Reading & Writing Genre

Ever since NaNo, I’ve been debating in the back of my mind what genre I would call myself, because none of them fit quite right. (Which would either translate into a book that has very broad appeal, or a marketing nightmare) It’s too involved for chick-lit, but the main character is a chick. It’s not romance, but love is the driving element here. It’s not historical, but it’s meant to be gothic. It’s not fantasy, but it’s in my own world. You get the picture. A lot of my story ideas are like that – not easily labeled, I guess.

So I was wondering if maybe that stems from what I read – which is just about everything. Off the top of my head, some of my favorite books include Crime & Punishment, Revolutionary Road, Wuthering Heights, Pride & Prejudice, Something Borrowed/Blue, & Dracula.With the exception of mystery and western, I read just about everything…which makes for pretty long trips to the book store. Not like Stan, he beelines for the fantasy section, periodically I catch him in the computer reference, and we meet at the bargain books.

What do you think? As writers, do you find yourself particularly drawn to a specific genre’ when you write? If so, is it different than what you read? Please tell me I’m not the only literary mutt!

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Attempting to convey a message

Dan over at Dan Wrote This wrote something on Monday that’s been turning over in my head for the last couple days, and since I’ve already left a wordy comment, I figured I should just make my own entry. He’s a film guy, so it’s not like I’m completely ripping him off by bringing his theme to the written word.

When I think of phrases like, “Writing with a purpose” or “Writing with a message”, I always think of this guy from my Intro to Creative Writing class. The first section was poetry; most of us were aiming for humorous or tear-jerking, but this one guy opted for political. The gist of the poem was, “I used to dream of being a trash collector, but then those Mexicans came up here and took those jobs, so now I have to go to college and be a lawyer.” It was cute, but his hand was heavy enough to require a crane. When he finished reading and we finished chuckling softly, he said, “Do you get what I’m trying to say?” (more…)

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Worldbuilding: Fun With Religions!

Writing Excuses started ending their podcasts with writing prompts, and they recently provided a forum for their listeners to post what they did with those prompts and interact with each other. It’s pretty sweet. I’ll share what I posted. (more…)

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