Workshops for Next Semester Already?!?!?!?!?!?!

Hi all!
This is my “OH MY GOD I HAVE TO DECIDE WHICH WORKSHOP TO DO NEXT SEMESTER” post. That being said, I believe I’m going to try for fiction next semester. This is my second poetry workshop and while I’d love to take poetry workshops forever, I do think it’s time for a change of pace. I know some of you guys have taken fiction workshops before, I’m just wondering what you thought of them.
My next concern is literary fiction–as you may be aware, I am a romance kind of writer. I’m trying to work romance-y bits into my pieces without having to overtly call them “romance”. How do you guys avoid genre fiction? Are there certain things I should stay away from while writing literary fiction pieces? I would really appreciate any help you guys can give!
Also, I haven’t written fiction in so long. I used to be more of a fiction writer in high school, but college somehow turned me into a poetry person. Any thoughts on this?
I really want to work to be comfortable writing both but right now I’m so poetry focused I don’t want it to hinder my fiction writing.
Thanks guys!
Arianna

3 Replies to “Workshops for Next Semester Already?!?!?!?!?!?!”

  1. I am also interested in anyone who has the answer to this because I am SUCH a romance (historical, at that) writer. It’s literally terrible. I feel the struggle, so hard.

    BUT you should consider CNF – this is my third semester taking CNF (I’m taking it as a directed study this semester), and honestly I love it more than I ever would have dreamed.

  2. Girl, I completely understand what you mean. College has introduced me to GOOD POETRY which high school absolutely murdered. I think that the imagination I feel when writing fiction is almost easier to express without the restrictions of prose. Words are much more expressive when you have the liberty to ignore sentence structure and verb tenses, I think. However, if you come up with the answer to getting out of the poetry mindset, let me know! I’m totally stuck (not that I mind).

  3. ARIANNA I GOT THIS.

    As a self-proclaimed “Fiction Kid” the adjustment to a straight poetry workshop was a tough one. Figuring out how to come up with critiques and analyses for shorter, language driven, abstract, eiaghpoweghe I was so overwhelmed not being able to focus on the context and craft elements usually deployed in Fiction.

    So here’s my advice, especially since you tend to veer towards the romantic: think of a larger theme than love.

    I’ve written pieces about relationships and break-ups and coping with losses over significant others. But they all had one thing in common, and that was focusing on another central theme throughout the piece *expressed* through love. My girl focused on the memories she had walking under streetlamps and the loss of her last relationship and she realized that she was stronger in the end. She became more confident in who she was as a person. I’ve written stories where characters get together in the end and realize happiness. It’s a fickle subject, especially since romance isn’t as strictly genre fiction as Sci-Fi and Horror are portrayed. I would say, don’t have your character pining after someone else the whole time unless it does something to reveal an important aspect about the character or the theme.

    I just realized this got very scattered in the end. I’m sorry my ideas got jumbly. Feel free to talk to me if you need any advice or have any questions, especially since I just took the Fiction I workshop with Gentry last spring!

    Good luck deciding!!!!

    Yours,
    Marley

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