Writing Blog Number 2

20250324 One Situation, Many Writers

One Situation, Many Writers

How different writers look at the same situation… something different this time! We are all writers, but we are all different, formed by our genres and experiences.

So, how would different writers detail the same thing in their writing? Let’s look at a scenario:
         Your partner breaks up with you, dumping you for a richer, better looking person. So you write about it, as any writer would. But what genre you write will dictate how you put this down on paper:

(a) Poetry – you put all your angst down in a series of lines that just bleed with emotion and make everyone who reads or hears it just want to go out and hug kittens or quokkas for some sense of comfort.

(b) Fantasy – your ex somehow ends up as dragon fodder. Or someone who looks much like her/him kidnaps a person who looks like a sexy star of the silver screen, very evil overlord style… and then ends up as dragon fodder.

(c) Crime – a person who has a strong resemblance to your ex becomes the victim of the week, killed in a way that is not only particularly nasty but, in the end, justified. And probably hilarious. By a rich new boy/girlfriend.

(d) Horror – a person with many of the same traits as your ex is put through a series of nasty and vicious trials and tribulations, and in the end just falls short, condemning him/her to eternal torment. Sometimes twice. Or they are the first victim of the Big Bad.

(e) Literary Fiction – a person suspiciously like your ex does nasty things to all who love her, and yet gets away with it.

(f-1) Science Fiction – a creature from another planet that has a personality much like an ex of yours conquers the world, destroying everything in her/his path until a brave young hero/ine (much like the writer, in fact) kills it with a Zircon Death Ray.

(f-2) Enlightened Science Fiction – a creature from another planet that has a personality much like an ex of yours conquers the world, destroying everything in her/his path until a brave young hero/ine (much like the writer, in fact) talks to it and discovers they have much in common and peace is made between the two sides. After the ex personality like being has been sacrificed for the greater good. Of course.

(g-1) Depressing Romance – after enduring a break-up with a person who is just the ex with a different last name, the protagonist suffers through a series of disastrous affairs until he/she finally ends up back with the ex, deciding “better the devil you know,” but never knowing true happiness...

(g-2) HEA Romance – the protagonist stays with a person who is just the ex with a different last name, until, in the end, he/she realises a much better option exists elsewhere (and looks like a sexy star of the silver screen) and the person who is just the ex with a different last name is kicked to the curb.

(h) Western – the ex- analogue is shot in a nasty shoot-out by the good guy. Sometimes twice.

(i) Journaling - the writer puts down all their feelings and thoughts, shattered hopes, broken dreams, hatred and yet still love for their ex into a journal/ blog/ diary, and feels the better for the cathartic release.

(j) Surrealism – the purple grasshopper bifurcates the avocado with a hoop. An elephant whistles. Vikings explode princely. A potential ex could be all of these. Or none. Greasy biscuits of yappapi swordsmanship, be damned!

So, just because we all go through the same thing does not mean we are going to produce the same work.

And, more importantly, just because we have the same idea does not mean we are going to produce the same story.