Try Your Hand at Creative Writing in the New Year

The New Year is upon us and what better time to try something new (or maybe revisit something we’ve set aside) than right now? As I sat here and struggled with what to right about for this post, I realized that maybe I’m not the only one having a hard time finding that spark of inspiration. So I’m going to take the time to share with you some resources from the library that can help anyone who is thinking of taking up writing as a hobby, career choice, or simply a means of self-expression.

Poetry

I will not try to describe what is and is not poetry. We all have a general understanding of what poetry is, but perhaps we do not realize all that it can be. Whether your understanding of poetry comes from the likes of Shakespeare, Keats, Anne Bradstreet, or Maya Angelou, we can all appreciate the many styles and forms that poetry has taken in the past. But what of the future of poetry? Well, you have not written it yet, of course. With the help of these titles, maybe you can change that: My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry & Speaking Your Truth or Creating Poetry

Nonfiction

Nonfiction hardly needs an introduction. Whatever is not conjured from the imagination, but rather pulled from real life is going to fall into this category. But as anyone who has ever had to read a text book can attest, there’s more to writing nonfiction than simply regurgitating information. There is a style to writing nonfiction that keeps a reader interested so they don’t simply hop on the internet and search for a quick and dirty summation of a particular topic. It can be difficult to inject personality and intrigue into things so firmly based in reality. So where does one start? And how does one maintain momentum through the end? For these answers and more, I recommend Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction or The Associate Press Guide to News Writing

Fiction

The exciting thing about fiction is that its only limitation is what one can imagine. But then the problem becomes, how much imagination is too much? Or not enough? We want to keep our stories on some level relatable or aspirational. Something has to connect us to the narrative in front of us. So how do we connect with readers? And how do we create something new while still appealing to the tastes of the masses? We start at the beginning with the basics and work our way up from there. In order to take those first steps, I recommend Writing Your Novel From Start to Finish: A Guidebook for the Journey or Who Gets to Write Fiction?: Opening Doors to Imaginative Writing for All Students.

Screenwriting

Screenwriting is a unique beast because it is a framework of a narrative, but it does not read in the same way that a traditional book might. It is a written medium that is intended to be consumed in some other format, whether that screen be big or small. Because screen writing presents its own unique challenges, it also requires different tricks and tools to make it realize its full potential. So while the previous suggestions may prove to be useful in some capacity, I would also recommend picking up Now Write! Screenwriting  or Scriptnotes: A Book About Screenwriting and Things That Are Interesting to Screenwriters. Both of these books offer advice from industry experts in how to formulate and execute your screenwriting goals.

You can find all of these titles and more right here in the Worcester Public Library. Please feel free to ask a Librarian for assistance when trying to find additional resources. If you are a writer and know of other titles not in our catalog, you are more than welcome to Suggest a Title and our subject librarians will review your suggestion to see if it has a potential home in our collection. Alternatively, with Interlibrary Loan, you have more titles at your fingertips than our building can hold. Ask any of our librarians and we will be happy to assist with tracking down whatever you may find useful.