Poetry is hard. For many starting writers it’s just downright daunting to look at the works of writers such as T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman: those towering giants of literature with an almost mythic tone attached to their names.

For the writers, like me, who have found their path in spoken word, the likes of Sierra DeMulder, Bao Phi and Jamaal May also cast a long shadow and it can be a terrifying prospect, to try and be like, or better than them.

But, these idols are just people. Like us, they too have people they want to be. People they look up to. Like us, they are human; they have bad writing days; weeks; even months. But being able to pull yourself out of that is the first big step towards making.

Here is a list of places to find the tools to step upon your own path to becoming a recognized name like these fine poets.

Button Poetry is one of the greatest sites for young and aspiring spoken word artists to get their fix of new and passionate voices. It’s where many artists aspire to be. A serious voice in the community, this site holds great influence on a national level. Pay attention to it and its trends you could go far.

If spoken word isn’t your thing, the web has got you covered on print as well.

The Loft Literary Center, both online and in person, is one of the greatest tools a writer in the Twin Cities could hope for.

Open Book also houses many creative avenues for writers.

Another, widely loved publication that you can use on a laptop or on the go is the Poem A Day collections.
This is a wonderful bunch of work that gets pushed out everyday, rain or shine. If you’re looking to have your work published this is a great place to land a piece of work, and you never know when it could show up to anyone holding the app … instant global recognition!

Another place to start is within yourself with a bit of music. A trick that has worked wonders for me over the years is the building of a playlist: crafting from your iPod songs that can help get your mind moving in a creative space.

Craft a list of 25 songs or as close as you can get to an hour and a half.
Set aside time in the day and allow yourself 30 minutes to just walk around your writing space enveloped in the music and energy.
Then, sit down to write for that hour.
At the end you’ll have something. It may not be your best, but I guarantee it will be a good starting point for some solid work.

With these sites to get you started on your own way, you’ll be able to get a grasp on what you want and then start working toward it.

There was a fairy tale revival in Hollywood, roughly five years ago at this point. During this period TV shows like Once Upon a Time came into being, along with multiple versions of the same fairy tale. Around 2011, the fairy tale was Little Red Riding Hood.

Once Upon a Time created its own version of the tale, adding in additional characters, like Peter (from Peter and the Wolf). Other notable adaptations were Catherine Hardwick’s ill received movie, Red Riding Hood, with Amanda Seyfried as the protagonist, Valerie. A novel of the same title was released after the film and did about as well.

But this trend towards fairy tales isn’t limited to Hollywood, especially since almost everything, TV show or movie, seems to be based on a novel or short story. Writers have been listing towards fairy tales for years, each author putting their own specific spin on a tale of their choosing.

Below are some of my favorite authors who take fairy tales to another level.

Marissa Meyer : The Lunar Chronicles 

I’m not going to lie, I became completely obsessed with this series when I finally got around to reading it. It’s a quartet of books following the storyline of Cinder, a cyborg mechanic who is much more than she seems. There are two additional books that have been released, Fairest, and more recently, Stars Above—a collection of short stories about characters introduced in the other books. Meyer is set to release a new book, Heartless, that takes place in Wonderland and tells the story of the Queen of Hearts before she took the throne. Unfortunately, Heartless won’t be released until November. So until then, read the rest of the books. And then come back so we can obsess together.

Jackson Pearce : Sisters Red, Sweetly, Fathomless, Cold Spell

I came across Sisters Red by pure chance. What I didn’t know at the time was how much this book would influence me. Sisters Red is the book that inspired me to write my novel. Pearce’s novels aren’t “sequels” but rather companions to one another. They all follow the same family, and most of the characters are related to one another, directly or indirectly. In my opinion, the best way to read them is as listed above.

Neil Gaiman : The Sleeper and the Spindle

Neil Gaiman is the master of creepy, in my personal opinion, and anything by him, including a fairy tale re-telling will prove his excellence. The Sleeper and the Spindle is Gaiman’s take on Sleeping Beauty, complete with spindly illustrations. Although the book is formatted in the same style as a picture book, it is classified as a YA book and set to be released later this year, on September 8th. Gaiman also released a short story, Snow, Glass, Apples, based on Snow White. Gaiman turns the tale on its head in a fashion similar to The Sleeper and the Spindle.

Now, what about you? Who are some of your favorite authors who deal with fairy tales? Favorite books series inspired by fairy tales? If one of your favorites isn’t posted here, feel free to share and sound off in the Facebook comments.

