Episode 15: Writing in different genres

The host, Kim DeFace, welcomes listeners to A Cup of Creativity in the Literary Lounge and discusses the importance of writing in different genres. She thanks the Advanced Learning Library and talks about her non-profit publishing company, BASE Publishing, which focuses on underrepresented voices. She emphasizes the importance of every voice being heard and encourages all types of talent to be part of the writing journey. Kim shares her own experience of writing a horror story and how it challenged and strengthened her as a writer. She encourages listeners to try writing in different genres to exercise their creativity and language skills. Welcome, welcome to A Cup of Creativity in the Literary Lounge, the place where writing doesn't have to suck. I am your host, Kim DeFace, and today I would like to take the topics of writing in different genres. What do I mean by this? I'll give you some examples, and then also kind of like by taking part in this exercise, how that can actually strengthen the craft of your writing. But before I dive in, let me give a couple of shout-outs. The first being the Advanced Learning Library here in Wichita, Kansas. I want to thank them for giving me access to their AV studio. It is a place of magic. It is a place where you can come take in like three hours at a time. They've got all the equipment. It's like you can dim the lights. It's got this beautiful lime green wall, which I kind of dig. So I want to thank them for all of their help. I really greatly appreciate it. And then secondly, I want to talk about my passion, BASE Publishing, Inc. We are a non-profit publishing company who focuses on underrepresented voices. What's kind of cool is that together we are the audience. We are also the authors, we are the storytellers, and we are also creating a legacy. My main goal, again, with BASE Publishing is to build a community to help underrepresented voices, which honestly, represented, underrepresented could be anything. It could be pretty much anybody in the state of Kansas. It could be women. It could be people of color. It could be, I mean, anyway, if you have a story, I think it needs to be told, because I think every voice matters. We learn everything about our world through story and through words, through word of mouth, depending on the medium. We always have to have a story. So with BASE Publishing, I definitely want to stress that we have a little hashtag of supporting the writing journey. This is not just writers. It's not people who just write stories. It's the people who help collect them. It is the people who, you know, the talent, the various talent that helps build websites and organize social media and does strategic planning. All of these talents matter, just like the voices, because every single story deserves to be heard. Every single story. And that's kind of my goal. That's kind of our mission, is to collect all of those stories so they can be heard. What's also kind of great about my company is we get to inspire others, and at the same time, we are inspired. I mean, it is the greatest feeling. So if you are interested in jumping on our lovely mission and helping us out, contact us. Shoot me an email. Go to our website. It's BASE, F-A-Y-T-H-E, BASEpublishing.org. You can check out some of the programs, which, oh my gosh, I think we have a little bit, I don't know, it's going to fit every single person, right? Whether it is a family member, or a small town, or a teacher, or somebody who just wants to write and just doesn't know where to start, I have all of these things that we can offer you. So definitely check that out. Before I start discussing about writing in different genres, I would like to have our mantra. Are you ready? Sure you are. Okay. Today, I will face fear. Today, I will be brave. Today, I will struggle. Today, I will grow. Today, I will get through this. Woo-hoo! Huzzah! Huzzah! Jazz hands. I wish I had, I don't know, underwear braces next time so you can listen to my hands jingle. I just think that the mantra is like, I don't know, it gets me in the right mindset to write. I kind of actually do that before I start my classes, before I start my projects. So yeah, get yourself a mantra. Say it loud, say it proud. Put your hand on your heart, right? Make these words matter. Now speaking of words mattering, mattering, woo, that was mad, wasn't it? Making this, here's my transition, here's my segue, is why should I have you write in a different genre? I mean, I could, maybe you're having an eye roll, maybe, like my students, I always ask them for a great big sigh while they give me an eye roll, right? Maybe a little sass on the side. I would like us to practice our storytelling skills. I mean, really, being a storyteller is extremely important. I mean, it has been like this all through the ages and it's, excuse me, it's not any different now. So, I mean, if you are the storyteller, you are extremely important. And so one of the exercises that I like to do, and even suggest