In your work, do you fit into a “box”? Do you do just one kind of thing? Or do you have diverse interests and talents?
As a writer, I am not very consistent, so I hate to be assigned fiction categories. My first novel was contemporary fiction. My second was historical fiction and southern. Some might even call it southern gothic literature. Others might insist it’s literary fiction.
I write for children and adults.
Some of my stories are humorous and more commercial. Some have a mystery at the core. Some have a romance. A lot of them have secrets.
Most are stories about characters who come-of-age in one way or another, even if they are in their forties. Most of my characters also have courage and the ability to transcend or transform their situation. Perhaps it comes from being a psychotherapist for so many years and wishing that for my clients. As far as I know, there isn’t even a name for that kind of fiction, but I like to think of it as Transformation Lit.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I can’t be pinned down and labeled easily. Can you relate? Fiction categories are not my friend.
I’ve written novels, short stories, flash fiction, poetry and even a play. This is how my creative process plays out. It’s a wild and wonderful ride and I wouldn’t change a thing.
“They” say it’s better to specialize, have a niche, stick to one thing. So, perhaps in the long run, I won’t be as successful as the writer who writes mystery novel after mystery novel or romance after romance.
What I will have been successful at is being true to myself and my creative process. And I hope you are able to do and be the same.
Thoughts? Comments? As always, I’d love to hear from you.
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Susan: Like you, I write in various styles under various labels. I write fiction, prefer short stories, but I also write essays & poetry. I write literary, commercial, crime, humor, and romance. I write what comes to me and “envy” the amazing career of Joyce Carol Oates. She writes everything!
Many writers stay in one field because it’s easier for an agent to sell them as a 3-4 book deal, be it detectives or ministers or women who buy a house together instead of living in an old folks home. The author is familiar with main character or characters so they build on that…no need for heavy character development, and the town is familiar, etc., which allows them as the writer to step into the house or garden, etc. and feel at home. I like getting to know a new character and, as if sitting at a table with them, hearing the story they tell me. Hence, my bent toward the short story.
Oates is prolific in every genre…a rare bird. Updike was famous for his “Rabbit” character and rewarded for it. I found one of his last books, Terrorist, to be a fantastic read. Nothing to do with his character, Rabbit. His short stories are taught in all FMA classes, think “The A&P”. The trick is to find the right pair of eyes. When that happens then you’ve got power going to bat for you. The more you submit the better your chances. It’s a game most writers hate playing. But if you don’t send out work, send out queries, who will even know you’re a writer?
I love writing. Love the escape of it, the learning from it, the thrill of completing a story, the thrill of dreaming up a story. The pay sucks, true. But the joy of acceptance cannot be beat for a high!!!
Nancy
Great comment, Nancy. Spoken like a true professional!
Comments from posting this on Linked In (Fiction Writer’s Guild):
Nick D. • Same problem here. I consider myself a mystery &/or suspense writer, but my current book overflowed those banks and may have polluted Romance (and not in a good way). My two (unsold) screenplays are supernatural and ghost stories. My first book was as SF/Mystery, followed by pure soft-boiled Detective, followed by Cold War Suspense.
No wonder I don’t have an agent or traditional publisher.
Dutch R. • Hi Susan – Nothing I have ever written fell into a single genre. And the genre I felt was most apropos was not what the publisher placed it under.
Susan G. • Hi Nick and Dutch, thanks for the comments. We sound a little like kindred spirits. I think the important thing is to keep writing!
Larry C. • My first five novels were genre-busting thrillers. My just completed project is a chilling love story of devotion and death. What genre is that? And I have an off-kilter love story/murder mystery now with my editor. Next out of the gate is my first YA novel–about a dying teenager and her unconventional last wish. I guess that now I know I can write, I’m stretching my wings. Or am certifiable. Or both.
Nick D. • Larry, I think anyone with wings is likely certifiable.
Larry C. • Nick, does this include the pet lorikeets we had in Australia?
Nick D. • Only if you were sure you were one.
Dutch R. • Don’t feel bad Larry. I write Historical Fiction, evolving into Mystery. Invariably it will end up in the Romance Section, when not one line of romance appears in the entire novel. I guess that’s better than it being shoved under Westerns or Archaeology?
Well, I’m done after finishing this one albatross around my neck, but if I were to continue on I know I’d do different things. One of my heroes is Stephen Sondheim, and the breadth of his work is simply amazing. He never had the popular “brand” of Andrew Lloyd Webber but I have no doubt whose star will shine brighter in a hundred years.
I was taken by the quote in that article you sent me from Don DeLillo: “When my head is in the typewriter the last thing on my mind is some imaginary reader.†I still believe you should just write, and if you’re good, the audience will find you. The caveat is it may take a while, but that’s part of the downside to being a writer and not a hack.
Hi Susan. I, of course think that it is better to be versatile. Not that I don’t enjoy, for example the characters of an Agatha Christie or a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I do think that variety is the spice of life, and that it keeps the old grey cells turning.
Peace,
Trélys
Hi John,
I have to believe that if you’re good the audience will find you, too, despite all the distractions out there.
I hate to think of you being “done” after one book, but I understand at the same time. Sometimes I wish I could walk away. Writing is not an easy career, especially when it involves peddling your books to every online vender you can think of. In that case, get out while you can!
But I also believe that if you have a certain amount of talent then you have a responsibility to your craft/art/whatever you want to call it. The responsibility being to develop it. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it feels true to me.
Thanks but I’ve been told I have “talent” (whatever that is, I’m not even sure anymore) in other areas and they don’t take five years to realize.