It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. To find links to other IWSG contributors, click here. Thanks to our awesome co-hosts for the April posting of the IWSG: PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diane Burton
April’s optional question: Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically differing in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?
I’m about the least controversial person you know, so eliminate the last clause right off. As for trying a radically different style, lately, I find myself more likely to do that when writing a poem, rather than fiction. You can always play games with poems, spacing, tone, voice, wording rhythm. I cut and paste, delete and repeat all over the place until finally, whatever the form, I get what's in my heart onto the page.
Perhaps I need to transfer some of that creativity to my other writing. With my recent novels, I’ve written in third-person POV, but dangling out there in a risky-for-me kind of dream, are two projects I began in first-person. One is a draft novel I wrote a several years ago I ponder giving a total overhaul. The other is the first twenty-pages of a maybe-novel for which I have yet to grasp the story.
Neither is what you’d call radically different, but in both cases, when I go back and read those samples of first person POV, I experience a “Wow, I wrote that?” kind of revelation. My challenge will be to sustain that voice. I’m a little worried I can’t, but I’m happy for this IWSG question, because it’s reminded me to go back sometime and give it a try.
What’s the most radically different style or controversial topic tried with your writing?
