Kyle Phoenix, Writer and student & Instructor at Columbia University
I participated in a dozen writing classes. 10-26 people, tasked with creating three new works in a semester and workshopping them. Read aloud, provide copies for everyone and afterwards the class and teacher go to town on your work. I was working as a TA too so I really worked on others, thinking, questioning to feedback as improvement. I found lots of work and ideas and styles I couldn't imagine and that freed up my own work. The demand to present well and new stuff every time, I never repeated a work pressed me to become better.
Two, adopting a foreign style. Raymond Carver known for brevity, economy forced me to get tight in my writing. 10 pad pages, tell the story. Typed it's like 3 pages. That forced me, in about thirty short stories to get to the point. Once I'd mastered that I would give myself 20 handwritten pages, then occasionally 50. Not every idea is a book. In fact most aren't. Write a story, like chicken soup----don't aim for coq au vin, just boil some chicken first with some vegetables. Then a pot with noodles. Then both then a stew. Master the simple stuff first.
I've found a short story can expand to a novel or a novella or with a little tinkering fulfill a chapter.
I've found a short story can expand to a novel or a novella or with a little tinkering fulfill a chapter.
Three, experiment in form of genre. Don’t write in your preferred area. Simple drama, no fantastic stuff then try horror or first person. The limberness I take in style and form-genre keeps me on my toes. I dedicated fifteen short stories to erotica and then had to read dozens of books to understand the difference between porn, graphic, subtle, erotic. It's a nuanced hand. Then I wrote all four and published. Graphic is shocking to the writer because you realize how difficult it is to make sex new. Then I experimented with genders, sexes, criminality, adults, teenagers, children, abuse. Wring out a genre then move to another.
I've written Star Trek novels, X-Men issues just to explore.
Try what you don't like, do well.
I wrote a screen play and filmed it then later found playwrighting difficult that means I must return to it. I have three scripts in mind, one a remake of one my favorite movies.
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