Thread: Genre

Do you stick to one genre or style in your writing?


I am all over the place, not just in my writing. In my business I had to limit the types of items that I was producing because it ended up being too much. So now I do mostly purses and bags.

So I have to wonder if limiting my writing to one genre would be a good idea.

It can help to build up your brand as a published author if you write in one genre or a small range of genres. If you have no plans to be published, I wouldn't worry about it, but if you do, you should look up some of the discussions on the topic.

Personally, I write in a very broad range, though the majority of my projects are confined to speculative fiction.

I don't plan on limiting myself to writing in one genre because I feel there might be a genre out there that I might be good at writing that I haven't taken the time to try. I write dark fiction as of now because I am comfortable writing it but that doesn't mean I can't write anything else. I don't plan on being published traditionally. I definitely going to go about it on my own make my novels into serial novels so my readers can read everything online and then I will make it into an ebook after its done.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I tend to think that I will end up doing as you Ilasir. I know that in my business life that limiting has reduced my stress level considerable. And I could really use a reduction in stress right about now.

My main focus is Fantasy and Science Fiction (my novel Flank Hawk is classified as fantasy), but I've written and had short stories published that were in other genres besides SF/fantasy--horror, mystery, and inspirational.

Write the stories that you want to tell, and possibly get published. I'd worry more about branding once you've begun to break out and have found your niche. Of course common sense would suggest if, for example, you write erotica and want to publish Christian Inspirational Fiction or possibly YA, then maybe a pen name for one of the genres might be in order.

Terry

One thing I'd suggest (along with the idea of writing the books that most want you to write them) is that it's a bit early to worry about diversifying your brand and all that before getting anything published.

If you're got a SciFi and a romance and a boring historical saga in your mind, why not write all three and see if any of them get signed? If one does--there's a direction for you. If not, why reject writing books you enjoy in order to shape a career that isn't happening yet?