I had a revelation on the way to work this morning. This is something I’ve been sitting on for a while and not wanting to admit, but the more I think about it, the more it seems it may be true. This is one of those things that probably only matters to me, but it’s about writing so I’ll blog about it anyway.
I realized this morning that I’m not a fantasy writer. I can write stories with fantastic elements, but…I don’t write fantasy. The only thing I can think to attribute it to is that I’m a lazy writer. Building worlds – hard. Making them the background in a character driven story instead of a character themselves and still ensuring that the reader understands what the hell you’re talking about? Even harder.
Don’t misunderstand – I’m not saying that other writing is easy. Character driven stories with arcs and development that actually end up somewhere and aren’t just vinettes? Hard. But…easier for me. Okay, at least I think so. This has yet to be validated on a large scale, since most (possibly all)of what I’ve had published to date are fantasy and erotica short stories, but…
I have to ponder this some more while I create reports with pretty numbers in them. Telling stories with numbers? Much easier than using words. Trust me on this one.
Do you have any genres you love to read and would love to write, but the format of creating in them just escapes you?
This is very interesting. It’s good that you’re able to realize it.
On my blog, somewhere, I have a confession post or two on story length. I had to admit to myself, and the blogging world apparently, that I do not write short fiction. Can’t do the short stories, even when I’m really trying to do it with an idea that I never plan to expand. My story ideas always end up too big, even if the words fall in the required word count.
Not sure about genre since I write so many different ones. Fantasy is my favorite to write in but I’ll tell you a little secret. I don’t world-build. My YA and adult mutant series? no building of the world. Epic fantasy for this years nanowrim? nope. The only one I’m doing it for is the fantasy with steampunk elements. Other than that, I just write the story and if I need to research or fill certain things in I’ll worry about it in the edits/rewrites.
But to add one I struggle with: Mystery. I haven’t read any yet, though. I don’t love the genre, but I have a set of books that want to be mysteries and I really like the main character. Detective Malcolm Zax Wilde is a great character and it’s fun to do a gay detective/police story. But will require tons of research for the rewrite, for sure.