Writer Seeking: Genre to Compliment My Every Thought

Heads up: I recently decided to allow myself a little more flexibility within writercize. I often find inspiration strikes for a blog post, but it doesn't quite fit in with the writercize theme, so I paralyze both the thought and the blog. Therefore, I hereby allow myself to post the occasional opinion and/or reflection on the writing life as I see fit to indulge. I have updated my 'writercize in a nutshell' description accordingly through one additional paragraph.

Here you are: "The site will also be peppered with a few opinions here and there as well as insight on the growing pains and highlights associated with a burgeoning writing career. Please bear with me. It's my blog, so I get to indulge my ego every once in a while. Right?"

(See it along the right hand side there? Man, I love the power of sidebar.)

Now, onto the topic at hand. Genres. Without a writercize at the end. (Eek. Can I really do this?)

Here's the thing about genres. They kind of freak me out. They're like labels. Sticky little labels that tell the world who we are and what we are meant to write. She writes romance. He writes horror. She writes board books. Sure, they help land an agent and define a readership, but they also feel a little like shackles - or unspoken glass ceilings.

I will be perfectly honest - I don't especially like labels for myself. I find them sort of, well, confining. And I don't much like to be confined. Look at my Facebook labels - I chose "independent" for political views and "an amalgam of sorts" for religious views. I do quite enjoy the label "writer" to be honest. That is one label I'll be happy to hang on to for a bit. And I love "Mom." But should anyone begin to pigeonhole me by a label and attempt to relegate me to the land of the like-minded, I shall break away screaming my little head off.

I get why they are important. I get why they may be comfortable to some. Once a genre is selected, the mind can focus on the most appropriate story lines, and networking can occur within a familiar zone. Agents and publishers can follow established routines and marketing campaigns to get books into the hands of the most likely readers. It all makes sense. It truly does. But it still gives me chills.

Nutschell, my good friend over at The Writing Nut, tells a story of how she decided to write a memoir a few years ago. Memoirs were hot, and she felt like she could tell the story of her life. She sat, and sat, and sat. For more than a year. And she had nothing on the page to show for it. She had backed herself into a corner with the wrong genre. A memoir was not living in her soul. Finally, one day, she looked at her shelf, and saw it was filled with YA and fantasy. That was what she loved to read, and that was what she was meant to write. She found her genre, which she now states proudly as she works on her second manuscript and leads the non-profit children's writing group, Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles.  

I joined CBW-LA a few years ago, as a stay-at-home mom tired of reading drab stories to my kids, and longing for a chance to harness my first dream career in life and write. I felt that I had the responsibility to give myself that chance. Since I didn't have the time as an SAHM (those labels again!) to twin toddlers, I thought I could join and start writing picture books. I really like picture books - they were one of my first loves growing up. I admired the authors who would visit my school and sign my books. I would really like to publish a picture book. But, I am not a naturally born story-teller with visions of characters and plots dancing in my head shouting for a turn on the page. And from that standpoint, picture books are hard. They need inspiration. I need inspiration. As I wade through manuscripts and half finished stories, I see that my inspiration is education. I will never be able to create a story that is whimsical and just for fun. My stories will always serve a purpose - to teach a child about a love of writing or a topic that may be slightly uncomfortable or nebulous to teach without a book. I am coming to understand that, and I am pleased with that distinction in my mind.

Most of the time, when I write, it is for our local weekly newspaper. I work as a freelance journalist and cover city government, school news and features. It is far and away the best way to get to know a city in the world. (My humble opinion.) I do not opine in the newspaper. I simply tell facts. I conduct interviews. And do a ton of research. And in the end, I attempt to tell the facts as a story, a riveting account that draws a reader into the subject and educates the reader as fully as possible within an 800-word limit.

