Jumping Genres

Yesterday, on my birthday, I went to the first meeting of alumni and students from my graduate school writing program. Since we live 3,000 miles from the program and in a smaller city, I was amazed that five other very interesting individuals showed up.

Three of us had been in the poetry program, two in fiction, and one in creative nonfiction. I have spent a lot of time in groups with poets, but I enjoyed being around these new people writing in different genres even more. It's easy to get stuck in a rut and not to think about all the possibilities of your medium, in this case writing.

For some time now I've been thinking of writing some fiction but I haven't yet managed the leap. I am used to creating poems and have written quite a bit of prose, but always reviews, essays, or business writing of one kind or another. To write fiction seems scary. How on earth does one control the plot? How do you keep a character consistent through hundreds of pages? How do you tie up all the subplots?

The joy of creating a story, let's say a murder mystery, is not lost on me. I've been considering writing one where I get to kill off an individual remarkably like someone I know and can't stand. Sounds very satisfying.

I have decided to spend a bit of time hanging out with novelists, short story writers, and memoirists. The best thing that could happen is that I suddenly am able to jump to another literary genre.

Cheers to you, Karen