First there was the letter, a single letter, and it was good. Then the writer made a word and it was better. The word begat another, and another, until a sentence was made and it had a form.
Yes, I realize some people may consider the above borderline blasphemous, but it gets my point across, I think.
No matter what we write, it has a form. We might not know what to call it. We might think it is something we have developed ourselves. Writing without form makes little sense.
The forms divide themselves into three major categories:
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Fiction
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Nonfiction
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Poetry
The forms are further broken down into genres and subforms. Each has its own rules that we either follow or break, depending on how well we can work within them and if we know how to determine when they can be broken.
There are some who will say rules can never be broken. There are others who will argue they can and indeed must be in order for the forms to evolve.
Personally, I agree with the latter, though sometimes I think things can be taken too far.
Since I have designated Fridays for posts on forms, I’ll start next week with a form and spend some time on it. These entries will not be exhaustive definitions of the form. That’s not possible for this kind of space. What I hope to do is provide a definition, my interpretation of the form, possibly how to use it, and an example or two.
This is something I decided needed to be done for my own creative journey. If you want to come along, feel free. Meet me here next Friday.
Filed under: writing , create, creative journey, creativity, fiction, form, Jen Nipps, jennipps, letter, nonfiction, poetry, sentence, word, write, writer, writing
