Hell bent and twisted out of shape :/ ~ Part I

My writing life has been somewhat chaotic and disorganised. I’ve lacked focus, discipline and passion

Because I’ve been hell bent and twisted out of shape about what genre I write in.

I love adult contemporary dark fantasy/horror and have always identified with that. Most of my short fiction, definitely fits into this category and my last two novels, ‘Cats on the Temple Floor’ and ‘City of the Dead’ are best described as ‘contemporary supernatural thriller/romance’ or something thereabouts.

I’m really, really good at crossing genres which I don’t think publishers tend to like too much.

But despite that, I started experimenting with ‘voice’, as you do, and I had a go at a YA novel. I loved the concept of my world but haven’t been too good at following it through. It’s all plotted out, it has the beginning, middle and the end but I haven’t been able to finish it.

I’m not entirely sure why, but I do know, I keep worrying about the voice, about the content. Is it too young? Is it too old? Will my YA be judged by parents who might possibly hate my honesty of my teenage characters. Aaarrghhhh…

I learned that I’m hung up on genre!

It just wasn’t working for me and I didn’t have a specific adult story to tell, so I said,‘I quit’.

Not writing.

I would never quit, quit! Because I’m an obsessed crazy, creative that even when I want to give up, I can’t.

But I said, ‘I quit writing novels for the next twelve months. I will write short fiction (my favourite) and experiment with ‘voice’ and worry about a novel or editing my last novel another day.’

That was five months ago.

About a week ago, I woke with a start and a desperation to get out of bed (this is not normal for me on a cold, rainy winter’s day, and having had only three hours sleep) but I had to get to the keyboard and I typed:

CHAPTER ONE!

Can you believe it?

I couldn’t. But there it was, 900 odd words later, I realised I was writing a novel.

A novel I said, I wasn’t going to write for at least another year.

The next two questions I asked myself:

Who’s the audience and

what’s the genre?

…I realised I didn’t know.

I still don’t know and I don’t care, because for the first time, I’m not getting hung up about categorizing nor concerning myself about the content.

I’m simply writing a STORY.

And I’m LOVING it. ♥

How about you?

If you’re a writer are you fastidious about your audience and constantly cross checking whether it’s fitting in with your chosen genre?

If you are a reader does genre concern you? Do you analyse the books you are reading and if they don’t fit into the mainstream idea of what genre it should be, are you disappointed?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject