I don’t know about the rest of you, but Christmas has snuck up on me this year! Between publishing two books in November and all of the work involved in that process and the aftermath (promotion, etc.), I came up for breath last weekend, as I wrote about last week. I took a short break, and now I’m beginning work on the next project (diving into research and scene layout). But with Christmas coming up, it’s time to shift down a gear or two, and enjoy the season. If you are a writer like me, writing can be addictive; it’s a good habit to write something every day. But who says it needs to be a book manuscript, or whatever your next project or usual format is? If you write poetry, try your hand at calligrams; if you write short stories, try writing an ambigram. If you write constantly, take a break and read a book that has absolutely nothing to do with research or preparation for your next project!
Here are a few different styles to choose from, just to shake things up a bit:
- Flash fiction (300-1,000 – word stories)
One of my first calligrams; not very neat, but cathartic!
- Short stories (fiction or nonfiction – limit yourself, e.g. to one page)
- Nonfiction
- Anecdotes
- Jokes
- Profiles
- Travel writing
- Children’s books
- Screen writing
- Play writing
- Poetry
- Freelance
- Novel
- Novella
- Memoir
- Autobiography
- Biography
- Song writing (lyrics, if you can’t write/read music)
- Calligram (do a Google Image search to see examples)
- Asemic writing
- Book report
- Fan fiction
- Letter
- Journal
- Dialogue
- Creative doodles (with or without words)
- Cartoon strips
- Ambigram
- Micography (Microcalligraphy)
- Concrete poetry (or any number of poetry styles – check out a small list here)
- Haiku
