high school writings

a couple weeks ago i found copies of my high school literary magazines. writings by the students, for the students. it was fun to read through them again. brought back a ton of memories. my god were we dark, though! there wasn't an issue that didn't reference death or violence. there were issues without one cheery piece of writing.

how the world has changed.

in light of the VA tech shooting this week and the commentary on the pieces he wrote ... i don't think we would have been encouraged in our writings, let alone been allowed to publish them. we all would have been pulled in to the principal's office to discuss our writings. police and counselors would probably have been involved. i read the samples of his writing posted on-line. we published darker.

most of us have grown up to be productive members of society despite our dabblings in and exploration of the darkside of life through our writings. there are a few who became starving artist types. a few who had minor dealings with the law - drugs, drunk driving. and some of us would be considered reasonably successful by most definitions - professionals, business owners, parents.

i look at my old writings now and part of me wonders about my 'old' self. but i remember my author heroes were the likes of anne rice and stephen king and some of my writings were reasonable homages to them. there was a lot of exploration of death and darkness while we still felt young and invincible. the dark writings were definitely an expression of a phase of teen angst.

i'm still a fan of horror writing and movies. i still enjoy the 'goth' scene to some degree. never once did i consider turning any of my fiction into truth.

how do you determine if a work of fiction is a cry for help or a phase or the next best seller? what makes the difference?

-s