Order

      A friend noticed that I haven't been talking about writing a lot lately. That's because I haven't been writing much lately. What with one crisis or another, I've been unable to focus.
      Some writers thrive on chaos. They can write in a coffee shop with heavy traffic outside. Not me. I need peace and quiet to focus. Oh, I can put down words, but most of those words end up being deleted. I require a certain amount of order to write.
      I think, for me, writing is really about order. My plots tend to be structured and complicated, but they make sense when they're unraveled. I want the reader to have the sensation of "Oh, of course! It's clear now!" rather than "Huh. Where did that come from?"
      The world is an unordered place. Planes crash, trains derail, cars wreck. Much of our lives seem unplanned, with no plot or a plot thought up by a deranged person. The complexity of our interactions with other people and our surroundings overwhelm attempts at analysis. And even if an analysis is correct right now, the situation changes from minute to minute.
      Fiction is order for the most part. We're attracted to stories because we can understand them. Actions have consequences, people make meaningful decisions, and events make sense. Order is, I think, what distinguishes mainstream fiction from literary fiction.
      In mainstream fiction, things get wrapped up, the villains get captured or killed, the boy gets the girl, and so on. No loose ends dangle out there in the wind, unless the novelist is setting up a sequel.
      In literary fiction, things aren't so neat. Questions remain unanswered, conflicts unresolved, the villain turns out to be just another muddled person, and so on. Literary fiction more closely mirrors the apparent chaos of our world. It's not so much a story as it is a fictional history.
      Naturally, this distinction between the two is fuzzy. Some mainstream books don't answer all the dramatic questions, and some literary novels have more plot than is apparent. (I think all literary novels actually have a plot, although I know several literary novelists who would argue that plot is too strong a word, that the actions depicted are more organic and uncontrolled. Whatever. I think the decline of literature started when academics decided that plot was unnecessary.)
      My point –- and I'm finally getting to it –- is that my writing is my attempt to impose order on the world. My books and plays are logical. Even my poetry holds order. Creative tension rises from that conflict between the story attempting to sprawl all over the place and the structure holding it in place. Writing done well is like a suspension bridge or a soaring cathedral: Beauty made visible.
      I hope that the chaotic parts of my life will settle down over the next month or so, and I can again devote more of my time and attention to crafting order in my fiction. But one way or another, even if it means learning to write at Burger King, I will write.