Cross-training

The other day I read an interview with author Sherman Alexie, whose novel The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven I had read years ago.  I best knew Alexie as a novelist  (I’m halfway through his YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) but in the interview he said that if he could make a living doing it, he’d be a poet.  I never knew he wrote poems, though I’m excited to read some of his poetry collections, including Face. In addition to being a delightful surprise, Alexie’s statement got me thinking.

I started out writing poetry, and have more recently written longer novels (2 middle grades and a YA).  Like Alexie I feel frustration that poetry doesn’t have a very strong market, but it doesn’t stop me from writing it.  I love how you can get so much impact out of a few words, and the fact that a line break can create a mood in itself.  I think writing different things is a great way of cross-training – like running and weight lifting for the mind.  I think the poet’s eye for detail and word choice can strenghten narrative skills.

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