Read: Metamorphosis and The Trial

Dear Readers,

As I’ve been studying various material to become a better writer, I have constantly heard... read and write, then read and write some more. Does this work...?

Well, I don’t know. But it makes sense. I think the best way to learn is to read your competition and even classics, to figure out what they do to hook readers. To learn what they do right and what they do wrong.

Though I know, as young as I am in my journey, that every writer has their own style. To try to compare them based on techniques alone is useless. Because even a writer with the worst technique, might have an awesome story idea that hooks readers. And what works for one writer might not for another.

For example, when I was learning to write at this online academy. I received some critiquing and she basically said that I jumped around perspectives too much. But later on, I learnt that that perspective actually has a name... omnipresent narrator. Almost like you would see it on the TV screen, the writer is explaining with words instead of pictures. In order to get the most out of the story, to really picture it and understand it in your mind, you need to jump from character to character. To explain the expressions on key characters faces. To explain those emotional nuances that you could piece together intuitively if you were watching the characters on a screen. All these things!

When I heard those critiques, it threw me. I tried to change to just one characters perspective, whether first or third person, but I struggled so much that I stopped writing altogether. I tried to integrate that advice into my work, but it just wasn’t my style. So, from now on! I’ve decided to tell it my way. Which mostly will be from omnipresent narrator or any other way I need to convey what’s in my head... into words. I really hope I write something you guys will enjoy reading...

But! I’m sorry, this post is about the reading part of my job. The book I just finished reading is: Metamorphosis and The Trial by Franz Kafka.

According to the back of the book, is described as “Kafka’s two most famous stories (that) give the reader a crash course in existentialism and offer profound insights in the human condition.” Then on the front page of the book it says that it was first published in 1915.

Metamorphosis is three chapters and 57 pages long. Making it quite an easy read. While The Trial is ten chapters and 211 pages long. This one tended to drag out a bit longer for me. I’ll go into detail about what I noticed about it based purely on my perspective as a reader and what I want to learn from this.

First, SPOILERS! I can’t promise that there won’t be any spoilers in this post. I’ll try my best, but if you’re going to read it and don’t want any spoilers... stop here! Don’t read on!

Okay, Metamorphosis! From a readability point of view, I found it a bit of a drag at first. It started abruptly and I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. It felt like I was climbing uphill with this one, but then at some point in the story, it seemed to sweep me up and carry me along. I was engaged with the characters and hoping for the best for all of them. The main premise is that a man inexplicably transforms into an insect (cockroach, I think) and his family has to attempt to deal with this creature in their house. Unable to come to grips with the situation for a long time. But my tender heart got its heartstrings entangled with these characters. So it was ripped apart just in time for the ending. There were tears!

Probably, it has to do with my specific circumstances. My mother has severe fibromyalgia and can't move beyond the distance between the media room and the bathroom. She can't get up to do anything herself. So, sometimes she gets forgotten about. I could almost see her ending as did the main character in Metamorphosis. It made me cry with a heart of anticipated guilt and terrified thoughts of the same outcome for my mother.

But Kafka, I must say, had an excellent way of describing the feelings, the situation and the scene so very well. He just always had the right words to describe what face the person made. And he wasn’t afraid to use a lot of words to describe the emotions and expressions with pinpoint accuracy. I realised from reading his work that I can use a lot of words to really paint a detailed picture for the reader. Not too long, of course, I don’t want people feeling too exhausted after reading a couple pages, like I felt after Metamorphosis.

But it made me think, even though it made my heart ache too. Though, I should’ve prepared myself for it. Kafka obviously had these sorts of issues in mind when he wrote this story. Maybe he had even gone through it himself. He definitely wasn’t afraid to reflect real issues in his writings. Which I admire him for.

So, in conclusion. Kafka explained the situation, expressions and scenes with such accuracy, my heart got deeply involved. But he didn’t establish an end goal for the reader to see and jump on board for the ride. I realise how important it is to not drag your reader by the ear to the ending, but pull them into the boat to ride the rapids right up until the final page!

Now for The Trial. It was basically the same, but sooooooooo much longer. It was like trudging through mud. Tiring! I really wanted to quit. Like really, really, really! wanted to quit. It was really hard to connect with the main character and all of the side characters seemed unnecessary. There was no direction in the story and no steps to get there. Obviously, he was trying to make a point without really crafting a tale.

But, again, he expertly created the scenes with words. It was so easy to visualise the scene and understand the characters. He did also make me think about how he felt about the legal system and women too. But man! It was a long and boring way to make me think. It just didn’t engage me.

It was actually a real shame that it didn’t engage the reader. Because with his descriptive writing style it would’ve been an excellent read. And I think I would’ve really enjoyed it.

Something else I noticed, though it could just be my own preference of storytelling, is that he introduced characters that were completely useless to the story. He would have a lengthy conservation between his main character and a female character and have romantic tension between the two, but it would go absolutely nowhere. It felt very incomplete to me.

To be fair, my style is very much to make every character have their own quirk to push the story along. Somehow they always were essential to the story. Or at least, I try to reflect that. Sometimes even overdoing it, with each character have a hidden secret that suddenly appears at some point in the story.

Anyway, thats what I learnt from Franz Kafka’s stories. I hope to avoid the cons and imitate the pros. To stand on the shoulders of past writers to stand higher and get better in my skills. I really hope I can incorporate these lessons into my writing and write stories that you guys would actually enjoy reading.

I hope you enjoyed this little learning curve I have taken. Till next time!