Series

Consider writing a series. Write about different kinds of fruit, animals in the zoo, musical instruments, things that are blue. You can use encyclopedic entries, poems, vingettes, even novels if you're feeling daring.

A series of related works has a number of benefits. For one thing, it gives you something to write about. If you find yourself stuck, not sure what to write, you have a list of possibilities. Well, I wrote about violas yesterday and I don't feel like writing about the cello. Maybe I'll write about the harp. No, I think I'll go for the marimba. No matter what the reason or how you feel, there's almost always another entry you could write about.

A series doesn't have to be by subject, though. Maybe it's the way you treat a piece. Do a series of interviews. You could interview Benjamin Franklin, that random woman you see in the grocery store and never talk to, a #2 pencil, and one of those birds that sound like a seesaw when they chirp. We can all imagine what Ben would say. We can all take a guess at what the random woman might say. But what would a pencil have to say to you? What would you even ask it? Let your series force you to think in unusual ways. Let it make you do something new.

Because a series is naturally going to have a common thread through it, we have the ability to create an aura. Different pieces have different feels to them, like different rooms in a house. But in a series, we can create a whole house instead of merely rooms.

Ironically, because a series has a common thread through it, we also have the ability to do whatever we please. They're already connected, so now we can explore just how different similar things can be.

It's a fun experiment. If you want to give it a shot, go for it. If you think it's dumb, but you have nothing better to do, you might as well give it a shot, too.