Writing Challenge 2016

In the years between then and now, I’ve thought about picking up where I left off, but haven’t really found the motivation at the right time of the year.

So I’m sort letting the daily writing prompt/daily writing tip thing go after 7 years (it’s time 😂). While I stopped posting, I did continue writing (sporadically) and now that I am done with grad school I am actually taking a creative writing class for the first time ever and I am so excited!!!

It’s only just started, but one thing that my prof said that I’ve been ruminating over and want to share with you all is that a lot of people use backstory solely to justify a character’s actions. And if used like that, then it’s really easy to fall into common tropes and make your character feel very two dimensional. Instead, backstory should give your character depth. It can (and likely will) explain some of the character’s attributes/decisions/etc, but it should also add to the character in some way.

Idk I hope I’m explaining that right and in a way that makes sense.

For me, the example that comes to mind is from the show Miraculous Ladybug (I’m not caught up yet with what’s been released on Disney+ so PLEASE NO SPOILERS), where we have two characters, one of whom is a villain and one of whom is a superhero. Character one is a rich fashion designer with a wife who mysteriously disappeared and since then has rarely left his house and still grieves her. Character two grew up isolated, lost his mother as a child and his father is very distant, he was essentially raised by his father’s personal assistant. He was homeschooled, almost completely cut off from the outside world unless it was convenient for his father to parade him around.

Character one seems like he’s set up to be a Batman-like superhero, while character two is set up to be the villain with a chip on his shoulder.

But in reality, character one is the villain terrorizing Paris by preying on people’s negative emotions, while character two is an absolute cinnamon roll of a human who wholeheartedly accepts his role as second in command of a superhero duo, then a superhero team, led by a female superhero. He’s not even an antihero, he just absolutely loves Ladybug and is absolutely willing to accept that she is in charge from the get go. It does also explain some of his attributes/actions (why he loves being a superhero so much bc he finally gets the freedom he never got before; his worst nightmare is being locked up) but it *explains and adds*.

Like. They could’ve used his tragic Disney Princess background to justify making him an asshole. But they gave him the backstory while also making him the sweetest, kindest, ladybug simp possible.

There’s so many things this show gets right (this is just one of them) and even tho it’s a kids show I recommend everyone watch it (at least the earlier seasons… jury’s still out on what Disney has decided to do with it since they acquired it lol)

He closed the blinds, cutting off his nosy neighbor’s view. 

Why You Should Read Outside of Your Comfort Zones

Writers read to expand their knowledge on different writing styles and patterns of other writers, established or not. It has been a constant reminder to writers to keep reading and reading something does not necessarily mean it has to be finished.

I can no longer remember the very first time I picked up a book and just sat down and read but I do remember the complete set of colorful picture storybooks my parents bought for me when I was a child. Those were my first books.

My love for reading continued when I was in elementary. I was not a very outgoing child so I spent my time alone in the library, flipping though books with pictures. I eventually learned to love books without the colorful pictures when I read the Harry Potter series. That was my very first set of young adult fiction books.

As the years passed, I started to read more fiction books that young teenage girls read, like The Mediator series from Meg Cabot, the Mates Dates series from Cathy Hopkins, and the Year Abroad trilogy.

I noticed that once I like a book with a certain theme, I tend to search for other books with the similar theme.

Is Reading Books You’re Comfortable With Enough?

Is reading the same genre of books enough to help one develop as a writer? Wouldn’t that just limit the writer to write something similar?

It’s not limited to genres either. How about just reading short stories and novels, but never really paying attention to other forms of literature like poems, prose, or plays?

I have to admit that I was never really a poetry fan and I am very limited to a handful of novel authors. After reading a post here about collecting images for poetry (and for stories as well), I realized that I haven’t really explored other forms of literature and other genres that I stay away from.

We all have our comfort zones, in reading, writing and in our lives. Without stepping out of that small bubble of ours, our knowledge would not be able to grow and we would not know if we might be better in other fields of writing or not.

Realizations are one thing, but acting upon a realization is another.

