written and posted Nov 27 by Mallory Mariano
Stream of Consciousness
I wanted to reflect a little on the predominant mode through which I create content for this site: the stream of consciousness. According to Wikipedia:
Books have occupied a significant area of my life in terms of interests, professional and otherwise. This has been especially true of the last few years. However, separate from this idea of reading/consuming books, came forth the notion of writing in a professional capacity.
The idea to conceive my own characters, to tell my own stories, emerged from my passion for contemporary romance. While After Dark With Mallory has mainly consisted of reviews on literary fiction titles, it by no means indicates that I have fully moved on or away from the world of contemporary romance. At this point in my adulthood, I have consumed nearly 300+ romance novels, so naturally, the inclination to want to tell my own rendition emerged organically. Indeed, throughout the entirety of my nearly five-year undergraduate education, I have only taken a single Creative Writing seminar, and it was during this specific course where I was told that aspiring writers should read, inundate themselves, the kind of writing that they aspire to emulate.
As an aspiring writer/novelist/storyteller/academic, one of the core ‘methods’ that I rely upon is the stream of consciousness whenever I set out to draft an idea and or thesis. Truth be told, whenever I sit down to create for this site, it is usually without any specific template or outline. Majority of the time, I have a few major points, organized pre-eminently in some no-so-elaborate mental organization system, and will invariably rely on the recanting of these points during the actual drafting process. A regurgitation of sorts. It is usually during this process, where expansion and elaboration on certain points occurs, thusly allowing for a palatable and workable output of text to emerge. In layman’s terms, an actual body of work that makes sense, and is conveying my thoughts to the best of my abilities.
I am not a major in Creative Writing nor English Literature, so all of my pre-existing knowledge on aspects such as style, technique, and form, purely come from my passion for reading a wide array of fiction and doing so on a consistent (ie. everyday) basis. At this point in the semester, with the nine authored reviews I have posted to the site, I can truly say that on some level – my comfort with the stream of consciousness method for writing and content creation has been somewhat refined, if at all. Aspiring authors are constantly told that good writing takes practice and discipline. Through curating content for After Dark With Mallory, I find myself edging ever-so-slightly toward that previously unattainable standard of writing professionally. The ability to be able to create content, and to do so on a regular basis, is one that is recognized as foundational to the writing profession. In the words of my Creative Writing (ENGL 272) Professor David Chariandy, “I do not know of any single writer that does not adhere to a strict writing schedule.”
And yes, I do have ideas for my debut novel, which I am currently drafting outside of my academic pursuits.