Your One Thing

This is going to be just a short note from me today. After this, I'm going to curl up somewhere in my blanket with a lovely book, and try to forget that my throat is sore and my nose is all plugged up. Ugh.

Sitting here, I can hear the wind blowing up outside. The house isn't super heated, but there's just enough warmth coming from the fireplace to lend a feeling of coziness to the living room. The lights are mostly dim, and the clock's ticking is just a faint little sound I can hear over my clicking keys.

Then, there's the wind.

Wind is such an element to a story. Have you ever noticed in books how wind, or the absence of wind, makes such an impression on the writer?

1. The MC enters into a frightening situation: something happens, and there's silence. Not even a breeze stirs.
2. An MC is on a life-and-death escape, and the wind is snatching at her as she monkey-bars her way across a balcony's rafters.
3. The MC has just lost her one true love. She stands on a hill top and weeps. The wind pulls her hair up like a banner.

There's just so much good USE one can get out of the element of wind in a story. Wind adds that aura of mystery, tension, and poetic imagery that all stories need. Wind is one of my favourite elements to work with. It's a sense that I use frequently in my books.

What about you? What's the one thing you find you're drawn to the most, the one thing you like to insert that adds a heightened sense of drama, tension, or pacing to your story?

From High Fantasy to Historical Fiction. Any takers?

What is your favourite genre to write?

I used to think I could ONLY write one genre, and that genre was fantasy, all fantasy, high, low, comic, light, dark. You name it, I wrote it. However, I like to think I have matured just a little. :) I owe my "maturity" to two different sites, two sites that still give me tons of inspiration and writing confidence.

One is Critique Cafe, my little niche of the cyber world where I can chill with my critique friends and just talk about our hopes, excitements, bummers, and joys of writing life.

The other site is the Writer's Retreat at the Institute of Children's Literature's website. It is a great place to connect with hundreds of other writers. It's a place where people are willing to critique stories for you, where people lift you up when you are down, and where you get so much helpful news into the publishing world of writing.

Both of these sites have helped me in more ways than one. They've helped me gain confidence in myself as a writer. I know I can write MORE than just fantasy.

Granted, all of us have our own special niches. Me, I still love to sit in her little world of fantasies and mysteries and plot out stories that combine a little bit of each fantasy/mystery element. Even though I have since experimented with picture books, steampunk (a genre that is fast becoming a favourite style of mine, to read AND write), and science fiction, fantasy and mystery are my two genres that I LOVE to write.

But because of Writer's Retreat, and Critique Cafe, I have been able to experiment with different genres outside my comfort zone.

Next on my agenda for "experimentation" is Historical Fiction, because I've heard that Historical fiction is on the rise. We've gone through vampires, fairies, and angels. Time to take it to the next level, right? Agent Ginger Clark says to think of this uprising Historical Fiction trend as "Tudor for teens." That could be interesting.

Hey, I've tried (nearly) everything else. Historical Fiction is a lake waiting to be jumped into. Do you want to come with me? The water's fine.