What is it about your genre that intrigues you? If you were told to change (or switch up) genres would you do it? Could you do it?
I started writing a novel and a dragon showed up. I fought calling it fantasy for a while but finally joined a writing site geared to fantasy, entered a short story, and that became the basis for the novel I'm writing now. I have other books in mind with some rough scetches, two of those are more sci-fi.
I never force any of my stories into a mould. I don't actually despise that method as putting your story's back up against the wall can help develop some interesting ideas. But personally, genre is the last thing I think of when wanting to write a story. What comes first for me can either be a unique character or the story idea itself. Then it's simply about the journey that character takes. This may actually sound more character-driven at first, but the sheer amount of creative research I have done for my book so far it has both plot and character equally in conjunction and are influenced by each other.
I like Sci-fi because I've always liked to speculate about what the future might hold. I tell stories about humanity, stories that offer a plausible and realistic vision of the future.
The first story I ever wrote was action/adventure. My original agenda behind this story was to write a book that was entertaining throughout the entire thing. Rather than trying to be all serious or prove something to the rest of the world, I just wanted to write something fun and cool but smart also. I have never read such a story. Ok, so that story got erased off my computer (which I've mentioned a few times already) and I started having some other really cool ideas for stories that seemed to be horror related. Yeah, so then I began to write short horror stories (15-40 pgs long). I finished one called...uh...Wraith's Vengeance. It was about a kid who was killed by a family of murderers and came back to haunt them. It also got erased from my computer- actually it was my laptop, different system. Ever since then I haven't been able to find a story that I've been sated enough with to finish. I'm talking like...probably over 50 different stories. Comedy, horror, action/adventure. I even tried to do a couple of scripts and just didn't feel like they had any potentioal. Now I'm starting another horror (novel) that I think/hope will be what I want- what I'm looking for. And that's my mid-summer's-night's-winter-wintery-writing crisis.
I choose fantasy because of my AD&D days (years). I feel comfortable with it. Eventually I'll write contemporary military fiction, on account of my experience. I'm primarily concerned with writing good drama. My book is a drama that happens to take place in a fantasy world. I've reinvented the wheel on a couple of things to make the setting less cliché, but it's decidedly fantasy. A book with elves, wizards, and a dragon can't really be classified as true crime. There's a lot of intrigue as well. I casually describe it as somewhere between Tolkien and Tom Clancy.
I have different stories that are different genres. What genre I write depends on the story. Now, if someone told me that I should switch a specific story to another genre, I wouldn't listen. The ideas are specific to the story, and everything works in my head for a reason.
I hate to close myself off to a certain genre. I like taking any idea that finds itself in my brain and running with it. I find, though, that my best and most plentiful ideas end up being either fantasy or comedy.
I agree very much with Baatard; ultimately I write drama. Sure, my novel manuscript could be described as a historicl thriller - but in the end it boils down to a couple of love triangles and a setting. I think genre is more important as an idea for selling books than writing them.
I write stories centered around the people in them. What genre its in doesn't matter to me, until I'm ready to post/publish it. One story of mine is about a guy finding a magic book, and now everyone wants his head. This is fantasy, but I could change it to a computer disk, and have a sci-fi or spy drama. If I keep the magic book, but set in the modern day, and various cults of demon worshipers chase him around, while everyone else thinks he's an insane murderer, its suddenly horror. The genre simply doesn't matter except for marketing.
i write things with a deep theme. for instance, the last short story i wrote had the theme: 'perfect is not natural. flaws are okay'. because i like reading those kind of books, the words sort of flow out of me.
I do a lot of historical fiction, mainly because I just love history. But I agree with the point that genre isn't the main event.
I tend to write science fiction and fantasy stories. It isn't a conscious decision; I generally start out with an idea or a character that intrigues me, and then I develop that idea or character further. Fantasy and science fiction simply contain subject matter that holds my interest far better than the genres of historical fiction or contemporary work. (I read both, but I have little desire to do the research which those genres require.) I suppose I could write on other topics without seeing the quality of my work suffer. However, politics would be right out; my views are not politically correct, and that can lose research funding at the very least.
I won't be able to say until (if) I can finish and get it sold. Since life is made up of bits of everything - horror, humor, mystery, and so forth - I see no point in shutting off all of them and funneling that into a single genre. I'll leave that to somebody with a better business eye. In all probability, it'll probably go into the action-adventure/thriller category.
