Something About Nothing

You know, when I was in college, my issue with doing research papers was not the research. It was the paper. I love research. Learning new things and just absorbing information. Having to turn around and vomit the relevant data onto paper with some sense of coherency was less fun.

Similarly, I have a tendency to go onto Netflix and add a whole bunch of interesting-looking things to my list, and watch none of them. I do the same with writing prompts. I save them, lists and lists of them, but don't ever use them.

I like collecting things. Not so much doing something with those things.

I've been trying to think… literarily. That is, in terms of literary fiction. I've tried to understand it. From what I've seen, literary short stories are about regular people doing nothing particularly interesting. I find it fascinating and infuriating that such a thing could exist. And I'm determined to write it.

That was really what got me sifting through and saving story prompts this weekend. I found all sorts of interesting ones. But the ones I'm drawn to involve time travel, the afterlife, and serial killers. Not what I'm looking for right now.

What do regular people even do that would be worth writing about? Work long hours, watch their credit rating, pay their taxes, and prepare to die? Maybe I'm being purposely dense.

I read a story about a guy thinking about things while his child was asleep. Zero interesting things happened. It was the literariest of literary fiction stories. Ordinary people doing ordinary things. No real plot development or action. I understand that that's kind of the hallmark of literary fiction. It's more about characters than plot.

And I. Don't. Get. It.

I don't understand why anyone would want to read or write that. Imagine you asked your coworker about their weekend, and that's the kind of story they told. You'd be wondering what the point of that was. It makes me so angry.

And I'm determined to defeat it.

I too, can write a story about nothing in particular. How hard can it be? Typically, a story is a character, in a place, doing a thing. This is just a character in a place. And even the place is somewhat optional.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying. Or overcomplicating. I don't know. As I said, I don't get it.

I mean, I get that a literary fiction novel is about something. They would have to be, eventually. But from what I've seen, literary short stories are basically a scene about nothing important. They're supposed to be deep and meaningful, I guess. Maybe I'm not deep and meaningful.

I need a nap. I'll see you Friday.