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Each month our very own Voyager Science Queen* will bring you interesting, quirky and downright bizarre tasty morsels from the world of science. And its all completely, totally, 100% true!

Science Page March 2010

Academic Writing versus Creative Writing

This month, I thought I might share with you some of my homework that I am doing for my Honours. This is an excerpt from an assignment dealing with how the writer of a genre might be restricted by that genre.

The popular characterisation of the idealised 'starving in garret' author is perpetuated by the several types of underlying discourse that underlay the genre. The writer, as a true artist dedicated to her craft, needs no audience, caring only for the pleasure of creation. This is an author with an artistic temperament, and with the fear of the theory of writing might curtail her creativity and there is the characterisation of the classic poet or fantasy author. So, this isn't an academic author.

The 'brand' author is exemplified by Terry Pratchett; his fantasy books are always bestsellers, and there are Discworld-related items marketed to cash in on his popularity. Many 'brand' authors achieve a cult status, and often tour to meet with their fans. The 'brand' author is the opposite of Derrida's concept of 'text without author', as the audience reads to connect with their favourite author.
In contrast, the 'ivory tower' author is meant to be objective, less creative, providing a logical presentation of the facts; the presence of the author is not meant to intrude. The academic writer can still write popular books, like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (Hawking, S. W. 1998). There is no expectation of meeting with academic writers, even when they have a cult status, as they are perceived as being 'above' that type of behaviour. The only exception would be the author of 'popular' science books, like polymath Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, who is a cross-genre author by sitting across both the 'brand' and academic genres.

Even though all three types of genre have different writing conventions, all need to construct their work using creativity, inspiration and perspiration . There is just as much a need for the rules of grammar and spelling, clarity of prose and logical structure by all authors, no matter what genre they write in. The restriction of the style and structure of a genre means that it appears an academic author is limited to the expectations of an objective, dry and dense style of writing, but the underlying principle of writing remain the same for all authors.

However, once an author is successful in her genre, she is often trapped by the public perception, and her audience demands the author to write only within that genre. An established author who wants to write in a different genre may have to take a pen name, so that she is judged in that new genre without prejudice, such as fantasy author Kim Wilkins writing as Kimberley Freeman when authoring her romance novels.

Heavy, isn't it. I promise I will be good next month.

*The Voyager Science Queen is also known as Lynne Lumsden Green

So, who is this woman who attempts to entertain us with Science?

Lynne Lumsden Green lives on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, and attends the University of the Sunshine Coast. Ever the perpetual student, she is adding a B.A. in Creative Writing to her B.SC. in Zoology (Jennifer Fallon is her role model). As one of the founding members of Scriber Space, the site for USC creative writers, she hopes to create a writing community as lively and as close as the Voyager writing community. She spends her non-study hours volunteering for writing-related events, writing, reading, and – oh yes – looking after her family. She is still passionately interested in anything and everything, and enjoys the opportunity to share this passion via the Science Page. Terry Pratchett, Isaac Asimov, Neil Gaiman, and all the Voyager authors are her favourite people on the planet...and one of her goals is to meet all of those authors, well, at least those authors still in the land of the living. Recently, her own writing efforts have been meeting with better success. She is putting this down to her excellent lecturers and persistence, and to the fact that you can eat chocolate while typing.

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Looking for more scientific oddities? Have you checked out Dr Steven Juan's website? He is, quite literally, the wizard of odds!