Genre

[Liot]

This is different to 'what is your favourite gender'

What I would like to know is: what makes you write in a particular genre? And why?

Fran Connor

[ALynnPowers]

For me personally, I don't really "choose" the genre that I write in. It kind of chooses me. I write about things that happen in my dreams (I have REALLY vivid dreams all the time) and whatever happens to come into my mind is what I write about. It's not something I consciously decide.

[bookomania]

ALynnPowers, I am with you there. Some of my best writing has come from vivid dreams . I also don't have a genre that I could say is mine. Sometimes I write erotic stories, other times I write funny stories while other times I start writing even before I know what genre of story I am writing. For a developing writer, I think it is a bit restrictive to choose a genre before you are proficient in it. After all, diversity is always a good thing.

[ALynnPowers]

ALynnPowers, I am with you there. Some of my best writing has come from vivid dreams . I also don't have a genre that I could say is mine. Sometimes I write erotic stories, other times I write funny stories while other times I start writing even before I know what genre of story I am writing. For a developing writer, I think it is a bit restrictive to choose a genre before you are proficient in it. After all, diversity is always a good thing.

Yay! I knew I wasn't alone on this! I am definitely the same with writing a story without even knowing what genre it is. I'm actually not a big fan of stories that are cut-and-dry members of a certain genre. Does that even make sense? I mean, I like writing stories (and reading them as well) that cross between different genres. Like, contemporary fantasy mystery or something.

[milliethom]

I wish I could sleep for long enough to have such exciting dreams. I rarely remember what I dream, and when I do, nothing about it makes sense! That aside, I love historical fiction. For me, it's almost like fantasy - a different time period in which everything is so different to our own. I've enjoyed fantasy novels, too, and to put my powers of deduction to the test I read (but wouldn't write) crime novels.

[CountryGrl]

I'm actually a diehard romantic and I absolutely love writing like it's one of my fantasies so that's why i mostly write romances and novellas along that nature. I also have family who are romance writers so they can help me out in certain areas.

[milliethom]

Although I love historical fiction, and write it myself, I'm more open when it comes to my reading. As I said, I'm happy to read a good fantasy or crime novel, or even a good 'general' fiction or Sci-fi. Romance comes into many stories - it's part of life, after all - but I wouldn't choose a novel devoted entirely to it.

[ALynnPowers]

I wish I could sleep for long enough to have such exciting dreams. I rarely remember what I dream, and when I do, nothing about it makes sense! That aside, I love historical fiction. For me, it's almost like fantasy - a different time period in which everything is so different to our own. I've enjoyed fantasy novels, too, and to put my powers of deduction to the test I read (but wouldn't write) crime novels.

99% of what I dream about doesn't make sense either! Or it's just a dream where I am trying to find the bathroom in my old high school or something. So dumb.

I have genres I would read but not write as well. Can't give examples right now because my mind went blank. Maybe I wouldn't write something like "chick lit" but I would read it as long as it was interesting enough. There. That's it. I should sleep now. It's 4am. Sun will be up soon...

[MaryMathis]

I am very new in writing now learning on how to write. All this kind of writing I feel to write when I was completely in the form to write.

[RussetDivinity]

I write mostly (almost solely) fantasy and science fiction, just because I think I can explore things better in those than I could in literary fiction. If I want to write a novel with Bernoulli's Principle as the foundation of a theme, for instance, it's a lot easier to work with the four classical elements than it is to find a way to work rate of flow into a contemporary fiction novel. I can also be a little more overt about things.

[moderntimes]

Well, my favorite "gender" is women, as my girlfriend (snoozing on the sofa) would attest, ha ha.

And suspense or mysteries are my fave genre, because I love realistic action stories and therefore don't care much for fantasy. So mysteries the most, both to read and to write (I've just finished my 3rd private eye novel). I read tons of mysteries, too, as I'm a reviewer for a mystery e-zine and I was on the review committee for a mystery writer's association.

Second fave used to be SF but I can't find "legit" science fiction anymore, as it's all fantasy nowadays and I cannot abide sorcerers or swords and elves or similar.

My central interests (besides mainstream literature and science books and history) are any sort of modern action thriller, which usually is in the "mystery" genre.

[ALynnPowers]

I write mostly (almost solely) fantasy and science fiction, just because I think I can explore things better in those than I could in literary fiction. If I want to write a novel with Bernoulli's Principle as the foundation of a theme, for instance, it's a lot easier to work with the four classical elements than it is to find a way to work rate of flow into a contemporary fiction novel. I can also be a little more overt about things.

Bernoulli's Principle as the theme? Sounds like a winner!
As much as I love science, I should be much more into science fiction!

[moderntimes]

I write mostly (almost solely) fantasy and science fiction, just because I think I can explore things better in those than I could in literary fiction. If I want to write a novel with Bernoulli's Principle as the foundation of a theme, for instance, it's a lot easier to work with the four classical elements than it is to find a way to work rate of flow into a contemporary fiction novel. I can also be a little more overt about things.

Russet, check the net for Theodore Sturgeon and "Sturgeon's Law" and the interview he gave that rose to the famous Law. Sturgeon said exactly the same thing as you did -- that SF allowed him to range further.

[KS Crooks]

I write in the areas I like to read. I also like to write about things I enjoy doing or wish I was better at doing. I love Sci-fi and fantasy, but because I have a science background I sometimes let logic and my knowledge of real current knowledge of science get in the way of my telling a story. With fantasy I feel completely free to make a story how I want it to be.

[moderntimes]

Well, just as a sidebar comment, KS, but sometimes fantasy writers (especially those who are fairly new at the game) may "over-create" and just toss any sort of concept or world or civilization or individuals onto the page without cementing this in some sort of "conceit" (the literary term for the justification for what's going on), and thereby lose the reader. And as a result the writing becomes slapdash and lacks coherent reasons for things to exist. Any top rank fantasy writer works hard to develop an "believable" foundation for the story line, even though it's fantasy. Some writers think "It's fantasy, anything goes!" and paint themselves (and their readers) into corners.

A great example of this was with the TV series "Lost" -- it was of course a fantasy at the outset (not SF) and so certain things were "allowed" that lay outside of hard core reality or even the extensions to reality that lie within traditional SF. So we had smoke monsters and polar bears and whatever, and whenever the writers created a sticking place (due to their lack of discipline) then they were forced to create yet another more preposterous explanation for what had just occurred, and then a further and more loose-logic explanation for THAT event, and eventually it got plain silly.

Some new writers forget that even their fantasy characters (elves, etc) must have genuine emotions and thoughts that make sense and would be acceptable as coherent behavior in the "real world". And the story lines cannot just soar to any fanciful plateau without a reasonable basis for those plot elements. I'm of course sure that you already know these principles.