
This piece reminds me of Yellowface—the author has said that the process of writing the main character was an “exorcism” of the worst critic in her head that tells her stuff like “you only got successful because you’re a token of diversity”
That is a high compliment, so thank you. There’s a lot of value in an internalized editorial voice, but it can skew in bad directions.
Kuang’s choice of “exorcism” feels apt; I didn’t expect to “find” the cockroach while writing so its presence felt supernatural. Getting to “stomp” it, even in a literary sense, felt like I’d taken control back from a “demon” in some sense.
I respect you for sharing this. And for writing it in such an honest and vulnerable way. I was having a rough day today and letting my head get to me and reading your piece helped remind me that it happens to everyone and that we have overcome these things before and we can again. I also, like that you chose to write the piece in a different way to your normal style — it’s good to mix things up and take chances. Sometimes before I write a piece I try to think about what format, what style, what tone etc etc., would best suit the piece to capture the idea I’m trying to convey and I think you did that very well here. :)
Thank you, Michael. I’m sorry to hear that you were down, but I’m glad you found something reaffirming in this. I tend to think of a piece like this as being dark or heavy, but it’s as much about stomping our roaches as being beaten down by them. I’d like to think someday I will not need to be surprised by that realization, but I’m happy that it reinforced that resilience for you.
As for the structure: it felt nice to do something different. When I write fiction, first draft dialogue tends to look like this, long stretches of back-and-forth. There I have to revise to build around the dialogue; here, I got to embrace that structure, which was nice.
Thank you as always for reading and responding.
Yes, hear hear — hopefully someday remembering both sides will come naturally.
Thanks Michael :)
This piece reminds me of Yellowface—the author has said that the process of writing the main character was an “exorcism” of the worst critic in her head that tells her stuff like “you only got successful because you’re a token of diversity”
That is a high compliment, so thank you. There’s a lot of value in an internalized editorial voice, but it can skew in bad directions.
Kuang’s choice of “exorcism” feels apt; I didn’t expect to “find” the cockroach while writing so its presence felt supernatural. Getting to “stomp” it, even in a literary sense, felt like I’d taken control back from a “demon” in some sense.