 Mystery: August 26, 2015 Issue [#7181] |
  Mystery
This week: Unrestrained Writing Edited by: Jeff  
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"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense
of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery."
-- Anaïs Nin
Mystery Trivia of the Week: Don DeLillo has a diverse bibliography that includes addressing the topics of television, nuclear war, sports, language, the performing arts, mathematics, politics, the digital age, and terrorism (among others). He's a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a PEN/Faulkner Award winner, and a Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction winner.
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| ASIN: 0996254145 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 12.95
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UNRESTRAINED WRITING
When was the last time you truly wrote something for yourself?
The last time you did away with all the rules and restrictions and guidelines and advice and just wrote a story you wanted to tell?
As a writer who spends a lot of time probably too much time on contest entries and thinking about the business of writing, I'll sometimes go for months without ever writing a story that's totally my own. I'll write, sure, but that writing is often restrained by the specific word count or prompt to a contest, the genre that I'm trying to build an audience for, and things of that nature. And while thinking about those kinds of things and participating in those kinds of things can be positive, writers have to make sure they're also taking the time to nurture their muse rather than always putting it through the wringer and expecting it to conform.
It can be incredibly difficult to find the time or space to write freely and for oneself. You might already have an audience for your published work that has come to expect that you write sci-fi thrillers... and would be surprised and probably disappointed to discover your latest work is a romantic period piece. Or, if you're the kind of person who needs deadlines and structure or enjoys the friendly competition of a writing contest, it might make sense to adhere to a set of guidelines in order to get have that experience.
At some point, though, you might get the urge to write something that's outside your wheelhouse, or you might have a story idea that doesn't fit into the kind of thing you normally do. What then?
Thankfully, Writing.Com provides you with a portfolio that's easily customized. You can create folders for all of your different kinds of work so that you can group similar items together. In my own port, for example, I have my work divided up into folders for short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, with subcategories, like in the case of short fiction, for each of the genres I write in (Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance/Erotica, Comedy, etc.). It's an easy way to point readers to the fact that there are different sides to my writing life, and guide them as they try to find the material that suits them.
It can be difficult, though, when you're dealing with a website or a situation where you can't categorize that stuff. Amazon's author pages, for example, don't allow you to divide your work into subcategories; it all just sits there in one big jumbled mess, which can lead to frustration if you're writing in multiple genres or catering to different audiences. When that happens, there are a couple of things you can do:
Create a pseudonym for each type of writing. If you're worried about brand confusion with your different types of writing, follow in the footsteps of Nora Roberts, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Joanna Penn, J.A. Konrath, Lawrence Block, and Joyce Carol Oates who all, for various reasons, decided to publish some of their works under an alias in order to differentiate it from the writing they did under their own names. The upside is that it's easy to separate your writing (just give each pseudonym its own Amazon author page, Twitter account, Facebook page, etc.) so that each audience is its own. The downside is that you then have to maintain each personality and you split your audience. For some people this might be ideal, but the idea of maintaining two or more of each type of social media account feels a little daunting!
Write in different mediums. If you have an interest in different types of writing, perhaps you can tackle each type of writing with a different area of your interests. For example, maybe you focus your short stories on your comedy writing, your novel efforts on your sci-fi and fantasy interests, and your screenwriting on your action/thriller interests. The upside here is that it's really easy to focus on your audience into each niche because you're only dealing with one kind of audience for each kind of writing. The downside is that you actually have to be interested in lots of different types of writing; there's no sense in taking up screenwriting or epic poetry or short stories if you're simply not interested in those mediums.
Point your audience to a central organizer of your choice. If the existing structure of a site (like Amazon and its author pages) doesn't work, consider creating your own place where you can organize yourself in your own way. Maybe that's a place like here on Writing.Com where you have folders you can create. Maybe it's your own personal website where you have pages and headings for each of your areas of interest. Either way, if you can create an alternate place where you can organize your writing however you'd like, you can then point the other places (your author page, your Twitter account, etc.) to that central page where everyone can go and easily navigate your work to find their area of interest.
