I've been writing for most of my life, but only seriously for the past two years. Part of the reason it took so long to get serious was because I couldn't decide what to write or what genre to write in. My problem stemmed from the fact that I read across so many genres. I love historical, fantasy, dystopian, realistic, romance, light sci-fi, memoirs, biographies, and I'm sure I left some out, but you get the point.
With so much to choose from, not to mention picture books, how was I supposed to know where to start? I dabbled in a few genres, but nothing felt right. Then one day I started a realistic contemporary YA manuscript (that I never finished) but it all suddenly made sense and I knew I had found my age group and my genre. Don't get me wrong, I believe that one day I may still write something outside my genre (I have so many ideas, one of these days, one of them is bound to permeate my imagination).
For now this is it - me and young adult realism. For better or for worse. Hopefully for better.
What about you? How did you decide your genre and age group?
YA seems to be the genre of the moment, which does mean there's a lot of competition out there, but also a huge audience. And of course lots of other writers to talk to. As a guy writing contemporary fiction it's a lot more lonely in the blogosphere, I can tell you. Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteregards,
mood
I got both my genres when I was sick. I was doing a master's and had a lot of heavy reading with that. In my spare time, I read lots of YA and women's contemporary fiction, I liked the triumphing over adversity part, and I started to write in those genres. I felt I'd found my voice, and I continue to write in those genres now.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much just wrote what I love. For me, superhero fiction became the basis for my novel, though I'll write sci fi, fantasy, and horror, too. But super heroes is what I grew up exposed to, in both television and comic book formats. It's little wonder how that would be where I want to spend much of my writing career dabbling.
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