What kind of story are you?: ysabetwordsmith

What kind of story are you?

I'm proofreading a class manuscript by

stonetalker and I came across this quote:

“Lives are not stories. A day, a month, a year, or a lifetime has no plot. Our experiences are only the raw stuff of stories. The beginnings of our lives are arbitrary; usually their endings come too soon or too late for any neat narrative conclusions. ~~ Richard White

It's interesting, but I disagree with it. I do consider my life a story, told in collaboration between me and the Universe. That quickly led me to ponder what kind of story I am. Well, "what if?" forms a running thread through my life, so I'm speculative fiction, varying between science fiction (when I'm trying to repair the future before it kills us) and fantasy (when I'm figuring out magical theory or the like). Whereupon one of my characters mused, "But not horror?" And I laughed mentally and allowed, "Well, I wouldn't recommend reading me late at night."

It occured to me that there are as many types of life as there are genres of fiction, if not more. I write what I live; I suspect that other writers often do the same (or else the opposite). So here's the meme ...

What kind of story are you? If your life were written out as a novel, what genre(s) would it be?

talix18

August 21 2008, 16:47:49 UTC 12 years ago

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My smart-mouthed self wants to say "bad YA navel-gazing"!

laugh

ysabetwordsmith

August 21 2008, 17:49:10 UTC 12 years ago

Hey, whatever works for you.

minor_architect

August 21 2008, 17:01:45 UTC 12 years ago

I would be a coffee-table book full of somewhat candid photographs, edited for artistic appeal. Some shots would be in black-and-white, some in color. Notes about my life would be printed in the margins.

(C'mon, you had to know this was coming...! ;)

August 21 2008, 17:48:48 UTC 12 years ago

Ooo! I love coffee-table books too.

sageautumn

August 21 2008, 18:02:04 UTC 12 years ago

Is there a "boring, filled with drama" genre?

Cause... baby, I'm there.

O_O

August 21 2008, 18:40:03 UTC 12 years ago

Soap opera?

TV Movie

cuckoo

August 21 2008, 18:36:04 UTC 12 years ago

I am mystery. I guess that's a rather popular genre. I generally have a mild distaste for anything popular. And, while I wouldn't say my life story would be popular, at times there is a definite distaste.

As for the story, I think it begins when a woman wakes up with no knowledge of who she is except for a single memory of a recent attack (of which she somehow miraculously survives.) She begins slicing back segments of her memory by following clues unintentionally left in her possession. She is thwarted at nearly every turn by those who have claimed to love her in her past. Slowly, she realizes her whole life has been programmed since birth.

Yeah, I guess that story is me. Though, I'm pretty sure it's been done before.

wyrmwwd

August 21 2008, 21:20:01 UTC 12 years ago

Humor/Horror/Hero-tale? Whatever "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is.

dianavilliers

August 22 2008, 02:27:48 UTC 12 years ago

Not a story. My life is too discontinuous for that. More a richly illustrated collection of puzzles.

ideealisme

August 22 2008, 18:10:07 UTC 12 years ago

My life is a straggly novel in two parts. The first part is struggle and uncertainty. Part Two is about regaining power and success. The end of Part One / beginning of Part Two is pivoted on the night of Saturday November 18, 2004 and events thereon.