Real, Surreal, Fantasy, and other modes of writing

[W_L]

This really isn't a topic about the genre, so I didn't want to ask in Myr's thread.

I started thinking about this stuff in the last year as I started to pick up writing again. I started considering the mode of writing when I created my newer stories.

To me, "Real" mode is usually my starting point based on everything and events around me, then progress from there. Sometimes I become very prophetic when I write "real" mode stories about our society, news, scandals, and human biases. Stories like True As It Can Be fell into this category, along with earlier examples like my abandoned 2015 series 0's and 1's (I predicted Cambridge Analytics stuff before it became public knowledge because I was reading several social media psychology books).

The "Surreal" mode is something like my Comforting Touch series, especially the first story Finding Warmth, I take images and memories from my past and develop them into full fleshed-out ideas with complex motivations for characters.

I have started off in "Fantasy" mode too, but I can get lost in it very easily, so I have to be wary about my own creative energy when I write those kinds of stories, they can easily become full novels. Stories like Spirited Holiday Engagement fell into this mode, I enjoy writing them, but they are the hardest to create as I have to cut down complex concepts to fit.

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Do other writers ever think about mode when you write?

Edited November 20, 2021 by W_L

[Myr]

I have a slightly different issue.  Insomuch as I have technical writing at work which needs to communicate clearly with little fluff, marketing writing that's required to feed the Google beast, and fiction writing.  I have a staggering pile of writing books examining every aspect of writing from grammar, to plot, to setting the hook and everything in between.  I've even read most of them.  Keeping stuff in their boxes is difficult for me on that level.

On the fiction level, I purposely write speculative fiction.  Insomuch as that everything I write has an aspect of 'other' to it.  That is a pit of it's own making because then I need to make sure the world I'm writing in works and I can easily distract myself for hours in world building.

I probably meandered too much.  Yes, I have a different  headspace I write in depending on what kind of writing I'm doing.

[James K]

I just finished a historical romance set in 19th century Russia and I adopted a mode of writing which reflected the period. I didn't write the story entirely in an English of the period, but expressions and the way of speaking appropriate to that time peppered the story throughout. I purposely avoided any modern expressions or mode of speaking, so my writing mode was very much geared to the story setting. 

Considering a real drama story or fantasy, I would if writing one simply use a mode of writing that is modern, although the theme of the story might dictate a certain way of writing, which in effect is a mode, however, I'm not certain that would be a conscious decision on my part, but it could be, if I was clever enough.

[Headstall]

I'm not exactly sure if I understand your question, but I'll speak to what I consider modes of writing. When I write a story, I research probably more than I need to. I can easily go down rabbit holes, but my goal is for my stories to always feel authentic. Sometimes that's easy, and sometimes it's not. A character staying in character is of the utmost importance in my opinion. Any actions out of character, once a reader knows them, can be jarring. Also, the speech patterns and vocabulary are important. I generally don't have a older clergyman saying 'dude' or 'chill' for example, yet it rolls of the tongue for some other characters. The fact is a learned person speaks differently from a street kid who hasn't had the benefit of a good background and education. Generally speaking too, children don't talk like adults, so being able to slip in and out of those modes is a necessity for a writer. Each character in each scene has to sound like themselves. 

When I wrote my first western, "Finding Refuge", I definitely entered a new mode, in all aspects of dialogue, narration, setting, and practices of the time. I found it hard to pin down the right 'western speak' to use, because research was spotty, but I figured out tenses were often misused or mixed up and words choices were quite different. Sentences were often clipped, and words were often dropped, especially pronouns. For example... "I reckon it was the right thing"... would be ... "Reckon it were right". That applied to dialogue of course, but I soon realized it was necessary for narration too, otherwise it could pull a reader from the story. I found a rhythm/cadence that felt right, and I think it worked pretty well.

My "Sidewinder" series brought me right back to it, and to be honest, after writing the two books fairly close together, I find myself speaking and even thinking in 'western speak' mode in my daily life.  I'm going to need something completely different to write in order to take me out of it... and I do have a science fiction story partway written. Hmmm.... 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Headstall

[W_L]

Thanks @Myr , @James K, and @Headstall

These are pretty interesting, you guys are interpreting "mode" based on how you perceive characters and motivations with various elements.

@Headstall To your point, I agree with you that some stories need authenticity for how plot, character, and setting relate to one another. Beyond that, there's also a frame of the story, which is the approach of the story.

To me the split of the 3 modes I use are: Realism depends on authentic detail, Surrealism depends on the vivid nature of real events re-oriented into something greater than the original experience though still possible, and fantasy depends on the truth behind events with thoughts and concepts in an impossible scenario that conveys common concepts.