Looking forward, first and foremost, I want to continue my life as a journalist. Because, hey, that's my connection to local life and that's my consistent bread and butter. And I do want to write for children. And I do want to write for adults. And I do want to tell real stories in a fresh, new way. And I think I finally found my label, my genre, that will allow me to do this.

My label, my genre, is called "creative nonfiction."

Creative nonfiction is defined by Lee Gutkind, founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine, as "true stories, well told." He writes: "The words “creative” and “nonfiction” describe the form. The word “creative” refers to the use of literary craft, the techniques fiction writers, playwrights, and poets employ to present nonfiction—factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid, dramatic manner. The goal is to make nonfiction stories read like fiction so that your readers are as enthralled by fact as they are by fantasy."

This is my genre. This is my purpose as a writer. This fits me like a glove. Creative nonfiction. I'm so happy to have finally found you.

Back to Basics - writercize #172 #AtoZChallenge

Anyone remember the basics of sentence structure? Would you be able to label each part of a sentence with the appropriate part of speech? 

Chances are, with the exception of a few editors out there, you'd be somewhere in my realm. I have a feeling for what works and what is best left alone, and I can certainly tell you the difference between a verb and a noun, an adverb and an adjective, but ask me how to fix a sentence that ends in the word "to" or identify appositives and relative pronouns and I might look at you cross-eyed.

As I stretch my brain back to third grade and the basics of sentence structure, I remember every sentence (in English) must have a subject and a verb. That's it. Two simple words. I also remember it was deemed "preferable" to add an object.

Basic (subject/verb):

He played.

Step up (subject/verb/object):

He played ball.

I would be willing to bet that most of you reading this do not employ such simple sentence structure often. I certainly don't. I am a sucker for sentences that sing and dance in waves. I want my writing to flow, and short sentences create a staccato rhythm that I don't generally seek. Then there is my oft-used medium of journalism, where articles should exhibit an average sentence length of 16-17 words (so says the Associated Press Guide to News Writing). 

With so much of our reading and writing focused on longer sentences, why should we pay attention to the short guys? 

• Well, for one, breaks in the rhythm can be satisfying, and very telling. They can allow the reader to catch a breath. They can paint a different mood, or identify an important shift. 
• If we want to write for children (as I do) we have to know to reel in the words and use shorter sentences to harness power. Same goes for teaching children, and really speaking with them, truth be told. Ever see a kid's eyes glaze over with a run-on diatribe?
• It can really help identify holes in plot. Want to know if a story is working? Strip down every sentence to the basic action and see if the story is headed in the right direction. From there, you will see if there are holes that you need to fill in, or if there is fat that needs trimming.

Today's writercize will give you the opportunity to go back to basics and practice writing very short sentences. (This may feel like the exact opposite of freewriting.)

writercize: Write a short story using sentences of no more than six words each. 

Begin the story with a five-word sentence using the following structure: subject (noun) / verb / preposition / article / object (noun). Feel free to use the word bank below for your starter.

subject: He/She/Dad/Madeline/Tim

verb: played/ran/jumped/biked/swam

preposition: over/under/on/in/around

article: a/an/the

object: bridge/river/rainbow/mountain/forest

Leave your story as a comment. You should be able to complete a (very short) story in 50 words or less. Think board book!

(And PS - come back tomorrow for a C prompt that promises to be less than 100 words in the entire post!)

Click "read more" for (a very short) writercizer sample response about a boy and a rainbow.

Feeling Fruity - writercize #164

This weekend I attended another fabulous workshop hosted by Nutschell Windsor, known in the blogging world as The Writing Nut, and in real life as the founder of the Children's Book Writers of LA, among her many hats. As usual, I walked away inspired, with a writercize or two that formed in my head while there.

Last year at the March meeting, Nutschell encouraged writers to start a blog as a way to get writing and build a platform. Since she is brilliant, I heeded her advice and writercize was born. It is unbelievable to me that an entire year has passed, and even more unbelievable to think that I would not have met several of you bloggers from all around the world whom I now consider friends.