that you do, is to try to create, you know, write in a different genre. Now last week I talked about style studies, and I even, you know, discussed comfort characters before that, but if we try a different genre, you are only strengthening your writing muscle. And I will also tell you, you know, by doing this, it kind of shows an example of your creativity, right? Creativity should never end. It is a never-ending well of just awesomeness. It shows you this breadth of knowledge. And I will also say, my lovely writers and creators, I'm not going to ask you to do something that I haven't done before. I'm not saying I'm the best writer, because I'm not. I'm not the smartest person, I'm not the brightest bulb, I'm not the sharpest tool, whatever, whatever. But I'm not going to ask you to do something that I wouldn't do myself. So one of the things that I tried, so I teach English, and I know that I say, yeah, the people that listen to me all the time, you know what I'm saying? So I teach high school English, and then I also, every single grade level, and then I also teach a rhetoric of horror, and I teach creative writing. And I love all of these classes. But before my, you know, as I'm prepping for my horror class, you know, one, I am a research junkie. Oh my gosh, the internet is a dangerous, dangerous place for me. Just call me Alice, because I will go down any rabbit hole, I will find anything, and it's just, I think it's just fascinating. As a curious person, my hunger is, I'm never satisfied. I'm insatiated. You know, and so I love that I can research and find different things. Anyway, while I was researching and preparing my rhetoric of horror class, I thought to myself, at the end of this course, because here we are, we are analyzing different types of media and different types of horror stories, I wanted them to write their own stories. You know, because we study different tropes, and we study different genres, you know, different types of horror, and then we also, you know, try to connect what kind of societal fears are we seeing when we read these stories, or watch these movies, or listen to these podcasts, etc. Anyway, at the end, the very last project, is that I have them write their own horror story. They have to pick one of the tropes, I always have like five, you know, the fab five. They have to pick a trope, and then they also have to pick a societal fear, and then write, you know, a relatively short story, like ten pages, which may sound like a lot when you're reading it, but you're like, what? Nope, you'll breeze right through it. Anyway, I decided I should probably do this myself. If I'm going to, you know, if I'm going to teach it, I should probably know how to do it. Well, I have written many, many things over my career. I have written academic articles. I mean, I've had them published. I've written poetry. I have written kind of a memoir of sorts. I have written, oh my goodness, a little bit of everything, you know, journals, or reflective such and such. But I have not tried writing a horror story. And, pardon the pun, it kind of scared me. You know, I'm like, I can analyze the hell out of something. And I can talk and talk and talk and talk, but I really needed to, you know, put my writing muscles to the test. So, forming something and getting ideas, that was not a challenge for me. But writing in a different style and writing in a different genre, I think, definitely made me a stronger writer. And so, I ended up writing a horror story, I thought it was scary to me, about a beekeeper who, you know, traveled around what was like a farmer's market, which does not sound terrifying at all, and that was my reason. I did that on purpose. And what you don't find out is that she, you don't know if it's a demon or this really, really effed up inner voice that sabotages her. And so, to me, that is terrifying. And it expanded me, it challenged me, and at first, I'm not going to lie, it was bumpy at first. And then once I got to know, once I played around with that inner voice, that inner demon, or whatever you want to call it, because I decided not to name it, yeah, it just flowed right on out and it was super easy to write. I really, I thanked my students because I had them read it. If they're going to share it with me, I feel like I should, it should be, you know, same. I should do the same exact thing. If they want to see me write, I will write. If I'm going to put myself out there and I'm going to ask them to do the same thing, I think that's only fair. So, when I did that, it really pushed me. And because it is, it's a different style. So, you know, in high school English, everybody and their brother makes you write an essay. Hi, essays are not sexy, they're not exciting, but the topic can be. And that part, to me, is thrilling. Like, I love essays. Not necessarily, you know, like, yeah, I can crank this out like there's no tomorrow, but the topic is really, really exciting to me. So, that gets me going, right? So, whenever you're writing in different