Take A Risk Tuesday: Read Outside Your Comfort Zone

In college I took a film class on Western's and Horror, my two least favorite genres.  When the instructor juxtaposed  Carrie, Psycho and Videodrome  against Shane, Unforgiven and The Ballad of Little Joe, I was well out of my comfort zone. This happened again when I chose a class on popular culture and found myself learning about the origins of Punk and Rap music. Was I converted? Did I find myself dying my hair hot pink and saying, yo yo sista? Do I now thirst for Zombies and John Wayne? 

Rest assured I have retained my own tastes, I'm still me. I am a different me, more open to other points of view and I celebrate the diversity that is our human race. I love that when I look around I don't see homogenized versions of myself. My writing is better for it, at least I think so. 

So, today I challenge you to choose your next book from out of your normal genre of choice. If you've never read a romance, read one. Try some steampunk. (I just learned what this is!)

How far will you step out of your comfort zone?

Why I Write For Middle School

Tweet There are many reasons I have chosen to  focus on middle school writing.  Each reason plays a vital role in my development as a writer and I hope you find them interesting. Since there are too many for one blog post I will be giving you small glimpses into my paradigm in hopes that you will share yours with me. 

     Some of my earliest memories are my mother as she read to us. I remember the way she brought each character to life with only the sound of her voice. I think that's where my siblings and I learned to create voices. Get all of us in a room and you quickly learn that we have a unique way of communicating; we love to imitate inflection and sounds of voices other than our own. We seem to have a knack for putting words in other peoples mouths by imitating not just what we think they would say but how they would say it. This often is confusing for people that don't "get us". (Sometimes mistaken for multiple personality disorder.) In any event, we have all become expert observers of behavior and communication. 

     When the Harry Potter series first came out, I immediately began reading this to my children. This was long before Hogwarts was a household word.  I found her characters easily brought to life by my repertoire of voices. So distinct were my voices that when the first movie came out, my children complained that the voice of Dobby was all wrong. These characters changed and grew up with my children which made them incredibly compelling. 


     The huge changes and growth that occur during the middle school years are ideal for creating characters with conflict.  

 Do your early memories play a role in your writing? Does anybody else create voices for their characters?