This weekend's meeting was all about voice, style, tone, and ... description, which is where I am taking you on today's writercize. 

Nutschell challenged everyone to expand their linguistic capabilities with description. Not the type of long, drawn out description that brings boredom and tears to the readers' eyes, but the type of description in which the writer carefully selects his/her words to most accurately portray whatever s/he is talking about and incorporates it directly into the action of the story. She had us play around with taking nouns and verbs to the next level to spark interest, and reflect on the five senses in general. 

I want to apply the concept of description to a particular item that is guaranteed to stimulate each and every one of the five senses.

writercize: Using all five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) describe a piece of fruit. 

If you are low on time, make a list. If you have a little time to spare, write it out in paragraph form.

Please share your writercize experience as a comment!  I always love to see what readers come up with!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about a lemon.

Six Word Debate Question - writercize #153

We are just days away from the third Republican primary in South Carolina, and debate season continues as the five remaining candidates vie for a chance to run for President of the United States. The Republican debates started a good year ago (ok, so it's only been since May - at any rate, almost long enough to have a baby), and at this point, it looks as though they could run on for another couple of months, at which time the nominee will begin a series of debates against incumbent President Obama and whatever third party candidates decide to duke it out as well.

In a few if the debates, as with a Presidential Town Hall meeting late last year, interested parties could submit their questions via Twitter, limiting any question to 140 letters. Rather than stick with the Twitter method, I am curious to match debate questions up with the Six Words method of expressing a thought hosted by Smith Mag.

writercize: Use exactly six words to phrase a presidential debate question on a matter that is important to you (or representative of the American people).

Please leave your response as a comment or link to your website post - I love to see your work!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

26 Words - writercize #152

In honor of my guest post over at the April 2012 A to Z Challenge website today, which is, in my opinion, one of the greatest community experiences to hit the blogging world, I have the alphabet on my mind.

A few months ago, I invited readers to create a list of words A through Z within the theme of emotions, weather or colors, which was good for word play and expanding vocabulary, but tonight I have a slightly different challenge for you using the 26 letters of the alphabet, one in which you will use the letters to create a story that makes sense.

writercize: Write a 26 word glimpse of a story or poem in which each word begins with a different letter if the alphabet, in alphabetical order, from A through Z. 

Feel free to use the dictionary, thesaurus, foreign languages and an occasional Seussical invented word to assist you.

Leave your attempt as a comment, or link to your blog so I can see it!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about crocodiles and fairies.

Hey Students and New Writers! Writing Advice - writercize #151

I recently received an e-mail from eCollegeFinder, an onine source to assist students in finding accredited online educational institutions. The e-mail asked for two seemingly simple pieces of information: a blog description and advice for student writers. Each had to be summarized in a mere two to four sentences. Most writers and bloggers could probably go on for days to answer such a question, so it was a task to narrow it down. Talk about precision!

I'd like to share my answer to the second question with all of you, and challenge you to share your best advice for student writers as well! I will be a bit more lenient on the limitation, and expand on mine in the sample response below.

writercize: What advice can you offer students aiming to improve their writing acumen? (I am adding: what advice can you offer beginning writers and bloggers?) 

No worries about the 2-4 sentences; you may expand to a couple of paragraphs or a max of 15 bullet points.

Read "click more" for writercizer sample response, including those extra goodies not included in the original email, and remember to stop in this weekend for the first ever #WeekendWritercize challenge!

Fairy Tale Book Blurb - writercize #131

Earlier this month, Brianna Renshaw of Pocketful of Playdough hosted a guest writercize where she presented three different book blurbs and invited writers to create a first sentence for each book.  

Talk about a monumental challenge!  It took me a few days to garner up the courage to try the challenge (kudos to my regular writercizers - attempting a challenge and leaving a comment is hard work!), but I have to say I really enjoyed playing around with it.  