genres, again, you're exercising your language. You're changing your language. Because, clearly, writing a poem is different than writing an essay, which is different than writing a, you know, non-fiction, which is different than writing, you know, horror or realism or whatever. So, I'm going to just give you a couple of famous authors, just so you, you know, I'm not just a talking bunk. I, you know, I do some research. I, you know, I'm not just throwing, I'm not just throwing stuff completely off the top of my head. One of them, like, I don't know, I might, like, I decided, I was going to look up different things on the internet. You know, I think Reddit conversations are always kind of entertaining to read. But before doing that, I decided to kind of make my own list and then kind of go out there and see what the world was saying. Stephen King, obviously, since I teach horror, he's always on my mind. But what's great about Stephen King, yeah, he writes all sorts of different things. Now, it's not just, like, the length, right? So, he'll write a big, huge, you know, three-inch-thick novel, but he'll also write short stories. He'll write novellas. He wrote a book just on writing, which, if you've never read it, you need to, because it's freaking hysterical. He also wrote, which, a book that I use as a textbook, The Don'ts Macabre, and it's just about the horror genre. I mean, oh my gosh! Yeah, so, and he, it's interesting because you hear his voice in different ways. And, well, I do think that he would be really fun just to hang out with. You know, just pick his brain and just listen to him and just see what kind of stories, you know, that comes out of that brilliant brain of his. So, Stephen King would be one, right? So, we all know It, or Akujo, or Carrie, or The Shining, all these really famous movies and horror books. But, you know, hi, other ones that he's written. Hi, The Green Mile, right? Shawshank Redemption. He has all of these different things, and they're, you know, and it does, it shows how creative and how talented he is. Another one, and maybe you don't think of this, I was thinking of Barack Obama. Now, I will tell you, he's my favorite president, and I'm not talking politics at all. I'm not even getting into political aspects. I'm not talking at all. The reason I like him is because he's a wordsmith. Like, I could listen to that guy talk all the time. I did listen to his speechwriter give a talk here in Wichita a while back, and I just thoroughly enjoyed it. And, while he did have a speechwriter, he made it his own. You know, he worked with the speechwriter. But, I've also read his books, and I've also listened to his interviews. And, while I may or may not share the same sentiments, I loved the way that he can craft his message. You know, I think he's kind of like an Abe Lincoln of our time, because I do can tell some stories as well. Nobokov, right, the guy, I'm probably not saying his name right. The person that wrote the story, Molita, which is, if you have not read Molita, whoo, little steamy, pretty edgy, right? What's kind of cool about him, he has so many different languages. Like, one thing I did, and I will tell you, I totally found it on the internet, I don't know if it's true, that at least he has at least one book in every single hundredth section of the Dewey Decimal System. Come on, that's pretty cool. Actually, I should probably ask when the librarian's this. You could look at Thomas Hardy, you could look at Shakespeare, Anne Rice, if anybody has ever read her, she did the whole Interview with a Vampire, had a whole vampire series. I really liked The Witching Hour. Oh, love me some witches. But, if you're feeling a little risque, and I mean, the chick's got some backbone, man. She wrote a whole entire erotic series. It was under a different pseudonym, it was like the Sleeping Beauty series, I think there's like three, three or four of them, and you're like, this is not a Harlequin romance, okay? This was not a Fifty Shades of Grey, this was, oh, oh, oh, a completely different level. And, knowing who read it, you know, who wrote it, you're just like, oh my god, that's amazing. Another one you could think of, I'm kind of jumping all over the place here, Roald Dahl, right? You've got Willy Wonka, you've got James and the Giant, Peach, he's got, oh, just this wide, wide range. Another one of my favorites is Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwood, she's written so many things. The Handmaid's Tale, one, the show was fabulous. Nothing like the books. The books, both the first and the second, were just amazing. But, she also writes, excuse me, she also writes short stories. She had a book, it was actually a collection, I think it's called The Furies, and she wrote one of the short stories there, and it was all about like a knitting circle of like harpies, right? So she took all of these, it was great, all of these aspects of names or creatures that are derogatory toward women, and she turned them into a knitting circle. And I thought that was