Favorite Foods and Finding a Genre
For dinner, I had one of my favorite meals ever. A falafel pita sandwich, with hummus of course. Before I picked it up from the little restaurant, I had been contemplating cooking dinner myself. But I decided I wanted a falafel, and I don’t cook those. It might be one of my favorite things to eat, but that doesn’t mean I can make it. Or should. Sure, I could try. I just don’t think it would turn out well.
I also really like pasta. And I can make some good pasta. Throw some of my favorite ingredients in, and I’ve got a meal I’ll enjoy. I even feel confident enough about my pasta-cooking abilities that I’ll make it for others. Pizza too. I make some good little pizza type things.
Now, some may say that good cooks can make anything. Eh. There are a few masters out there like that, sure. But mostly every cook has their specialty. One of the best cooks I’ve met isn’t all that good when trying to grill a steak. But she makes some mean home fries. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.
If you paid attention at all to the title of the post, you’ll see where this is going.
Finding the genre best for you isn’t always easy. You may love reading romance novels, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can write them. You may only pick up space operas when taking a trip to the local B&N. But when you try to sit down and write one yourself? Complete and utter mess. Me? I’ve read mysteries all my life. Until recently, my bookshelves were dominated by Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton and J.D. Robb. I tried to write some of these myself, and I absolutely hated them. I walked around saying how awful the writing was. The characters were shallow. I had no plot to speak of. There was a murder somewhere in there and then my amateur heroine stumbled around in an attempt to solve the crime using massive cliches. And yeah. Just not good.
Then someone gave me a copy of His Dark Materials, and I got hooked on another genre. I proceeded to devour it. And then I turned to Libba Bray, Stephanie Meyer and Holly Black. I reread some Madeleine L’Engle and read some of hers I hadn’t read before. I was already a Harry Potter fan, and these novels just confirmed my love of young adult fantasy. It was like discovering a dish you’d tried a few times and realized how many amazing variations there were to it. So, I gave it a whirl myself. I tried cooking the pasta and realized it was the best dish I’d ever prepared. Sure, it could use some work and I would produce better results next time. Practice makes perfect, and it was my first shot at it. But I’d definitely found my dish.
I really do think that most writers have that specialty dish, even if they can pull off multiple ones. Janet Evanovich has written both romance and mystery/adventure novels. I’ve read both, and I’ve enjoyed both. But Stephanie Plum is where she’s in the zone.
If you’re struggling with a WIP, maybe an important question to ask yourself is, “Is this genre my falafel or my pasta?”* If it’s your pasta**, great! If you think it might be your falafel***, maybe try writing another genre you love. You just might find your zone is in something else.
* I realize this sounds utterly ridiculous.
** Just bear with me here.
*** This is starting to make me hungry.
Filed under: writing
That’s funny, because I love Agatha, myself, and the first book I tried to write (not counting the stuff I piddled around with as a teenager) was a good old fashioned murder mystery! I liked the characters and liked where I was going with it, but just had a hard time making all the pieces of the crime fit together nicely. Wrote one chapter.
The next one was a middle grade/YA and off I went. Had a blast. Although, I would like to go back and try writing for grown-ups someday, I’m definitely having a ball in this genre (which would be my pizza, I guess =).