Freedom In Lyricism: My Highlights Foundation Novel-In-Verse Journey

One place that I find deep-dive author-illustrator relevant courses is Highlight Foundations. The Highlights hosts virtual courses as well as in-person retreats.

One series of deep dive courses that I took at Highlights Foundation are Novel-In-Verse courses taught by Cordelia Jensen.

In these courses, we were able to not on get introduced to the Novel-In-Verse, but we also submitted our Novel-In-Verse pieces and workshopped them with Cordelia and the class.

These Novel-In-Verse classes gave me life. They gave me the ability to use my poetic storytelling side to tell stories. There is a freedom that I’ve found with writing In-Verse which aligns to my poetic side.

One thing I truly love about the Novel-In-Verse method of storytelling is that I’m able to cultivate my lyrical writing side - but I don’t have to rhyme.

I’ve taken many rhyming classes and tested out rhyming on a story or two, but don't have the ear to maintain consistent meter. But the ability to write in Free Verse and test out a variety of poetic forms has given me a creative outlet for my voice.