New Direction

I have a writing buddy. She is a talented writer and I am privileged to workshop with her. My buddy is seriously committed to writing, and she means business. If I’m not producing enough work, she says so. If I’m not maintaining contact with the outside world, she asks me why. And if I don’t post a blog today, she’ll email me tonight!

So, I am going to tell you how she managed to get me to write outside my comfort zone: to venture beyond straight fiction and memoir to the other side; to horror, fantasy, even an erotic horror drabble. She told me when opportunities arose, and kept asking me if I’d submitted until I did. That’s all it takes: incentive to attempt something new; determination to produce the goods. And the results? A short story in the Australasian Horror Writers Association magazine, Midnight Echo #14, Sinister Reads published the “inspiration interviews” of writers featured in Midnight #14, and my essay is included in part 3.and the erotic horror drabble made it into Things in the Well Book 7, Guilty Pleasures and Other Dark Delights.

The point of my blog? Don’t be pigeonholed, either by yourself or by anyone else. Extend your horizons. Have a go at writing different genres. It will reinvigorate you, and extend your skills, increase your knowledge and refine your craft. Not a bad return for the effort.