I did look to a few books on my own shelf for the challenge, but couldn't write about a book that I had read since it limited my ability to think outside the box, so I highly recommend using the book blurbs she shared (provided you haven't read them yet!) to try the challenge.  Now that I got the hang of it, it's a writercize I plan to use while browsing through bookstores whenever (make that if ever!) I have some time to kill.

Brianna's writercize got me thinking about book blurbs and how fun and theatrical they really are.  A book blurb is like the musical theater version of a story - it's the dramatic and intriguing and bold twin to the novel or short story's subtler, deeper tale.  It's the one place to go over the top with adjectives and mystery.

Since I want to give you a challenge that everyone can relate to, I want you to start with a familiar story and build the blurb.  

writercize:  Create a book blurb to complement the fairy tale of your choice.  

The blurb should be 3-5 sentences long and summarize the story without giving too much away.  Turn on both the marketing mind and the editor to make it work!

Please leave the result of all your hard writercize work as a comment, or leave a link to your page if you use it on your blog.  I love to see all the different ways people can imagine the same challenge!  (And by hard writercize work, I mean a few minutes to a half an hour.  Don't worry about perfection.  This site is about practicing your writing often, not perfecting it!)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about Cinderella.

Guest Writercize #1 - Elizabeth Grace

I am very excited to host Beth today at writercize.  Beth is the leader of the Group Blogging Experience, better known by it's acronym and twitter hash #GBE2.  She is also a fabulous writer, energetic reader and the winner of a slogan contest I hosted here several months ago!

Please welcome Beth and try out her very challenging, intriguing writercize.  I have to say I am very excited to see what you come up with. 

Without further ado, I give you - Beth!

First of all, thank you, Alana, for allowing me to take over your blog for a day. I always enjoy your posts and love that you consistently find creative ways for writers to keep limber as we try out your Writercizes!

My blog, Word Nerd Speaks is about a little bit of everything. I’ve been a professional writer for decades, but in all that time, my absolute favorite gig was as a daily columnist for a good-sized family of community newspapers. When the paper closed its doors, I mourned. I loved being able to jabber about whatever was on my mind on a given day and really loved that my work seemed to elicit lots of feedback from readers. These days, I do my jabbering on the blog, and I still welcome and appreciate comments from those who are kind enough to pop by to read what I have to say.

Now for my Writercize offering! When it comes to good storytelling, less is often more, so I’d like to propose an exercise that will require writers to choose their words judiciously, careful to see that each one is there for a reason. The Writercize is called “Ten to One” and the idea is as follows:

Participants are asked to write a complete story in exactly fifty-five words. The first line should have ten words, the second nine, the third eight, and so on until the last sentence, consisting of a single word, completes the story. 

Here’s mine (mine as in Beth's):

Truck Stop

She knew what he’d order: peach pie and coffee, black.

He set his fork down and smiled at her.

You spend too much time alone, he said.

She rolled her eyes and nodded. Yep.

I’m hauling a load to Tulsa.

You could come with me.

She folded her apron.

I’d like that.

Sign flipped.

Closed.

(There are still some guest spots available.  Click here to read the guidelines and sign up.)

Edit and Embellish - writercize #109

A good writer should have a handle on the audience's expectations, from formatting to tone to sentence structure, and be able to reel in or expound on an idea according to situational requirements.

Several months ago, I challenged writercizers to write about one concept in three different genres in Genre Play in order to exercise control over the tone while keeping on topic.

Today, I am challenging you to exercise control over length.  Know your audience.  Know your purpose.  Know when to edit and when to embellish.

writercize:  Write four sentences based on the word "mountain."  Interpret it as you wish.  One sentence should be less than 5 words, one should be 6-10, one should be 11-20 words and one should be a minimum of 21 words.  Write in any order.  Sentences do not have to relate to one another.

Click "read more" to see writercizer sample response about the mountainous prompt.  Share your writercize as a comment!