I may not be able to write poems with measures and rhymes just yet, but I’ve decided to start reading more poems, analyze and criticize them without bias and eventually write some before completely scrapping it out of my writing experience.

Now, this prompt may be more outside of some people’s comfort zones than others (looking at fanfics here mkay) but even if this is something you’ve done before feel to indulge once more.

What scares you the most? What phobias do you have? What scares you in real life, and what scares you about writing?

“Did I ever tell you about that time I started a cult?”

Is is possible to write outside one’s own experience?

I would say yes. In many ways the experience of writing stories is an exploration of the world outside our own self, and necessarily so lest we only write autobiographical fiction (which some do, and which is fine as a genre). A major part of all successful human interaction comes in learning how to anticipate and comprehend the behavior of people who are not us (that is, every person, even those we are closest to).

However, writing (and comprehending) outside one’s own experience does not happen in a vacuum. In reality we live embedded in cultural surroundings. We therefore absorb expectations and beliefs from our families, communities, larger linguistic and national cultures (not everyone lives in the USA!), and from popular culture renditions of what the world is supposedly like based on dominant economic and pop-culture models. These expectations and beliefs often reflect distorted and false views of communities that exist within or outside the dominant cultures.

In the wake of current and recent online discussions of appropriation, disrespectful or stereotypical representation of marginalized cultures and groups, and the publication of J.K. Rowling’s (fictional) history of North American magic, I wanted to say a few things about writing outside one’s own culture and/or group.

I’m not an expert and I have made and will continue to make mistakes. Own your mistakes. Learn from them. Listen to others more than you talk yourself.

Don’t take space from people whose voices are more marginalized than your own. Listen.

Act with the same respect you would wish to be shown. If you are going to research a culture that is not your own, listen to the voices from that culture. Don’t grab for received wisdom and “what everyone knows” and images most prevalent in popular culture, because these stereotypes are almost always harmful. Don’t only seek out outside views of the culture whose analysis is more comfortable for you, even if it is couched as scholarship.

Ask politely. Be humble. If people don’t have time for your questions, then retreat gracefully. If they do have time, pay them when that is possible or appropriate. Thank them. Don’t take people for granted. Really, truly listen to what people have to say. People willing to be honest with you are giving you a gift.

No culture is monolithic. Individuals within a culture do not hold the same views and beliefs. People also have multiple ways of understanding themselves, measured against and lived within different aspects of their lives. As in rhythm, the gaps between beats are as important as the beats. Listen to what they may not be willing to say to you.

Pay attention to the details, to the elements of daily life that are often derided as trivial or too unimportant for “important” fiction. I often find the best windows into other ways of living to be the day to day experiences of the world, and the habits, interactions, languages, and rhythms that characterize people’s lives. These spaces are where most life is lived.

Be aware that you will be hauling your own expectations and stereotypes down this path. I don’t believe we can fully rid ourselves of this baggage–the biases, prejudices, and errors-taught-as-fact–but we can try to be aware of where and what some of those assumptions are. Examine yourself. Each day we can try to build for ourselves a new understanding and new awareness that reaches past them. On an individual level we really can only dismantle our own personal wall of prejudice and ignorance one stone at a time. Be determined.

Imagine a reader from the group you are writing about reading your story. How might they react? Is that what you want? Who are you really writing for? Are you using a culture as a stage setting or as an exotic or dramatically harsh backdrop for a story that will almost certainly mostly be read by readers not from that culture or group who won’t know any of the nuances of that experience and will be satisfied with broad brushstrokes as well as oversimplified and probably offensive generalities? Do you want to build your entertaining story atop other people’s pain?

“My mind starves for something other than here.” 

What do you normally write? Short stories? Novels? 5000 words? 50,000 words? 200,00 words?

Switch it. If you normally write short, write long. If you write long, write short. There are different skills associated with each, and they are all good skills to have.

Three Ways Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone Can Boost Your Freelance Career

Most of us like to be comfortable. It’s only natural. However, the reality is that most growth doesn’t take place in your comfort zone. Instead, if you want to grow and improve, you need to get out of your comfort zone. This applies to writing as well as to other areas of your life.

