Creative Writing

PART5

Long-Form Genres

Now that we’ve studied the shorter, self-contained genres of creative writing, it’s time to get a little more ambitious and consider several of those same genres in their longer manifestations, which is most often a book.

That might sound like an intimidating prospect, but when you break it down and think of a memoir or novel as the best parts of a big story, or a poetry or essay collection as your very best poems and essays, suddenly the task is more about assembling and organizing smaller parts than sitting down a typing a book beginning to end.

In Part 5, we consider the best strategies for putting together different genres in their longer forms, whether that’s a novel, a collection, a play, and so on. Likely, the idea ...