The choice of genre could be easy or difficult depending on how you view it. Sometimes it can be quite an easy choice, as a genre can just be a natural fit; sort of jump out and take hold of you. It can also be difficult because, sometimes, your best genre plays hide and seek. It can be a pleasant challenge to work with a some genres, especially if you want to expand your horizons and try a genre that had not presented itself as the most obvious choice.
My genre of choice was adventure/fiction of one type or another, which is a very broad scope. The narrowing down was, and still is, a more difficult matter. I had a brush with Sci-fi. However, I am not quite up to a full story in that line, at least, not yet. Nor am I up to writing in the ‘space stories’ form.
It was later that I found a sub-genre of Sci-Fi called Steampunk. This was/is appealing, though it does require some amount of research and is not without it’s difficulties. It is a whole world to imagine and create mostly as you chose, but if one does not research properly in order to fit the description of the genre then it is not the same genre, and a reader who picked up this book for the sake of the genre will likely feel cheated and stop reading.
The whole Sci-Fi genre has a similar rule. If you don’t do your research on the science behind the fiction you are writing, or write things into your story things that couldn’t happen with a scientific explanation, you might as well be writing Fantasy with fairies and wizards and all that sort of thing. These might be suitable in their own genre, but they have little, to no place, in the Sci-Fi genre because it is Science Fiction and to quote a certain well known Starfleet Engineer “You canna’ change the laws of physics.” This is a difficult genre, so far as I am concerned, but it is something that I find interesting and continue to investigate.
I don’t remember being interested in writing a romance novel. Sure, I could play around with adding a little romance to a story (adventure story, of course), but the romance certainly was not the point of the story. Then, someone spit-balled an idea at me. I thought about it and decided to try my hand, thinking it just might be a romance novel I could write.
Now, it is probably obvious to some, or even most, that a romance novel without the aid of adventure would rely heavily on character development. A romance novel without the aid of adventure is what I set out to write. I ran full into the character development roadblock with at least one character. Other characters just need a little more work to get a couple of scenes cinched up, but one particular character jammed the clockwork.
Throughout my practice runs for writing a novel, (no, they are not ready to publish yet; still working out the tangles.) I learned that adventure, mystery, or action… or a combination of the three are very useful for moving the story along. At times it can seem as though the story moves along with very little help from the author. Where there is cause, there is effect, which is the cause of more effects, and so on. Before long, there is much more writing on one scene or set of scenes than one needs or can use. The problem here can be the problem of writing the stuff in between the action while cutting down the action scenes to a more manageable size. Cutting a long action scene that was a thrill to write can be a wrenching process.
In other words, the choice of genre, so far as I have found, really depends on the author’s interests and strengths. A person who can write dialogue well and can use it to move a story along, but finds writing about the detailed movements and actions of a fight scene or spy scene difficult, would be more likely to thrive on the romance or the character study novel. At least, this is how I view it, because these romance and character study novels are rich with interpersonal interaction, sometimes subtle in character development, and packed with dialogue. This same author might find an action or mystery story a struggle to write.
A writer who can say much with few words or use those few words to advantage, but find long descriptions difficult might find a children’s book or short story more to their taste and skill. Now, these writing types which I have mentioned, along with their best genre are not written in stone. These are only possibilities, and each person can have a blend of various strengths and weaknesses. Each person must experiment and find out what works best for them.
One last thing: just because you find an aspect of writing difficult, does not mean, of necessity, you should avoid that aspect. I believe writing is a skill and, as such, can be learned. Read. Practice. Form your own conclusions and, while learning rules, don’t let those rules bind you too tightly or they will restrict your writing creativity. Also, very important; in your quest to find your genre/s remember to enjoy the wonder.
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