Branch Out! For your Writing and for Fun

You probably found me, my services and this blog because you are a fiction writer. As a fiction writer, it makes sense for you to read other fiction books and books about improving your writing. I aim to either share resources or be part of the resources that will help you with your writing, but I also have a tip: Even if you are mainly focused on writing fiction in the form of prose, you still need to branch out your perspective with different mediums to unlock all of your creativity and possibilities.

I consider that all mediums people use to share stories have their own strengths and weaknesses, have their own "rules" and their own way to draw the audience in; but even if you are only focused on one or two of those mediums, you should still be aware of the different ways a story can be told. It can give you new ideas and improve your craft.

Let's say you are a science fiction writer: you have read all the science fiction books and the books about writing science fiction, but you're still stuck in your manuscript. Branching out to different mediums can let you see things you have seen before from a new perspective. Science fiction comics can give you an idea on how people have been picturing different world from science fiction for years, science fiction games can give you an idea on how a person would interact with futuristic technology and how the characters explain the story behind the technology, and science fiction shows and movies can give you new ideas about dialects or traditions that may exist in the future. You can take elements of all these stories and use them as inspiration for your own stories. Even if they are different mediums, their writing style can be an inspiration for your creative process.

Plus, you get to discover new stories! You'll see ideas similar to yours and ideas that you would have never imagined. That variety sounds fun, doesn't it?

This idea is also useful for editors, take me as an example. When I edit and think of advice for my clients, I do my best to think outside the box. Why only rely on from what I've learned from books when I have learned some much from different mediums. Video games have showed me the layers that can exist in an unreliable narrator, comics and manga have showed me the different ways a character can have a moment of introspection, animation has showed me how to control the pacing of a scene, etc.

The same goes for translating: I'm not a song writer by any means, but listening to songs in different languages and covers of the original songs in different languages help me as a translator. Thanks to branching out in music, I gain more understanding of the translating process, discover new words in English, Spanish and other languages, and get more ideas on how to translate complex pieces. And you know, I get to listen to amazing music!

Branching out will not only help your writing and editing, it will make life more fun as well!