1. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Do you write in other genres outside your own longer works when you take a break?

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by Cave Troll, Sep 3, 2015.

    Just being my curio self as per usual. I find that when I become to burdened by the longer work I am presently working/fixing, that I tend to write short stories in other genres. Perhaps like doodling on the side when you are waiting to finish a much more technical masterpiece if you will.

    I find myself doing this twice now. Wrote a 16 page 'romance' type short, and am now working on a more dark and disturbing 'horror' themed story. Neither really having any real significance to my novel (maybe in trace amounts), but more stand alone.

    Started on a disturbing number following an artist, that I titled The Art Made Flesh. It withholds a fair amount of info about the narrator, while depicting their less than legal means of creating artwork.

    So my question is do you write of other things, outside of what you are currently working on when you need a break from the longer works?
     
  2. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Yep. I don't deliberately change genres but IMO romance doesn't lend itself well to short stories so they are in other genres be default. I also change it up by using first person or a completely different tone or setting to my novel. You always learn something when writing so it's not like you aren't progressing with your main work when you go off on a tangent for a few hours.
     
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  3. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Never thought about it like that, but you make a valid point. On a side note I should probably say that I really don't know what genre it would fall under instead of saying it was a 'romance type'. Guess it would be better to say it is a general fiction with a 'feel good' narrative.
     
  4. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Oh, I didn't mean in general - that was badly phrased. I meant that I wouldn't know where to start trying to write a short romance story. I don't think I could build up enough characterisation in a short story for the reader to care whether they bump uglies or not!
     
  5. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Well I don't know how I could have really done a bang up job of it at 16 pages. So in a way you really help my idea of where it would fit a little better. I would say it is slightly sci-fi, but only due to the time frame with which it takes place in (2019-2080) spanning over a lifetime starting somewhere in the characters early twenties, till they die. So even if there was a little confusion, I would have to agree with you. (That and I really know little about how romance works in literature). :D
     
  6. wellthatsnice

    wellthatsnice Active Member

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    If written small published short horror stories and articles for comedy sites, but my WIP's are mostly longer light sci-fi and Fantasy.
     
  7. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    My short stories are not in the genre my novel WIP is in.
     
  8. Bookster

    Bookster Banned

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    My novel WIP is science fiction, but most of the short stories I write are erotica.
     
  9. Pisces21

    Pisces21 Member

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    I'm principally a short story writer, and I have noticed that I switch to poetry (recently, haiku!) to take a break, so to speak. But the things I write about have similar themes
     
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  10. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    Maybe I should, but the short answer is no, I don't.

    I have to care about and have an interest in what I'm writing. Trying to write something like romance or a political thriller would be like having my teeth pulled without anaesthetic.
     
  11. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Oh yes, yes I do. Sometimes when I feel burnt out in one genre, I turn to another story in another genre. It feels refreshing, almost relieving. I can put the other genres to bed and focus on another one for a while.
     
  12. NobodySpecial

    NobodySpecial Contributor Contributor

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    The primary piece I'm working on is a murder mystery. Come to think of it the one I have planned for next is as well. I have a secondary piece I turn to when I get board with the primary,or stuck,that I guess could actually be termed romance-ish.(people die in that one too) But I've also done a short story that was a first person telling from within the mental breakdown of a suicidal paranoid schizophrenic.

    I've only been working at this in earnest for a short time, so I'm not sure if I can claim to have a specific genre yet. I just write what strikes me at the time.
     
  13. Daemon Wolf

    Daemon Wolf Senior Member

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    I don't really do "other genres" I write in the genres I like which are Horror and Sci-Fi, and whatever genre apocalyptic stories fall in place of.
     
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  14. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    ^ Same here. I write in genres I like which seem to be chiefly fantasy and mysteries these days. :D
     
  15. Lazzamore

    Lazzamore Member

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    I write Fantasy and Sci-fi, looking at my various projects I probably write in different mediums more then in different genres. My main project is regular fiction, and another project I'm doing on a whim is a manga, just to break things up. But they are both Sci-fi (wildly different, though, the regular fiction is a dark gothic dystopian world while the manga is a weird light-hearted science-fantasy).

    Edit: Though, I think I should mention, they are both departures from my original fiction work, which is Fantasy. (the other two are non-original, they use borrowed universes.)
     
  16. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    I have three major projects on the go, all of them in various subgenres of science fiction. I have a couple more on deck, so to speak.

    When I'm taking a break from these, I tend to write really crappy gay erotica. I don't think about it much - I do it to rest my brain. I guess it keeps me in typing practice, though. :)
     

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