Week # 14 Cookie Cutter Disease

I might be a couple of weeks behind now. I think I caught up and then disappeared with other tasks.

The lesson that's striking me now is the curse of the cookie cutter disease. I've seen it before in writing; it seems to appear quite often with female writers, just sayin' at this point. Sometimes we as writers get too wrapped into rules, format, grammar, cleanliness, and the sort that an unfortunate thing happens: our writing suffers. With few to any risks for the sake of cleanliness, many of the story elements become undeveloped. Characters need enough room to be the dynamic sorts they hunger to be, and if the parameters are set too tight -- the conflict, the tension, the meaning behind everything struggles to hit anything profound. We are left but with sheets of clean white paper, inconsequential, gray matter.

There's nothing bold about sticking too intimately to these clean, OCD patterns of writing. The language itself should flirt with the the reader, spiral them into a rage of ecstasy, and give them hope that somehow this spiraling world of madness has hope. In order to set the reader free, the author needs to be set free as well. There are times when breaking the rules isn't just creative, but an absolute necessity. Writing is meant to be overflowing. It is a craft that should not be contained in a box, but has the need to spread over the cup because it is a mirror to reality; perhaps the finest mirror. And if we are not overflowing, than we are oppressed, we are losing the battles of this finite world, and we are no longer living -- we are formalized robots.

I always find this writing habit in at least one or two writers in a critique workshop and my heart goes out to them. I see that this writer has more potential than she realizes, but isn't quite ready to be bold enough to break lose of the status quo of law and etiquette. I usually give these excellent writers different treatment than all of the other scholars because I see this vulnerability right to the core. I point right at cookie cutter disease because it isn't an act of purity, but an act of fear.

Writing needs to be expressive. It needs tension. It needs to break through all the walls of a broken generation, a soul full of hurt, and an ignorant mind. Writing at it's absolute is intended to enlighten, to engage memories, and to touch at our deepest emotions. It's not an easy task and by no means is every piece of writing going to fit this bill. For those wanting to have excellent prose, one must be willing to be bold because true writing in essence is always bold, therefore cookie cutter disease is worth being remedied.

In short, cookie cutter disease is the dusted over traditional concepts that are in need of a resurgence of light. If we refuse to change our ways and stick to our current state of affairs, how much more are the aspects, variables, and peoples that can bring in a more noble reality left behind to oppression?