As writers, we can learn from any medium that uses solid storytelling.

Hopefully by now it’s been well established that video games attract folks from all walks of life. You don’t need to be male. You don’t need to be a “nerd.” You don’t even need to have good hand-eye coordination. In my experience, even my understanding of humanity has been enriched by gaming. Here are just a few examples of high quality narratives in gaming.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)

In this role-playing game, you start off as a prisoner with amnesia. You are the only survivor of a massive explosion and you have a glowing green mark on your hand. The lack of memory is brilliant because you as the player get to unravel these and other questions with your character. Through the events of the game you become the Inquisitor, and it’s up to you to stop an evil dude from destroying the world.

You can recruit up to nine companions for your team, and you can build relationships with all of them. Romance is also a possibility. Depending on your gender and race, you can choose between eight potential partners. That means that YES, the Inquisition includes canonical gay, lesbian, and bisexual members of your inner circle. This game has a transgender character too.

It’s a bummer that Inquisition sticks out in this way, because you’d think in an industry where you can digitally design characters and worlds however you want, white male protagonists wouldn’t remain the norm. Diversity is important in any creative medium – representing a variety of people affirms that the stories of marginalized voices deserve to be heard.

Inquisition is most successful in its world and character building, so fiction writers especially can learn from it. You can also check out an article about the game’s writing here.

Heavy Rain (2010)

If you’ve never been into video games, I highly recommend giving this one a shot. It’s so narrative based that it feels like an interactive movie. This unique game deals with the Origami Killer, a serial killer who abducts young boys before drowning them in rainwater several days later. Shaun Mars has been kidnapped, and you play as four different characters racing to rescue Shaun and catch the Origami Killer.

The game has more than a dozen possible endings, and every choice you make will have consequences. Switching between Shaun’s father, an FBI agent, a private detective, and a journalist, the stakes become incredibly high as you learn each character’s motivation. As you play, the clock is ticking down to Shaun’s murder. Heavy Rain shows how strong emotion can be evoked when the player is implicated in the events of the story – that applies to any audience, including readers.

If the supernatural sounds better than crime/mystery/thriller, the same company also made a game called Beyond Two Souls.

The Wolf Among Us (2014)

Based on Bill Willingham’s comic book series, Fables, and set as a prequel, this series is an adult reimagining of a plethora of fairy tales. You play as Bigby Wolf (the reformed Big Bad Wolf), the unpopular sheriff of Fabletown. Together with other “fables” including Snow White, Ichabod Crane, Beauty and the Beast, and a flying monkey from Oz, it’s your job to investigate one of the only murders in Fabletown history.

This game illustrates the possibilities in playing with tropes. Every fairy tale reference is somehow flipped or revealed to be more complicated, whether it’s Bigby’s strained relationship with one of the three little pigs, or his Hulk-like transformations from human to wolf (that he tries to avoid).

I used this opportunity as a writing exercise.
Take a well-known myth or story and begin with the idea, “that’s not the way it happened.”
This could easily spark an essay or poem.
It’s also fun to research the origins of these tales and incorporate your findings into your piece.

Telltale Games has also released episodic games based on the worlds of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. Each episode functions like a chapter or an issue, so these games show the advantages and disadvantages of releasing work in a serial format.

What are some games you love that have powerful narratives? Let us know in the Facebook comments!

I didn’t know I wanted to be a writer …

except for when I was in middle school and high school, but never in college. I had planned to be a biology major doing the pre-med track during my years at Hamline; but as the years went on, I saw that I wasn’t happy doing science or its required labs.

In the spring semester of my sophomore year, I took a creative writing class with Deborah Keenan and realized what my passion was again. It was writing. When I was in Deborah’s class I was able to relax and pour my thoughts and feelings onto the page.

I was a writer again.

Since then, I have changed majors and decided to be a poet. I loved writing poems—because they were mine—but it was also hard to be a poet with homework from other classes getting in the way. Even so, I still managed to find time to write here and there. Shortly after becoming a poet, I discovered I was pregnant.

You can guess how that changed my life.

I had another reason to write. My writing blossomed in a way I never thought it would, because I had someone to write for besides myself. I wanted my writing to document my days leading up to meeting my daughter. Time flew. As quickly as she arrived—so went the time I had dedicated for my writing.

Life after having a baby:

The constant diaper changes, the feedings every two hours, and the burping … now that was my life times two because I also had to finish my junior year, and keep working my part-time job. There was definitely no time to write, or so you’d think.

