As a work gets more autobiographical, more intimate, more confessional, more embarrassing, it breaks into fragments.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I am a writer of fragments.
But, in addition, there is, all through the tragedy, a constant alternation of rises and falls in this tension or in the emotional pitch of the work, a regular sequence of more exciting and less exciting sections.
It is so common to write autobiographical fiction in which your own experience is thinly disguised.
The work that's interesting to me in other people is really confessional.
I write down portions, maybe fragments, and perhaps an imperfect view of what I'm hoping to write. Out of that, I keep trying to find exactly what I want.
I can't remove the autobiographical slant from the things I write. You always bring yourself into what you're writing.
It's actually easier to do autobiographical stories. The story is already there. It's a matter of carving away what doesn't fit rather than building up from nothing.
Some things remain fragments, just the lyrics and melodies or a line or two or a verse.
I think all writing is necessarily autobiographical to a greater or lesser extent, and the less it tries to be confessional, the more likely it is that you're somehow sneaking the things you need to say in there.
The essay is one of my favourite forms of writing, and I feel like what's inside is really personal, more so than with shorter pieces.