Don't be afraid of trying something new if your muse is urging you to step outside the box you've constructed for yourself. There are multiple ways to make sure your work is easily organized and accessible to your audiences... and there's also absolutely nothing wrong with keeping it to yourself too. If you're a children's author and you like to write dark poetry or steamy erotic short stories, you don't have to put them out in the world. It's okay to keep some of your writing to yourself.
The point is, don't let restrictions and rules govern every moment of your writing. Take time to let your muse free and see where it takes you. Some of the best stuff comes when you let yourself off your leash. 
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"Blogocentric Formulations"
"New & Noteworthy Things"
Community Activities ▼
 " The Dark Society" 13+: A horror group that worships all things dark and sinister. Join at your own risk!  " The Cube" E: An exclusive auction & raffle to raise funds for groups and activities across Writing.Com
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I encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
EXCERPT: What made him crack? Stacy knew, or at least figured she did. After five years of development, his unknown company was less than a month away from launching a hyped-up MMO to the public; his long-term relationship with Rebecca was on the rocks because he spent at least twelve hours a day at the office and hadn't taken a single day off in two months; and he was taking care of dad's house while he was on a three month cruise across the world.
| | | Prologue [13+] #2053413
Reiki finds himself on a bench in a car park in the middle of 'I don't know where'.
by Osirantinous  |
EXCERPT: Reiki's head ached the more he tried to think back. There was nothing 'back'. He was in the parking lot of this absolutely-nowhere place and he had no idea how he'd got here, why he was here or even when. He turned back to the man, uneased to find him staring like he was sizing him up for some cuffs. His next words weren't going to help! 'Sorry, but, um you said I was l-loitering. How...' Reiki swallowed, shoved his hands in his black jeans to hide their fine tremor. 'How long?'
EXCERPT: Have you ever questioned your existence or the world you live in? Do you suffer a sense of emptiness or longing day after day that you could not quite understand or dispel? If your answer is no, and you are someone who delights in the pursuit of the goals and pleasures of life without a single ray of question or doubt , then you may stop here. But if your answer is yes, then I believe you and I are not so different and I hope the story I am about to tell you will help you uncover the truth behind this world and your very existence as I have uncovered mine through a series of bizarre events.
EXCERPT: The old GMC Yukon occasionally creaked with a heavy gust of wind. The moon wove in and out of dark, towering clouds, wringing torrents of rain out from them. Forests drowned in the moonlight while dirt roads flooded. Some creatures bedded down to wait the weather out. Some opportunists rose up with excitement, eager to find stranded prey throughout the floods.
EXCERPT: I sighed. But Jessie never fit in. Never even tried. Instead he'd let Jim Beam do all his talking. Insulting mostly. Pretty soon the invitations were only a few, and when we did receive one I found myself making excuses. Too busy. Not feeling well. Prior plans. I think they knew my secret because they said they understood. They accepted my lies. Before long even I accepted my own lies. "Sixty."
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Feedback from my last newsletter about characters with real flaws:
Quick-Quill  writes: I too think the greatest character trait to build is the FLAW!! Everyone has fear. In my novel the flaw is OCD/hoarding. the two can coexist in a family dynamic. I show how it does. As the story moves it really doesn't have a lot of exposure in every chapter, but with the actions of the characters, you see a little of the fall out. We don't see H.Ford running into snakes in every scene, nore Ron Weasly fighting spiders. We do know they are there and often thrown into the story to make it interesting. Flaws don't have to fill up the whole story nor do they have to be overcome. The reader needs to sympathize or laugh at it.
Some of the best moments in a story are when you, the reader, realize that a character is about to have to face his or her worst fear... especially when it comes at the worst possible moment. 
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Product Type: Toys & Games
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