Literature Genre

Busha777

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In which genre of literature do any of you find the challenging to write?
 

Shoeless

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For me personally, the two scariest genres to write would be mystery and literary. Mystery requires that you have a lot of moving parts/balls in the air that you manage to keep working in good order, and that requires an attention to detail and structure that I'm not sure I have in me. All that stuff about having clues that make sense, yet don't immediately point to one obvious suspect... I don't know how mystery writers do it.

Literary is just terrifying to me because it requires that you be a good Writer writer, and have an amazing sense of language. I like to think I can do character, and dialog and even structure my plots decently, and I think I do okay with action sequences as well once the monsters/giant robots have to duke it out. But writing a sentence that is beautiful? I can't think of anything harder. And then to fill an entire book's worth with beautiful, lyrical sentences is just... nope. Don't have it in me. I think I manage to squeeze in maaaaybe three or four somewhat-nice-more-than-strictly-functional sentences into a 100K book and that's about my limit.
 

veinglory

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I mean, I guess I don't feel the need to write in all the genres so I just picked a few that I like and seem to be able to pull off.
 

mselephant2015

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Fantasy. The idea of coming up with worlds and ways and laws and places and REMEMBERING it all? Ohhh no, not for me.

Also erotica and romance, both ends of the spectrum. I'm not particularly good at writing kissing scenes, like alone more.
 
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Busha777

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For me writing sci-fi have me stretching my imagination.
 

insolentlad

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Science Fiction seems a bit intimidating because good SF seems to need 'big' concepts and I'm not really a conceptual writer (fantasy, however, does not which is why I've written a lot of fantasy). Working out a 'true' mystery is difficult, as opposed to the crime stories I've written where the protagonist just sort of blunders to a conclusion. Like I do when writing them. :)
 

Laer Carroll

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Science Fiction seems a bit intimidating because good SF seems to need 'big' concepts...

Erhh, no. Good SF can be about small personal stories, and all the kinds of stories in the spectrum up to those about saving the entire megaverse from destruction.

On the original question, I'd think thrice about a story that combine genres. It would have to satisfy the needs of each genre.
 

starrystorm

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Romance, what DimelioraL.
Mystery because I can't even figure it out in other books I read. I can't think of that many clues.
History because there's a bunch of research.
 

Busha777

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Science Fiction seems a bit intimidating because good SF seems to need 'big' concepts and I'm not really a conceptual writer (fantasy, however, does not which is why I've written a lot of fantasy). Working out a 'true' mystery is difficult, as opposed to the crime stories I've written where the protagonist just sort of blunders to a conclusion. Like I do when writing them. :)

I would think fantasy would be more challenging than sci-fi because it requires you to think way out of the physical realm compared to sci-fi. Inventing your own mystical beings and the supernatural that defies physics. I am in awe of authors that can pull it off like JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin, JK Rowling and make it feel real.
 

Harlequin

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It varies. Certainly atm, there is a perception among readers and writers that fantasy is simple, and if you want to do anything philosophical or scientific or conceptual, then you must go scifi.

I hope we can push back against that assumption with time.
 
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Scythian

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Anything which requires specific expertise: military thriller, courtroom drama, medical thriller--those I leave to the pros...
(and conversely, if you have insider knowledge on anything at all--from being a barista to being a brain surgeon--this is an automatic credibility boost to your story, should you choose to make use of the experience. Think Grisham.)
 
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Carl L Sanders

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For me, Mystery would be the most challenging; I mean, Mystery that an Agatha Christie or whoever might turn out.
I do not actually think of anything that I write as being aimed at a reader of a particular 'Genre.'
My WIP (of which the rough draft will be done in about two weeks, just in time for my B'Day) is 'Historical Fiction' if a Genre must be forced upon it. This seems to me the easiest to write. The Plot(the History) is already done for me.
 

WriteMinded

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I was going to name fantasy because that's what I write, and that's what I'm challenged by. Then I read these:
. . . If you don't read it, you can't write it.

