When Do You Switch Genres?

I love it when blog topics feed readers into a slightly different blog topic and back again.
Does that even make sense?

I wrote my blog on Friday, Beating a Dead Horse about male vs. female protagonists in middle grade. Publishers want to buy more male protags, but more females are reading fiction books, than males. My unofficial observations show that neither boys nor girls care what gender the protag is as long as the story is fun, though boys wouldn't be caught dead with a blatantly obvious 'girl book' (Junie B. Jones or Judy Moody).

When my friend Susan took that topic and made it her own on her glog Twisted Sisters. Then a comment by Marilyn made me wonder about writing in different genres.

How does a writer know that you've hit the genre that really speaks to YOU but isn't blatantly following a trend? Uh, chick lit, anyone?

One thing I've learned over the last few years is that we may LOVE reading certain genres, but that doesn't mean we are the appropriate writer for that particular genre.

Don't get me wrong. I believe many PUBLISHED writers can write across genres and they do a great job at it. Published writers have a vast support system of professionals (agent, editor, publisher) in the biz to guide their decisions.

BUT an unpublished writer doesn't have that advantage. Oh, sure, we have writer friends (pubbed and unpubbed), critique partners, beta readers, and family, but when do you know a genre isn't really for you?

In my case, it took years. Were those years wasted? Hell, NO!

I learned how to write. I gained writing friends. I've had crit partners and lost crit partners, but I like to think I learned from every experience. So with my support system in place, why did I change genres?

Because I felt like I was making the motions to fit into the romance genre. I never quite 'got' the internal conflict of the hero/heroine relationship. I always wrote to the external plot, not the internal one. Romance focuses on the internal conflict of a relationship, and how the hero/heroine grow and resolve those issues.

Characters grow in other genres (sci-fi, mystery, middle grade), but the core of the story is the external factors forcing the character to make choices within the story, thus character growth.
When you switch genres you need to take into account your strengths as a writer. I like to think my strength was my youthful outlook and personal inability to 'grow-up' (nasty word. I'm not Peter Pan, but I love escaping from responsibilities!).

It helps that my daughter is eight years old and I started reading middle grade stories. LOVED THEM. Then Delacorte had it's Yearling contest, deadline June 30th. I had a goal. Write a middle grade story, according the the Delacorte parameters and submit by their deadline. Got it! I did it and discovered I really like writing middle grade stories. I have discovered the passion that was missing from the romances that I had written.

Will I sell? *shrugs* Who knows? But I'm really enjoying the journey.

So if you feel stagnant writing in the genre you are in, try something else. It doesn't have to be a big genre jump like mine (romantic suspense to middle grade), but it could be something as simple as Scottish Historical to contemporary erotica. Try it. You might actually find your writing voice in the process.

I know I did. And I'm pretty sure it's worked for other writers, too (right, Kira?).

Write on!