Historical Fiction. I don't have a mind for or a significant enough concern with getting the details just perfect, as would seem to be the norm with those who do enjoy both reading and writing this genre.
I'm terrible at romance. I've seen so many examples of romances getting shoehorned into the stories I actually like that now they all feel unnatural and forced.
This is how I look at Sc-fi. Then it is looking at what happens from there or using that exact setup. I wrote a short about an alien culture that is exactly like a mongol hoard. Just on a galactic scale.
I have a hard time keeping romances straight - not the character's straight - I just mean that satire or something disturbing doesn't creep into the mix.
Go for it. Not all SciFi is super-scientific "Hard SF". Trust me, very little of the tech in Star Trek is at all plausible, that doesn't make it "bad" or "not SciFi". It's just well-done Space Opera, which is totally a thing. Hard SF is only one corner of the SciFi universe - and not even the majority - a significant portion of the modern SF world is Space Opera (where science becomes functionally indistinguishable from magic), Military SF (where only the guns and tactics need to be accurate), CyberPunk, AltHistory, Steampunk, or New Weird. It's a big pool with lots of different voices - the water's fine, jump in!
@Commandante Lemming why do they call it a Space Opera anyway? It has no singing in it like other forms of Opera, unless it is suppose to be a weird spinoff of Soap Operas. Space Soaps, maybe? Also while on the topic, Sci-Fi that takes place solely on Earth cannot be called a Space Opera per se, as it does not have anything to do with or in space, then what do we call it. ( Sorry the concept of the odd terminology has sent my mind off wandering into why things are called as they are.)
Per the all-knowing Wikipedia: Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, as well as chivalric romance, and often risk-taking. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it usually involves conflict between opponents possessing advanced abilities, futuristic weapons, and other sophisticated technology. The term has no relation to music but is instead a play on the terms "soap opera" and "horse opera",[citation needed] the latter of which was coined during the 1930s to indicate clichéd and formulaic Western movies. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and they continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, and video games.
And not to get too far down the rabbit-hole - but labeling in the SF world gets to be pretty hellish - I generally suggest avoiding it unless you're looking for comp-titles and such. There are probably three well-defined categories - Hard SF, Military SF, and Space Opera - but after that it gets a little fuzzy. Stuff set on Earth can go a lot of ways - it CAN be Hard SF if it's really techy. It could also be CyberPunk, that's you're near-futures with lots of body implants and blurring the line between man and machine (with a punk aesthetic). You have your assorted Dystopias and Post-Apocalyptics - which generally don't get a label beyond that - although I do hear the term "CliFi" thrown around a lot for stuff extrapolated from climate change. I've heard the word "near-future" (which I use to describe my own stuff) - but that can mean just about anything. And all of that's without delving into Alternate History, Steampunk, and the China Mieville-type "New Weird" millieu - all of which are and aren't SciFi and are a big part of the reason people now talk in terms of "SFF" (SciFi/Fantasy) because there's so much line-blurring between Sci-Fi and Fantasy that it's better to treat it as a continuum with transitional forms. Personally, I've gotten to the point where I've invented my own label for my own stuff as sort of a joke, because labelling near-futures is so hard, and if you say "Near Future SF" people start having CyberPunk fever dreams. So, if I'm around people who can get a laugh out of labelling debates, I call my book "SelfiePunk" - because it's basically the Millenial antithesis of GenX CyberPunk, putting a hard break on tech development and extrapolating a near future that's very much like our world but with a lot of weird pop culture developments.
Erotica would definitely be my weakest (and not because I submit to temptation...) I'd giggle too much while writing it. I'd feel too much like a punk. And I might also not be able to look at myself in the mirror again when I discover all the freaky weird stuff going on inside my little mind. Also, while some sexual imagery and suggestion can be appealing, even arousing... it's not something I have ever read as a genre or will do so. I am not sex mad in ordinary life (just as well, really...) so I won't be as a reader either. PS: I am sure there are people out there who could justify this genre, so don't get too offended...
I will say this, in terms of sheer work, historical fiction is definitely the hardest. If I said, write a book in any genre other than historical fiction (hi-fi?) you could start right away. Historical is the only one that requires you to know specific dates, locations, events, and people. Whereas real science fiction definitely requires a lot of consideration (mechanics, consequences, etc) because it's something that hasn't yet happened, you're not bogged down by all those specifics (dates, locations, events, people).
If you've studied history you don't have quite that anxiety. Also, in many ways, the write is about the modern eye, and even the modern critic expects...certain things...nobody's that clever...and you build your accuracy through the drafts. I think a challenge would be to bluff pro-seafarer types with a Napoleonic/Aubrey type yarn, OR another one that's always fun is the 'prison yard/gangsters' - but as someone said in the sex thread, you always veer into parody and enjoy yourself, start snorting at the keyboard.
Crime drama/murder mystery. I'm just no good at portraying the emotional aftermath of murder. Some guy gets murdered and his widow will either be "Oh golly gosh my husband is dead. Gee wilikers I sure hope they catch the murderer." or "Noooo he's dead my entire universe has been cruelly rent in twain. I swear before god that the killer will be flung from the tarpeian rock into the eternal torment of hell. Nooooooo!"
Not really a genre, but I couldn't write MG. I'm reading a manuscript now that captures the MG tone perfectly, and I know I couldn't have done it. Probably same with YA.
Yeah, agreed, I can't touch MG or YA. I can't come up with a kid-or-teen centered premise if I try, and I very rarely read them because I have such a hard time identifying with the protagonists (I think I probably read about one book a year with an 18 or under protag).
I too will be in aggreement with this. (I had to look up what MG was though.) I don't think i would do so good with the YA/MG thing, not that I want to try and find out either. Though I am user friendly.
Probably horror for myself. I just don't know how to write tightly-wound tension with boo! scary and I assume that this probably comes from not reading horror novels in a general sense. Certainly, there's been horror themes in novels I read, but I just don't read horror.
I can only write something I'm interested in. I'm the most interested in Fantasy and Sci-fi, and could probably write a historical fiction of some kind if I wanted to. My problem is I don't care about regular people or their lives, so standard coming-of-age or overcoming-adversity stories don't interest me. When I'm given a mundane prompt like "write about a cat's thoughts" or "write about a child at play" I draw a blank because I wouldn't want to read that, so I wouldn't want to write it either. Unless I can make it twisted, like the cat is having psychotic thoughts about killing its master or the child's playing had some strange adult or satirical quality that I can derive comedy from.
