What Form Will it Take? (Ch. 6)

"If you balk at writing to satisfy formal constraints, believing that only absolute freedom of length, subject and structure is necessary to produce art, you'll find yourself at odds with most of the greatest writers who ever lived." --Philip Gerard, page 91 of Creative Nonfiction

I think that any kind of art requires limits and some kind of structure to be considered art. Even paintings that look like random splotches of paint have some kind of method behind the madness. It's important for writers to try and be as original as they can, but within limit. It is very rare that a "stream of consciousness" piece will be well-received; you have to be a truly great author for people to want to read your unstructured "word vomit." To me, art is discipline and expression. You have to accept that your ideas have to be put into a certain context to be digestible to someone else. In order for it to be well-received, you have to make it understandable to other people. Otherwise, why would anyone care about what you have to say?