Okay, what is it that I actually do? I am told it is 'creative writing'. What actually is creative writing? In a nut shell - it is the use of language and imagination to tell a story.
The Complete Idiots Guide tells me - 'Is all about " staring at a blank page until you sweat blood, as much fun as root canal or an IRS audit... It is a way to get a message across to a reader by means of narration (eg biographies), description (involves the five senses and in most forms of writing esp poetry), exposition (shows and tells about a subject eg articles, essays, business reports), and persuasion (uses the written word to move the reader in thought or action eg journalism, advertisements etc."
For example that annual christmas letter you are struggling to get around to about now, is an act of creative writing. Creative Writing falls into two main categories:
Fiction - made up events and characters eg novels and short stories
Non-Fiction - writing about real people and events. eg biographies, essays.
That Christmas letter falls into Non-Fiction, though if you over exaggerate over little Johnnies successes or the size of the fish you caught on summer vacation - it falls into the above category.
Each Category has sub categories/ or genres.
The Non-Fiction I will only touch on- this includes Biographies, Essays of John Bunyan, Speeches of Winston Churchill, the diaries of Samuel Pepys, and those Playboy interviews .... I guess you get the idea. But as I fall under the Fiction Category I will focus on this.
In Fiction the List iss endless and you will know of many of them and even read most of them. Action Drama, Murder, Mystery, Espionage, ChickLit, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Erotica, Comics, Young Adult, etc., and of course Romance.
LOML wouldn't be seen dead reading one, but what guy doesn't like romance in his life.
So are you with me so far on this voyage of discovery - I'm a Pantser, and a creative writer of Romantic Fiction.
But it doesn't stop there. Romance has its own sub-genres like ... I heard that groan (now you know why they put microfish and computers into libraries TG for the internet...)
Historical, Romantic Suspense, Erotica, Fantasy, Paranormal, Time travel, Inspirational, Contemporary, Western, Medical, etc., each with it's own levels of plot involvement and romantic elements ....
How did I decide what I liked to write - In truth it is still a work in progress. I have tried the sweet virginal love (remember the one in the bottom drawer), I tried a Gone with the Wind... it was very, very long winded....
Basically I write what interests me, what stirs my imagination, what real life events trigger an idea, it can be as simple as an article in a newspaper, an overheard conversation, or the vague remnants of a dream.
Writer John Updike tells us that' creative writing is like a sailor setting out to sea.'
We are explorers and ground -breakers who make the mundane magical, who are not afraid to go 'boldly where no man has gone before', just because we have a passionate urge to tell a story to entertain, transport and delight the reader for those precious minutes of time they give the words you have put on paper.
Having a fertile imagination helps but is not essential, but a love reading and research is a must for what you write while it may be beautifully creative it has to be able to hold and capture the readers interest and make then want to turn the page to find out what happens.
So there you have it...
I'm a Creative Writer of Romantic Fiction, in many of its varied sub genres with a passion to get an entertaining, believable story across to a reader by the pantsing method.
TTDT- the ironing I didn't get to yesterday!
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1 comment:
Now that sounds like something worth putting on a business card. We pansters have to stick together!
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