Genre you just can't write?

Mr. Anonymous · Feb 25, 2012

so i was procrastinating a Hegel paper (guess what I'm doing now?) and I decided to try writing a sci fi short. I'd recently listened to a couple lightspeed shorts and thought to myself, "Okay, I got this." Turns out, no, no I don't got it at all. I was shocked at how bad it was. Part of it is because I tend to rely a lot on voice and character--whereas this scene was more heavy on action and plot. Also I don't really have any idea about practical things. How a spaceship would look, or function, how space battles would work, how to even go about describing things in space... Is there any genre you guys you tried writing in and you were like "wow, I wish this had never happened."

EDIT: Okay, just realized this might be taken the wrong way. I didn't mean to imply that sci fi can't be character based/voice driven. Some of my favorite sci fi has been just that. I guess what I meant was I was trying to write something like a military sci fi and I realized I was in over my head and had no idea what I was doing (part of which may have been due to the way I was approaching the genre, not anything inherent in the genre itself.)

PrincessofPersia · Feb 25, 2012

Everything I write tends to turn into some sort of surrealist black comedy, so maybe I'm only able to write in one genre subset. I'm attempting to write a horror short that is actually scary, so we'll see if it actually stays that way or goes bananas on me.

backslashbaby · Feb 26, 2012

Yeah, I can't write most of them. Not interestingly, anyway

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

I can't really write straight-up genre fiction in general. It always turns into literary fiction with ______ elements. Well. I'd still call it by whatever genre it is, but it'd still end up as literary fiction of whatever genre is what I mean. And all I mean by that is it probably wouldn't fit the expectations of the average readers of whatever genre, and they'd put it down in disappointment.

That said.

I can't do romance (I write love stories, but can't deal with HEA's). I can't do thrillers (too plot-based for me). I've never really tried a mystery: I don't really want to say I couldn't, but thinking about my plots is generally hard enough without having to keep track of clues. I probably could if I really, really wanted to, but for all practical purposes, can't do historical (too much research). I can't do a traditional Western, but I could probably do a non-traditional one (me kinda falling on the Indian sides of the cowboys and Indians thing).

blacbird · Feb 26, 2012

Like Kuwis, all of them, apparently. And I've tried to do stuff that settles into a standard genre the way my cats settle into a blanket under a warm lamp; but it just doesn't work. The only stuff I've written that feels "finished" slips into the unmanageable and unpublishable genre, the one that just "isn't for us", as the rejection-slip phrase goes.

caw

BenPanced · Feb 26, 2012

I probably couldn't write horror. For me, it's visual ; I'd prefer to see a horror movie than read a horror book.

Night_Writer · Feb 26, 2012

I don't think I could ever write a Western. But then, I can't imagine that I would ever need to write a Western.

PrincessofPersia said:
Everything I write tends to turn into some sort of surrealist black comedy...

OK, this sounds really interesting. I do hope you share something in the SYW forum, because you have me really curious now.

owlion · Feb 26, 2012

I can't write Romance at all. I tried a couple of times and gave up very quickly. My brain just can't work out how to write realistic AND idealistic love into one story, and have the story revolve around a relationship.

bearilou · Feb 26, 2012

Night_Writer said:
I don't think I could ever write a Western. But then, I can't imagine that I would ever need to write a Western.

Which is precisely why I'm trying to write one. Because I haven't before and I can't think of a reason why other than...well...I haven't.

I can't think of a genre I just can't write. I may suck eggs at it but I'd at least give it a shot. After all, there's no reason to not try to be competent even if it's not a genre I'll ever write with any regularity.

ladyleeona · Feb 26, 2012

I can't write mysteries--too much plotting involved. I'm hoping one day I'll be able to discipline myself enough to write one though.

Filigree · Feb 26, 2012

Right now, anything YA. It's a hot genre,and I wish I could. But dark and adult stuff creeps in, no matter my good intentions.

PrincessofPersia · Feb 26, 2012

Night_Writer said:
OK, this sounds really interesting. I do hope you share something in the SYW forum, because you have me really curious now.

I probably will when I'm done my current WIP. I put a story on hold to write it, but I'll be going back to it when I'm done. It started out as a detective story, but it went to a dark, weird place disturbingly fast.

Silver-Midnight · Feb 26, 2012

Truthfully, I don't know. My comfort zone is romance/erotica so, I do write a lot of that. However, I have written things that just had "romantic things" (people thinking about past relationships and etc.). I haven't really strayed too much from that yet. I'm trying to get past that zone though. I'm doing it in "baby steps".

