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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Alternate Writing Markets As a short story writer/ novelist/ columnist/ (bad) poet, I tend to write with a particular audience in mind. My work appears in books and magazines and online spaces, where the work is chosen/curated by publishers/ editors and I (mostly) get paid, even if a pittance. I have also discussed in the past writing screenplays and stage plays. But there are other things you can write that can lead to markets for your writing. So, let’s look at a few you might want to investigate. First is one I used to do. I wrote for a few professional wrestling organisations. Yes, wrestling. The matches in wrestling do not exist in isolation. There are stories to create reasons for two (or more) people to fight, and stories intertwine, allegiances shift, you need to be able to make changes when injuries occur or people leave – it is an intense and fascinating world to write for. Second is another one I used to do – write choreography for performance acts. It’s not just a matter of putting together a bunch of things that look cool; you need to make the way things work follow a narrative that can engage the audience. Cool stuff loses impact; a through-story helps keep them engaged. And third is the last one I have done before, and that is stand-up comedy. It used to be that you could get on stage and tell a string of jokes, but the alternative comedy of the 1960s saw that change to stand-up routines having a through-tale of sorts. So, you need to be funny, have funny jokes, and have them somehow be connected. It is not as easy as it sounds! But it is so much fun performing your own words and having a crowd laughing. So, next is writing for video games. I have an acquaintance who does that for one of the local companies, and he tells me that it is not easy, but when you see your work on a screen, it is so satisfying. It becomes like a choose-your-own-adventure writing task, but all choices either end in death or at the same final boss. Complex, but worth investigating. Next is something that used to be huge, then almost died, and is not coming back, and that’s audio plays. They used to be for radio, but now more and more podcasts are doing it. Now, this is different to stage and screen writing, because you need to include audio clips and there is nothing visual. You have to paint a word picture through dialogue and audio atmosphere. I have always wanted to try this, but am not sure really if I could, so I haven’t. Next is writing for graphic novels. This is an interesting thing to try, and I have done a course teaching how, but have not done one. As the writer, if you work with an artist, then it is completely collaborative. You have a story outlined (which is why I struggle) and work together on characters, scenes, visuals, dialogue, etc. However, I know at least one company in Australia used to get people to write for them, and then they assigned an artist. You need to write with a panel system, the 3*3 panel, and with merged panels thrown in to stop boredom, with descriptions of the images, then trust the artist. The Australian company used to do horror comics with 4-6 stories per issue, so it wasn’t a full graphic novel; I believe some might exist in the US still. And finally is writing poetry for slams. This differs from just writing poetry in that there has to be a performance component. When Kate Tempest does their script for their slam performances, they include body actions, sounds they have to do, facial expressions, where they move, etc. It is even more involved than a stand-up comedy script! Back “in my day” a poetry slam was just reading a poem loudly. Nowadays, it is full-on performance. So, I hope that intrigues some people to give other options a go. . |
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