Writers and Authors. How many genres do you prefer to write for and why?

akbowens · Nov 17, 2011

Personally, though I'm beginning with heroic fantasy, I could see dabbling in horror and scifi.

You?

KellyAssauer · Nov 17, 2011

As of right this minute... four
-but that might change.

Why?
Because I can. =)

whimsical rabbit · Nov 17, 2011

Literary/mainstream contemporary for me.

I do have ideas combining fantasy elements but they are still anthropocentric, in the sense that they would still fit in the literary or general fiction category, if that makes any sense?

I just like to write about character(s), that's all. :tongue

LadyDae · Nov 17, 2011

Right now, I'm into romance and fantasy, as well as adventure and I can put together a pretty good mystery. Why? It's the stuff I like to read is all. And I write what I read.

thethinker42 · Nov 17, 2011

I write a little of everything. *Most* of my work is contemporary romance, but I like to mix it up a bit sometimes. In the last year, I've started writing cyberpunk, paranormal, romantic suspense, and steampunk, (all romance, but different subgenres) and I can see spending more time on SFF in 2012 (romance and otherwise). My readers seem to like the variety as long as I still write the contemporaries too.

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 17, 2011

I write predominantly Speculative fiction.

Because that's all my mind things up.

The Lonely One · Nov 17, 2011

akbowens said:
Personally, though I'm beginning with heroic fantasy, I could see dabbling in horror and scifi.

You?

Well I have established myself in some very small sense in sci-fi and lit fic markets, as those are the two that tend to really interest me. Not to say I couldn't write in others but there always seems to be something turning me away if it isn't one of these two.

utopianmonk · Nov 17, 2011

My first love is fantasy, but I've been kicking around ideas in a lot of other genres. I currently have a slipstream short on sub, and I'm outlining a comedy novel. I'm also planning on starting a literary short this weekend.

I don't like limiting myself

quicklime · Nov 17, 2011

I haven't started some of these, but ideas waiting in queue include the following genres:

Suspense/Thriller
Horror
SciFi
Fantasy

cough*mainstream romance*cough

Just those four...

I said four, dammit.

BigWords · Nov 17, 2011

I don't think of genres - I think of where I can get material published. If someone asked me to write a comedy about wizard mice trying to take over the galaxy, I would probably do it...

DragonBlaze · Nov 17, 2011

Purely Fantasy genre for me. Used to read Sci-Fi and was thinking about it but reading the overabundance of depressing endings (i.e. humanity is destroyed, heros fail and die, etc.) were finally too much and abandoned interest in that genre.

rainsmom · Nov 17, 2011

I am currently focused on mainstream. I also write nonfiction, and in the future I will likely dabble in paranormal.

LJD · Nov 17, 2011

I write women's fiction.
the only other thing I can see writing is contemporary romance.

There are a lot of genres I don't read and so am not interested in writing.

jaksen · Nov 17, 2011

I am published in fantasy and mystery.

I currently write mystery, horror, scifi, MG and YA. (I don't know where that one fantasy story came from.) Why write in these genres? I don't know why; I just write stories and don't worry so much about what category they fit into. I get an idea or an idea comes to me and I write.

akbowens · Nov 17, 2011

DragonBlaze said:
Purely Fantasy genre for me. Used to read Sci-Fi and was thinking about it but reading the overabundance of depressing endings (i.e. humanity is destroyed, heros fail and die, etc.) were finally too much and abandoned interest in that genre.

When young I was pretty much the same way. All scifi all the time. Then I turned to fantasy. Now, I read a wide variety of stuff (excepting romances, lol).

akbowens · Nov 17, 2011

jaksen said:
I am published in fantasy and mystery.

I currently write mystery, horror, scifi, MG and YA. (I don't know where that one fantasy story came from.) Why write in these genres? I don't know why; I just write stories and don't worry so much about what category they fit into. I get an idea or an idea comes to me and I write.

Do you think the variety helps your writing across genres? Do you find switching genres helps keep your creativity charged?

pyrosama · Nov 17, 2011

I started out enjoying the read of romance, but then I turned to loving Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Now I really want to write suspense thrillers with a twist of tension that is accomplish in romances.

Dark River · Nov 17, 2011

I write sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy romance or whatever combination of the four will interest the agent I am querying. I'd like to add mystery and one about female serial killers. I read almost everything as long as the writer can write.
Except maybe biographies about celebrities like Kim K. and Snookie and their ilk. (Barf-sticking finger down throat...)

Night_Writer · Nov 17, 2011

Most of what I write could be classified as Contemporary Fantasy, but I wouldn't mind doing a Whodunit. It sounds like a lot of fun.

DeleyanLee · Nov 17, 2011

After many years of attempting to write every genre I enjoy reading, I discovered that I'm only interested in writing one.

Anne Lyle · Nov 18, 2011

I write fantasy because even when I try to write non-SFF, weird stuff creeps into the story!

Beyond knowing that SFF is my "home turf", I don't really worry about genre. My current publishers like to mix things up anyway - my debut series is alternate history fantasy with elements of swashbuckling adventure, spy thriller and romance (both straight and LGBTQ) - so it's all good

areteus · Nov 18, 2011

I spent my whole life avoiding writing fantasy. I have written in horror, science fiction and even romance. However, my first publication was a fantasy story so maybe I should just bow to the inevitable and write more fantasy

quicklime · Nov 18, 2011

akbowens said:
Do you think the variety helps your writing across genres? Do you find switching genres helps keep your creativity charged?

I won't answer for jaksen, but I'll answer for me:

No. I think the genre comes second. Stephen King gets asked why he writes the stuff he does all the time, and answers a bit different every time. But in On Writing he mentioned growing up with cheap horror, noir, and exploitation flicks and the old horror comics. Then, later, he talks about "themes" and his return to areas like technology run wild, the ugly underbelly of small-town Amreica, etc.....

I think in his case genre is more the prism his themes come out of. And I think that may not be that uncommon--I seem to gravitate towards the idea of redemption, losing the ones we love, selfishness, and growing old, but the ideas can come from all over--A story about one man who may be the last man alive spending his days looking for survivors and his nights barely talking himself out of suicide and a love story about a man letting his wife go as she dies of cancer can both be fundamentally tales of loneliness and loss, despite wildly different genres.

So for your question, it is more like (for me) multiple angles to look at recurring themes from.

Rhoda Nightingale · Nov 18, 2011

I write "genre fiction," which to say just about everything but mainstream/contemporary. But mostly horror and YA. (An odd pairing, maybe, but that's how I roll.)

There's not any deliberate reason for it. Those are just the kinds of stories that float around in my head. Weird, supernatural stuff. In fact, the only time I've deliberately tried to write in a particular genre, I went for mainstream/contemporary. Never works. Someone always gets possessed or abducted by aliens or something. I guess that's the way my mind works.

So basically what Anne Lyle said.

Kyla Laufreyson · Nov 18, 2011

As of right now...I think four? YA fantasy, YA contemporary, non-fiction (entertainment) and adult contemporary.

The first two are because they're what I mostly love to read. The NF is because there aren't any effective books really out there on the subject (I've checked) and I know the topic up and down. The last is because it was meant to be YA and my MC was like "Hahaha you thought wrong".

Writers and Authors. How many genres do you prefer to write for and why?

The Anti-Magdalene

Bunned

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Abnormal Romance Author

Court Jester

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all out of fucks to give

Geekzilla

Feeling like an old timer

Caped Codder

Pyrosama

It's all symbolic.

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Fantastic historian

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Vampire Junkie

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