One genre I think would harder for me to write would probably be mystery. That is highly plot-driven, and would require a lot of planning to make sure that it made sense.

I also think I would have trouble writing literary fiction. However, that's just me.

EDIT: Besides given my siggy, I feel kind of weird saying I can't write in a certain genre that I haven't tried.

CACTUSWENDY · Feb 26, 2012

It would appear I can not write anything in any genre that would be worth reading. :Shrug:

(That's my statement and I'm sticking to it.) :partyguy:

flapperphilosopher · Feb 26, 2012

Like a lot of you, probably the number one genre I couldn't write would be mystery; I don't have that flair for plot! I couldn't do plot-driven period, so thrillers and the like are out. I'd have a really hard time with sci-fi I think, for the same reasons as the OP--what are the practical things like? Like kuisdelu, I think pretty much anything I tried would end up on the literary side and probably disappoint most genre readers, hehe.

Sage · Feb 26, 2012

kuwisdelu said:
I can't do romance (I write love stories, but can't deal with HEA's).

This here? Is me

Also, any time I try to write something with no spec fic elements, they come anyway. "Hey, let me try to write a book about a reality show. Oh, look, there's a ghost."

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

Filigree said:
Right now, anything YA. It's a hot genre,and I wish I could. But dark and adult stuff creeps in, no matter my good intentions.

Silver-Midnight said:
I also think I would have trouble writing literary fiction. However, that's just me.

Psst. YA and literary fiction aren't genres. But that's okay.

Also, dark doesn't keep it from being YA.

Undercover · Feb 26, 2012

It's weird to see a lot of writers find it hard to write mystery/thrillers. That's about all I write. My mind is always plotting against me in real life, I'm always living in suspense. It drives me batty sometimes.

I wouldn't touch sci-fi, I just can't get into that genre. Although I do like watching some movies and tv shows about it. That "Face-off" series about the make-up artists is so cool to watch. So I do respect that category a lot. I think it takes a VERY creative mind to whip something like that up.

Xelebes · Feb 26, 2012

Levels I can't write: YA. I completely skipped this whole level of reading, never mind writing. Went from children's novels straight to adult novels.

Genres:

Mystery - Don't find any appeal to write in it, although on occasion I like reading them. Not going to bother.
Thriller - They don't thrill me when reading them, I probably can't get myself writing anything appreciable here.
Romance/Romances - Don't like the classical form nor the modern form. Not likely to have much success in this regard if I tried.

Silver-Midnight · Feb 26, 2012

kuwisdelu said:
Psst. YA and literary fiction aren't genres. But that's okay.

Haha.

Good to know.

triceretops · Feb 26, 2012

I'm sure I couldn't write a straight up romance, let alone any erotica. The romance would be awkward, even farce, and the sex scenes would be filled with blunt force trauma.

Never attempted a western. I'm afraid of research involved.

tri

MysteryRiter · Feb 26, 2012

I can write pretty much anything, actually, but I definitely can't write erotica. Nor am I especially skilled at fantasy, dystopians, sci-fic, etc.

muravyets · Feb 26, 2012

I can't wrap my brain around whodunit mysteries, the puzzle kinds where the plot drops clues along the way. I'm not good at devising games like that. I'm not good at playing such games, either, so I'm kind of a passive reader of those books.

I'd have a problem with children's lit, too. I don't know how to gear my language to different age groups. I can't talk to kids, either, at least not the way their parents expect me to.

Other than that, there probably isn't a genre I wouldn't try, at least as a learning exercise. Even the ones I don't personally like.

Now that covers being able to write in the sense of learning to understand the genre. Being able to write in the sense of being good at it -- I make no claims or promises.

Bogna · Feb 26, 2012

Every time I try and write a story in a different genre then I normally write, it turns out to be very dark and twisted. Way darker than my normal writing. Its like trying new genres brings out the evil in me.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 26, 2012

I write mysteries, and I don't plot at all. I think it's those who don't write mysteries who think you have to come up with plot twists and turns in advance, or that you actually have to think about plot in some odd way.

A mystery is just another story, and no more difficult to write than any other. Most of the mystery writers I enjoy reading don't outline, don't plan in any way, don't sit around thinking about plot, etc. They just sit down and tell a story, the same as writers in any other genre.

I think I can write in any genre, if I'm willing to sit down and read at least fifty novels in that genre. A hundred is better, with a mix of classics in the field, and current bestsellers. Outside of trappings, a story is pretty much a story, and people are people.

Genre you just can't write?

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