If you want to be a better writer, and improve your freelance career, you need to get out of your comfort zone with your writing. Here are three ways that writing outside you comfort zone can help your freelance career:

1. Learn Something New

I’m very comfortable in the personal finance niche. I ended up specializing in financial topics, and it’s been amazing. And, while I know that there’s plenty left for me to learn in terms of finances, the truth is that there isn’t a whole lot that surprises me in the course of my writing.

Getting out of my writing comfort zone can help me learn something new. The research required when I write something outside my comfortable financial niche practically guarantees that I will learn something new. Not only that, but I think I become a better writer as a result. I might see a different side to something, or find something that allows me to look at personal finances in a new light.

It’s more work to research something outside your comfort zone, but it’s usually worth it to learn something new. Constant learning improves your ability to adapt, and comes with a number of benefits to your life as well as to your freelance career.

2. Stretch Your Creativity

It really takes me outside my comfort zone to write fiction. Even if I don’t share what I write with others, it stretches my creativity to write fiction. I’ve been thinking about it a little bit more recently, since it’s National Novel Writing Month. Even though I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I’ve done it in the past, and I’m still using this month to refine some of my fiction writing.

I’m not very creative, but stretching those creative muscles forces me to be a better writer. That creativity can add something to my nonfiction writing, and improve my ability to tell a story. At least, that’s what I hope is happening. My ability to write creatively can open up new opportunities in my freelance career, as well as keep me open to new possibilities.

Writing outside your comfort zone forces you to be more creative and that can influence the rest of your writing career for the better.

3. Potential to Find New Clients

You might even land new clients when you write outside your comfort zone. The truth is that I didn’t start out writing about finances. My first gigs were mainly science writing, and I tried to write about religion and politics. One day I was asked to write for a money blog. I wasn’t entirely sure I could do it, but I said yes, and the rest is history.

Getting outside your comfort zone can encourage you to learn a new style of writing, and it can also introduce you to new markets. Your freelance career can get a boost with the help of your willingness to move beyond what you’re wholly comfortable with.

While I think that most of my writing will likely center on the financial niche on into the foreseeable future, keeping my options open can be a good idea, since it helps to maintain diversity so that you aren’t relying on any one niche, or even any one product or service. Even though it’s out of my comfort zone, I’ve started offering additional services with my business, from running blogger campaigns to presenting workshops.

Another day, another challenge. Today’s challenge deals with socioeconomic status.

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to classify our society into three groups: the 1%, the middle class, and those below the poverty line. The real world is obviously more nuanced than this, but for the sake of this challenge this simplified version will suffice.

First, pick which one of those three groups you most identify with. It’s is entirely possible for one person to have lived in more than one group, but pick the experience you feel the closest to.

It’s the 15th, which means Music Shuffle! Put your music player on shuffle and write about the first song that plays.

When people meet me for the first time, they usually find out within the first ten minutes that I love to write. The question that proceeds right after is, “What do you write?” At that point, I’m stumped. The thing is, I write a little bit of everything – memoir, flash fiction, news articles and feature stories, to name a few. As a writer, I don’t stick to a single genre or style. I never have.

Branching Out I got my first diary, a red Hello Kitty notebook with a matching lock, when I was about seven years old. My handwriting was horrendous back then, and there wasn’t much to say except perhaps what my mother made for dinner and which games the kids played at recess. But I still wrote nearly every day.

My first fiction story, which I wrote a couple years later, was 60 pages long and followed the bond between a young girl and a horse she saves from animal cruelty. The writing was flat, and the premise was strangely similar (okay, identical) to the story of Felicity Merriman, my favorite American Girl Doll at the time. But I still cried when the story got deleted one day with a single click of the wrong button.

Throughout my childhood, I continued to write short stories and even created a neighborhood newsletter called The Weekly Reader – sounds original, right? – because I wanted to be just like The Pickwick Club from Little Women. It didn’t last long, but here I am, one decade later, a student journalist who writes for campus magazines and the local newspaper.

