Embracing Diverse Writing Styles: Follow Your Muse

Writing In Multiple Genres You Have To Follow Your Muse!

Why Specialize? Authors have to follow their muse. This might mean either writing in multiple genres or even mixing them What are the pitfalls? Does one have to stick with one or the other? We ll explore these issues and their caveats and how best to follow that muse, wherever it takes us

A Little Bit About Myself The Polka-dot Sewer The Star Trek Satire The Nazi Method Reports, Newsletters This And That First Novel

Sticking With One Style - Simplicity Some authors are just cut out for one genre Maybe that s your only interest Maybe you don t know how to write about anything else Maybe all your expertise lies in that area

What If? On the other hand, what if you re brimming with ideas? What if you have trouble finding the time to write them all down? What if you find the time but don t want to mess it up?

Write What You Know This is almost a clich but it s true While some writers and authors say the only way to write good stuff is to stretch and go for the unknown, I say, start with what you know first When you get to the point where you need the unknown, THEN stretch! Will this cover everything you re interested in writing?

Why Multiple Genres? The obvious answer is because you want to You like to read them, right? You think you can do as well or better, right? You have a fresh approach? Your muse calls you that way Maybe you can use certain things from one genre in the next one as well

Okay, Whats A Genre? Anything that isn t literary Subject matter tends to be plot driven Tends to be less serious subjects Is less likely to make the NYT best seller list or the top magazine reviews Has to have killer sales or strike a nerve to get noticed by the literary crowd

Genres And Sub-Genres Things get messy when you consider all the sub- categories Fantasy: High fantasy Dark fantasy Urban fantasy Comic fantasy Gaslamp fantasy Sword and sorcery Heroic fantasy Epic fantasy Contemporary fantasy There are 29 listed in Wikipedia alone

Do Your Research! This has nothing to do with writing what you know This is about knowing your genre! Just because you want to write a thriller doesn t mean you can start writing You have to know the basic tenets of thrillers to call it one, or you might be writing something else If you want to write a fantasy, you d better make sure you aren t writing a paranormal romance!

However Just because you intend to write one particular genre doesn t mean you should stop writing Maybe you should follow your muse, finish the story and see what you get in the end It might be something unique, a new genre made of a mix of others The problem will be for a publisher to classify it and find a place on the shelf to place it That s another issue you ll have to deal with! YOU have to know what you re writing to convince a publisher you know your subject Targeting! Marketing!

Shifting Gears Say you start out writing westerns Now your muse tells you to write a fantasy Do you go for it? Of course! However Do you know enough about fantasy to call it one, or is it something else? If that s settled, will you be able to shift gears back to the westerns?

Writers If you re a lover of the word, you let the muse grab you Shifting gears will come natural Changing genres should be no big deal for you However

Branding Okay, Mr./Mrs./MS mystery writer You want to market your new fantasy novel When people come to the bookstore and look up your name, they see The Elf Prince and think it s a pun or something, right? However, they don t find it on the right shelf Whaaa? You ve got some branding to do

Pen Names Some authors, not only in the past but even today use pen names, even multiple pen names I have plenty of anecdotal stories from authors, some best selling, that this is a bad idea Why? What seemed like a good idea at the time turned into a logistical nightmare Multiple web sites, multiple autographs Being addressed with confusing names What if you write in more that two genres?

Stick With Your Own Name Not to name drop, but James Rollins, for one, told me to stick with my own name or One single name not necessarily your real name Brand your books through your web site a SINGLE site Brand your books with labels A Joe Smith Fantasy - A Jane Doe Thriller - A Joe Smith Western - A Jane Doe Romance Have tabs on your web site for each genre Your web site is the central depository for your various genres

Vary Your Style? As a writer, you have a recognizable style - more than likely, people are attracted to your work because they like your writing While there are certain tropes you might need to comply with based on the specific genre, you should stick with what you do best Keep on keeping on! However

Vary Your Style? Don t shift gears and change your writing style! If you re writing in another genre because you want to change styles, step carefully Look at how well you re doing in your present genre - if not so well, maybe a shift might be worth it - if you re doing well, don t spoil a good thing By sticking with what you do best, you might very well bring your fans from one genre to the next From personal experience, I ve lost interest in favorite authors because when they shifted genres, they also shifted their writing styles

Questions?

Happy Writing!