If you want to be a better, you can’t be a one-trick pony. You have to explore other forms of writing. Test yourself. Develop new characters. Enrich existing ones. Make them deeper, rounder, more lifelike.
Find new angles, too. Take subjects with which you’re familiar and look for new ways into them. A frontal assault with statistics and the latest reports from Gartner and Forrester. Maybe that’s the norm for you. Something different, then. A dash into an alley, a beginning that illustrates the case, proves the point, sets up your thesis statement.
Above all, don’t get stuck in a rodeo with a one-trick pony. He’s a good pony—he keeps you grounded and prevents you from perpetually fluttering from one thing to another. He acts as an anchor in the midst of all this testing and experimentation, but don’t be afraid to cast off from him.
He’s always there and always will be, although it may take some time to get back to him. Sometimes, you get far, far away from your tried-and-true short, violent lines. That’s okay. You can find your way back again. Those lines don’t disappear. You have authors to read who can help you return to old forms and learn new ones.
The point: don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t be scared to leave your one-trick pony. Ride a bucking bronco. Break a wild mustang. Get on the bull. Gallop across the Sahara on the back of a black stallion. Meander the paddock with a miniature horse. Maybe put a horse-door in your house; maybe not. Do something, though. Don’t get stuck. Don’t be a one-trick pony.
Image: Tim Green (Creative Commons)
[…] drawing attention to their terrifying beauty. In addition, I claim no small obsession with finding new angles to see and write about […]