the funniest freaking thing ever, right? So you're like, oh, should the harpies say that the, should the sirens, are the sirens allowed? Well, what about the people that look like Medusa? Are zombies ready to, I just, I don't know, I just thought that was really, really clever. So the thing that's, why, you know, I've given you tons of examples. Why you want to try this exercise out is what I really genuinely think is going to improve your creativity. When you are bored, which I don't know what that's like, but when you are bored, I really genuinely think that means that you need to spend time with your imagination. Your imagination should be like your best friend. It is okay to be by yourself and be alone with your thoughts. Remember, there's a difference between being alone and being lonely, right? Your thoughts are amazing. Like, I am a pretty creative person, but I will tell you time and time and time again, my students blow me out of the water, which I love. I love seeing that challenge. So when you're trying to write in a different genre, whether it is that dreaded essay for English class, enjoy this process, right? Because this is making you a better writer. This is like pushing your imagination. Like, for example, how can you make that seven paragraph essay be funny? Like, I think entertainment value goes a long way in my world, right? It's going to diversify your skills. I've had several people in my creative writing classes over the years that are really into journalism. They are great for like a school newspaper or a yearbook. That is a, it is a glorious skill because I've taught that before too. It is not the same as writing a short story or a poetic phrase. You know, some people, like I love poetry. I do not thrive in structured poetry. Some of it, don't get me wrong, I like, I love like the repetition of three or alliteration. You know, there is some structure that I like, but I don't necessarily like being so structured like a haiku, for example, right? So it is a different type of skill. And then the other, well, there's actually a couple things. I think when you're writing in a different style, in a different genre, you know, I think it's going to change your perspective on things. So as much as I like to dog on haikus, it's going to make me appreciate syllables, right? It's going to be a really easy transition if I want to write a sonnet or if I want to listen to like the newest like rap song. And I can really just, really, not just appreciate the performance, but really appreciate the craft. The craft of the writing scheme and just the content. You know, what are they trying to say? Is it something really, really serious? Or is it something really funny? You know, like you're going to have like a rap song just based off of, I don't know, a Nintendo game. I don't know. It could happen. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, check out MF Doom. The dude's writing is amazing. But finally, why you want to write in different genres is that you're giving yourself more tools in your writing toolbox. Maybe you can crank out like, you know, again, your essay and everything is fine. So maybe a hammer is really all you need. But not every job requires a hammer. Some jobs require a needle nose plier, right? Or one of a really weird screwdriver. Or maybe you just need one huge utility tool that has everything, like a Swiss Army knife. So my goal in asking you to write in a different genre, one, challenge yourself. It can be kind of fun. It could be really frustrating. And maybe you don't ever want to do it ever, ever again. And that's cool. I respect that. But try it out. I do think that you're going to push yourself. And I think that you're going to learn more about yourself, about your writing process. And I think you're also going to really enjoy how malleable and how fluid language can be. Maybe even how limiting language could be. The great thing about writing and the great thing about language is you can do anything with it. You can build someone up. You can destroy somebody. It can be like the epitome of that one drop of water. And maybe that one drop of water is nourishing and wonderful and great. Or maybe that one drop of water is like the torture. And it drives people crazy. And then it ends up making something like the grandkids. You see what I'm saying? There's tons of things that you can do with the writing. And so that's kind of what I'm pushing you. I'm pushing you to try some things out. Maybe expand a little. Go out of our comfort zone because that's where we grow. We grow when we're out of our comfort zone. So push yourself a little bit and pick up a couple more tools. So I hope that you have enjoyed our chat today about exploring different genres. I think it's going to be super, super exciting. And I really look forward to what you do with this. My name is Kenda Faye. I am your host to a cup of creativity in the literary lounge, a place where writing doesn't have to talk. I look forward to reading your next work. Until next time. Bye.