It took me a while, but I learned how to squeeze a little time for writing while trying to be a mother and student.

First: You learn what time your baby likes to sleep, or put them on a schedule (that helps A LOT, trust me).

 

Second: Write everything that you have done in your day and everything that your child has done (all these notes will help later on).

 

Third: Always have a notebook ready just in case you need to write something down, especially if your baby takes their first step, or says their first words. (Heck—or maybe they just did something funny or cute!) You can have one in your diaper bag, beside the crib, in the kitchen—you know, typically the mom area.

 

Lastly: Cherish every moment and help capture that.

By writing down small observations of your day for at least five minutes, you can get so many ideas onto paper. This will lead to so many memorable poems of you and your child.

I admit, as my daughter gets older, this gets harder. Ever since she started walking, she likes to dig in everything in sight and grab everything. But as she changes, so will I. I will find new strategies.

I was and am able to be a mother, a writer, and a college student with a new baby. I am a mother writer.

It’s that time of year again. Winter is finally over. The days are longer, the birds are chirping a little louder, and the sun shines just a little brighter. Everything is perfect, and then you remember graduation is (or was) around the corner. Suddenly the springtime is filled with dread and doubt because you chose a creative writing major and don’t know what to do next. After all, people everywhere seem to assume that a degree in creative writing is a degree in unemployment. Well, I’m here to tell you to worry not! There are plenty of career paths for a fearless, creative person like yourself.

Because of the endless number of career opportunities and my limited word count, here are some possible paths to choose from, listed from most to least obvious. (Note: jobs three through seven are listed on the website insidejobs.com.)

Published Writer

This one is probably the most obvious. I’d be willing to bet every creative writing student has dreamed of writing his or her own book, and while this is certainly a wonderful dream, not many authors do well enough to make a living off of it. If this is your goal in life (as it is mine), keep at it, but make sure you have a backup plan like some of the following possibilities.

Graduate School

Although technically not a career, graduate school is one option to further your education and point you down the track you want to be on. It isn’t a requirement for most careers, but if you want to pursue a career in education (especially at the college level) it is a necessity.

Teaching

I can’t count the number of people who when I’ve said I major in English and Creative Writing ask me if I want to be a teacher. While I answer ‘no,’ other people may say ‘yes.’ Teaching creative writing at a high school or college is a rewarding option that can help pay the bills. You don’t even have to limit yourself to teaching in schools because there are plenty of community writing programs you can be a part of.

Volunteering is a great way to get your foot in the door. For example, you could teach creative writing at a prison, such as the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, or at your local community center. Once you’ve got a bit of experience, you can start looking for further opportunities.

Greeting Card Writer

Maybe you’re the kind of writer who likes to touch others with your words. Whether you like to make people laugh or cry, writing greeting cards may be just the job you’re looking for (even if it’s just to pay bills while you write your novel). According to Inside Jobs, you need nothing more than an Associate’s Degree to pursue this career, and you can work for a greeting card company or work freelance.

Independent Filmmaker

You don’t have to be in Hollywood to write movies. If you’ve always had a passion for film, you can write your own script and pitch the idea to investors. While you may end up funding the project yourself, you can always film the movie and then send it out to a distribution company for purchasing. If nobody bites, you can also share it online.

Television News Producer

If you have a Bachelor’s degree in creative writing and a passion for spreading important news, then working as a television news producer may be for you. You won’t be front and center, but you’ll be the one controlling and editing the topics of the day.

Music Video Director

This one’s a little more out there, but hey, creative writing is a pretty imaginative major. According to Inside Jobs, all you need is a bachelor’s degree to pursue your dream of directing the music video for Hollywood’s next Taylor Swift. Alright, so maybe you won’t be working in Hollywood, but you’ll never know until you try.

After reading about these seven career options

I hope you are feeling even more confident in your choice of major because I think creative writing is one of the best majors you could choose. Not only have you chosen something you love, but there’s a world of possibilities out there for you. There is little need for you to worry; as long as you’re willing to put in the work, you will find a path you love.

[Editor’s note: Don’t forget that writers have a long history of supporting their habit with “day jobs.” Stephen King was a janitor; George Saunders “worked in a slaughterhouse, as a doorman in Beverly Hills, writing up animal tests for a pharmaceutical company, as a roofer, a convenience store clerk etc., etc.“; Suzanne Collins wrote TV shows for kids; and Margaret Atwood (like many of us) worked in a coffee shop. Here are some other jobs that writers had before launching their writing careers: 24 Famous Writers.]