Notes From Crew Quarters: Genre Struggles

This week, Associate Fiction Editor Ethan Brightbill asked our editors and contributors what genre challenges or intimidates them the most.

Jason Teal, Associate Fiction Editor

Nonfiction, for sure. Lyrical, precise images and reflections, alongside effective research, are stuff that floor me and make nonfiction one of the most fascinating genres out there. People who consistently make nonfiction exciting are the real heroes.

Hayli Cox, Associate Nonfiction Editor

I find fiction the most intimidating. The limits of poetry and nonfiction drive me to creativity, but fiction leaves me filled with ideas in front of a blank page for hours.

Krys Malcolm Belc, Associate Fiction Editor

Poetry, because I really have to write quite a lot of words to make any kind of sense at all.

Jacqueline Boucher, Managing Editor

Long-form unsegmented fiction is miraculous to me. I think in units of paragraphs, and I don't understand how it is people can sustain an idea or an image for pages and pages at a time. The world building and character development aspects of fiction seem fun, but it's just so many words all at once, I get intimidated.

Tianli Kilpatrick, Associate Nonfiction Editor

Fiction. I think lyrically and in fragments, so putting together something lengthy and still coherent baffles me. I find an easier connection between nonfiction and poetry.

Elisha Sheffer, Associate Fiction Editor

Hands down nonfiction. I have a hard enough time facing reality off the page, writing is the one time I can shake off the limitations and let my mind wander wherever it pleases. I will always be immensely impressed and astounded by the writers that have enough discipline to spend their time in the nonfiction world.