I was thinking today about how as a writer, one can get boxed in; that is, the pressures of society and the constraints of who you are – or at least who you think you are - can box you into one area of writing. “I love to write poems, ” “Mysteries are my game,” or “The majority of my writing is blogging,” etc. By limiting yourself to one genre or type of writing, you can miss the fun of trying out different writing experiences. There are all sorts of types of creative writing: journaling, memoirs, storytelling, letters, poetry, essays, blogging, screenwriting, songwriting, etc., etc. Within those types of writing, there are genres like thrillers, mysteries, women’s issues, westerns, romance, biographies, etc., etc. As you might realize by now, there is a universe of writing out there, and when you limit yourself to one small area, you box yourself into one way of thinking and writing. You can miss out on the thrill of writing something terrific because you don’t try to dip your pen into a different inkwell!
When you try something new, it sharpens your skills and helps your writing to stay fresh. Even if you find yourself struggling, if you keep at it, you may find something that excites you and gives you a whole new avenue of writing to pursue. On a personal note, I would never have thought I would be good at writing children’s stories or epistolary stories, or even poetry, but all these things I have explored with fairly good outcomes because of free writing using prompts.
What about you? Is there a different type of writing that you would like to try out?
Here’s a prompt that might help you to switch around what you write: Consider a story you have written recently and rewrite the story differently, i.e., if it is a story – write it as a poem. If it is a SciFi story write it as a modern romance. If it is a blog post, write it like a cartoon or comic strip. In other words, turn the story on its head and see how it turns out!
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Chasing The Tale 