I’m a journalist who writes news articles on tight deadlines and scribbles poetry in the margins of her reporter’s notebook and submits fiction or memoir shorts to literary magazines. I’ve written horror, contemporary romance and erotica because I like the challenge. The answer to the question, “What do you write?” is, “Whatever I feel like, plus anything I haven’t tried before.” As long as I’m doing some form of literary storytelling, I’m happy.

Fitting In Some people might say it’s important for writers to specialize in a certain category like young adult, or stick to just one genre like mystery or sci-fi. It becomes your targeted market for future work. Your time can be devoted to this one niche instead of getting wasted on your dabbling in other irrelevant areas. Certainly a novelist can’t be a good lyricist, too!

There is some merit to this rationale: You practice writing humorous pieces and you eventually become the Jim Carrey of literature (oops, wait, that’s John Green). You construct a thousand different ways two or three people can fall in love with each other, and Nicholas Sparks gives you a run for your money. You become not only a knowledgeable expert of the topic, but you become better at writing about it over time.

But this “hyper-specialization” also narrows your choices of what you can write and hinders your ability to discover worlds beyond the one you’re writing in. Every time you start on a new project, it takes a little bit more effort to think of something new that fits with your bailiwick. Beliefs like “I only write chick-lit” or “I’ve never written fantasy in my life, and I don’t think I could start now!” become reinforced. It’s only when you start exploring that you become exposed to possibilities – a potential interest or knack – that you might otherwise not have found.

Quit Boxing Around Writing outside of your comfort zone doesn’t necessarily mean you have to “think outside the box,” because the rules of a box, or whatever your usual genre or style is, no longer apply. You don’t think outside a box because there is no longer a box – it’s a tunnel, or a cylinder, or a cone. It means you become a more creative and daring writer. Soon, you learn to incorporate several different elements together for a much richer piece of writing. Many of my favorite novels do this: The Lovely Bones, for example, has elements of romance, paranormal, horror and family tragedy all woven in a single beautiful book. When you write outside your comfort zone, you’re no longer categorized as a young adult novelist or a mystery writer. You’re a storyteller.

By experimenting with different styles of writing, you also improve at the craft. If you write poetry, you know how to condense a lot of meaning into a small amount of words. You pick words carefully, because each one counts toward the flow of things. Not just in the symbolism, but in sound. Syllables matter. If you write narratives, you know how to knit sentences together that make sense structurally. If you write a lot of both, you know how to create stories with vivid imagery using the rhythm of words. Essentially, you’re Michael Ondaatje.

Over time, you become multi-talented and capable of working on several different projects. When I first started writing feature articles, I struggled. I’d been trained to write either with a creative mind or with a strict formula for presenting hard news facts, never both skill sets at once. Feature articles are in-depth human-interest stories that focus on people, the things that happen to them and how they’ve changed as a result. By nature, feature articles use creative storytelling to present facts or the subjects’ interpretation of facts. By writing several feature stories, I became a better journalist and a better creative writer. Now, I use the same techniques for memoir writing, which must also rely on colorful human memories to recall true events.

If you’re used to writing within a particular genre, it can be scary to suddenly switch to something new. That’s why it is helpful to stick with familiar territory at the same time if you can. During the last few months, I experimented a lot with poetry. But because I’m used to writing romance, I wrote a lot of love poems. Unlike the awful angst-ridden poetry I wrote in sixth grade, these poems actually turned out, well, pretty. They sounded pretty when I read them out loud, and they resonated with the few people who read them. I call that a success.

Choosing to write outside of your comfort zone is the first step. The next step? Just write whatever comes to mind. That’s usually how the magic happens.

“I can tell. You’re wincing.”

What are your biggest fears?

Got them?

Alright, now think about your friends, your family, your significant other. What are their biggest fears? How do they differ from yours?

It’s easy to write about a character who’s afraid of spiders if you’re also afraid of spiders. But it’s a lot harder to write about someone with a fear of public speaking if you’re a natural public speaker. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.