What genre do you stay far away from? (Moved from Novels to Roundtable)

I stay away from romance as well, since I am uncomfortable with writing sex scenes. I can do sexual tension okay, but my inclination is to fade to black, and almost all of the romance novels that I've read included full-on sex.

Another is science fiction. Like reading it, but what I know could fill a thimble, so I avoid writing those, too.

Clearly, I do not stay away from romance. *looks at sig* LOL
I guess I have only experimented in 3 genres... there is nothing that I wouldn't write about given a chance.

I would say romance as well. But I've written sex scenes before. Let me rephrase that--I've tried to write sex scenes before.

what genre do you stay away from?

I would say for sure biographies, memoirs etc anything that is non fiction mainly because it requires alot more work then fiction. I like having the freedom to explore my imagination while non fiction seems more constricted. I am just saying...........................................................

Mysteries I'm too blunt and predictable in writing I love to do. Working on fixing that. So I don't even want to try mysteries where you have to give enough clues to keep the reader guessing while at the same time trying to throw them off.

I'll read anything. Books, magazines, scraps of paper on the ground. Srsly. I was that bad.

I avoid westerns, because frankly I'm terrible at writing them.

Thrillers, especially political and/or technological thrillers. I don't enjoy them much as a reader and, as a writer, you have to have such specialized knowledge in order to be able to pull them off. I just don't have it and I tend to get bored if I either (1) have to read through several pages of explaination or (2) have to spend time looking up a concept myself. The only thrillers I have liked in recent memory are movies - the Bourne Trilogy.

I also dislike pure horror (phsychological can be cool, though) because I am highly susceptible to nightmares.

But that's just me.

I steer clear of sci-fi.
My first novel was a historical romance, and since then I've attempted fantasy, young adult, and historical. Many people I know stick to only one genre, but I'll never be able to do that. Yet sci-fi just isn't in my field of knowledge and I don't think I should meddle in it just yet. I do like reading some if it though.

I stay away from Crime and Murder. I can't just write it.

I stay away from genres I don't like reading - romance, fantasy, horror.

I'm not too keen on reading science fiction, but there are some scifi movies I loved, so I occasionally might use scifi elements in my writing. But no strange galaxies with starships please.

TTCleveland said:

In terms of writing, not reading (although feel free to comment on reading too), what fiction genres to you tend to stay as far away from as humanly possible.

It's not to say you don't like those genres, you just don't feel comfortable writing them. I was going to make a poll, but I didn't think that would be a fair indicator. (And people may have more than one they avoid).

For me, it's Romance. I have the romantic-emotional range of a teaspoon, and can't write a story revolving around love to save my life. Parts of my novels dealing with love are the hardest to get through, and require the most editing and beta reading because I suck at them. Science Fiction is another one. Every time I put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) everything I end up writing is so cliche' I can't continue. Oh well.

What about you?

Click to expand...

Literary, because when you set out to write something literary, it normally ends up as a pile of poop. The only way you can actually write something 'literary' is if you write it unknowingly and your agent tells you once they've read draft 1: 'jesus, it's literary.'

For me:

Romance. I don't even like to read them. I tried, to get a broader view of writing, but I just didn't find the stories interesting. In my own stories, I even stay away from romantic subplots. I'm doing an urban fantasy, and one of my motivatation for a male main character was so I wouldn't have to do any sex scenes.

Crime. I like reading them on occasion, but write them? Just not me. It doesn't draw me in to write about an investigation into a murder.

I'm not sure there's anything I would intentionally avoid writing. I never know what bug's gonna fly up my ass. That's the beauty of writing satire.

Westerns. I'm a city boy.

Inspirationals. I have a low opinion of religion.

I'll probably never do a gay male romance as I'm just not wired that way. It might make for an interesting writing challenge some day.

Like most here, I tend to stay away from Romance - just strict full-frontal kind of romance. I can manage romantic tension, perhaps an awkward kiss, but I can't write a story that is focused on romance and sex. And I wouldn't really want to read one either.

I'm an avid reader of crime fiction, but I know that I could never write it. Ah well.

Romance. And unless it's a masterpiece, I won't read it either. I will probably never write fantasy, though I like to read it.

I don't tend to avoid genres so much as just not write in them because I'm not that interested. If I eventually come up with a story set in a genre I've never done before, I'd probably find a way to make it work. I hate romance stories, for example, but if there's romance in a story of mine, then there you go.

That being said, I pretty much do avoid sci-fi, if only because I'd completely fudge up the "sci" part of it.

Literary/realistic fiction, especially of the YA variety. Which is strange, considering. I guess I don't trust myself to write myself.



Romance is fine with me as long as it's attached to something else and doesn't seem forced. Too much of it does, though.

It's gotta be erotica. I hate reading it because I find it incredibly boring (been there, done it and do it plenty, thank you very much) so writing it would be torture. But I can write romance, which I enjoy reading if it's not overly sentimental or claustrophobic as the heavy ones tend to be.

Romance- I don't mind reading it, but I can't write it to save my soul- also sci-fi- I've dabbled in fantasy but don't think I do it very well- don't get the whole world buiding thing- envy those that do-

Mysteries and thrillers. Not that I wouldn't try but earlier attempts to even outline such stories were AWFUL.

I write a lot of sci-fi and fantasy but have grown disgusted with high fantasy and typical quest related stories. (Still read them, but no longer enjoy writing anything that doesn't challenge me to do something different.)

I can also say romance is probably not in the near future either. I started an outline that was supposed to be romance and it quickly turned into a creepy urban fantasy. Go figure.

Not to jump on a bandwagon but: Romance. Love is a facet of almost all my work, but I can't bring myself to focus on a relationship plotwise. Maybe it's the testosterone in me, but I somehow end up killing people in my fictional couples.

Also, I wouldn't touch pure fantasy with a 10-foot-pole. Let's start with the daunting task of creating a world that requires a map included with my novel...

Mystery/crime, eh, I'm not so good at that either. I can mix that with sci-fi, as I have, but the overriding genre is usually literary science fiction. Sometimes I just write pure literary, sometimes with fantasy elements.

Reading-wise I'm not so keen on romance or mystery; I usually read literary or sci-fi, same as my writing preferences. Oh, almost forgot, horror isn't my thing either. About as far as I'll read into that genre is Jackson's Hill House.

Genre romance and chick lit. Epic fantasy. Western.

Romance. Unless it's about giant space spiders or something equally appealing.