Romance. Lack of sufficient laboratory experience.

caw
I have a book brewing that is about an evil creature (or maybe that isn't what he really is) from the 5th century and a woman originally from the 21st century. There's no getting around it, it's a love story, but I don't want it to be a romance. I suppose that doesn't make much sense you, but it does to me. I have no idea how to write it.
 

Harlequin

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It does make sense to me in genre terms, if that helps. Romance as a category has firm rules, like HEA for instance. So Wuthering Heights has a famous romance in it but isn't a romance novel per se since there is no HEA for Catherine and Heathcliff (and no mutual death doesn't count... :p)
 

Kjbartolotta

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Since there is no HEA for Catherine and Heathcliff (and no mutual death doesn't count... :p)

Dunno, lotta hot ghost action happening on those moors, and two awful people get to spend eternity together not terrorizing anyone else. Caliente!

I find SFF to be formidably hard to write, which is frustrating, because it's all I want to focus on right now. I tend to be happiest and most confident when I focus on characters and jokey back-and-forth dialogue, suck at action and never met a tedious infodump I didn't like. More broadly, the things I've spent years trying to get good at are not the things I want to improve on currently, so the process goes on forever.
 

Gillhoughly

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Literary is just terrifying to me because it requires that you be a good Writer writer, and have an amazing sense of language. ... And then to fill an entire book's worth with beautiful, lyrical sentences is just... nope. Don't have it in me. I think I manage to squeeze in maaaaybe three or four somewhat-nice-more-than-strictly-functional sentences into a 100K book and that's about my limit.

Then read this literary work that won a Pulitzer. Not at all terrifying, a pretty danged funny look at the human condition through the disapproving gaze of its anti-hero.

The author was dead when his mom found the manuscript, searched long for a publisher, and would not take no for an answer. Her son wrote a classic and she knew it.

From one review: "I’d recommend this for any reader with a sense of humor. You won’t like Ignatius J. Reilly, but you’ll find his antics hilarious, and you’ll want to know what happens to him in the end even if he is irredeemable."

I plan to tackle a literary book, not with pretty language, but with the need to tell a particular non-genre story in my own way. It won't win a Pulitzer, but I hope people will enjoy it. :)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802130208/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 
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Shoeless

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Then read this literary work that won a Pulitzer. Not at all terrifying, a pretty danged funny look at the human condition through the disapproving gaze of its anti-hero.

Thanks for the tip! I've added the sample to my Kindle.
 

romance_author

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Literary is just terrifying to me because it requires that you be a good Writer writer, and have an amazing sense of language. I like to think I can do character, and dialog and even structure my plots decently, and I think I do okay with action sequences as well once the monsters/giant robots have to duke it out. But writing a sentence that is beautiful? I can't think of anything harder. And then to fill an entire book's worth with beautiful, lyrical sentences is just... nope. Don't have it in me. I think I manage to squeeze in maaaaybe three or four somewhat-nice-more-than-strictly-functional sentences into a 100K book and that's about my limit.

Someone once said to me that literary fiction authors love the words they write and that makes the difference. I'd rather be in love with the story than the writing. But every once in a while I'll write something when I'm literally exhausted then look at it the next day and say, "I wrote that?" and be wowed by the words. Not necessarily the exact words, just a phrase or two that captures the moment.

- - - Updated - - -

Internet forums. Seems hard to use proper grammar on them. :)

Jeff

ROFLMAO.
 

Deadeyemouse

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Romance more than anything, I guess. Heck, I'm purposefully avoiding any of my characters getting together with someone during the story to avoid having to write romantic plot points.
 

Elenitsa

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SF would be the most challenging. (I don't think I'd ever do it, even if among my high-school literary attempts - with no value - there was one SF too). And erotica - also I'd never do it.
 

indianroads

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The genres I find challenging to write, are the genres I find boring to read.

If you don't read it, you can't write it.

I agree - why write a story you don't like?

I'm currently writing SciFi, which is what I prefer to read.