And then I started playing around. I wrote a couple short stories. I wrote a manuscript that was in multiple 3rd person POV. I toyed with ideas in science fiction, contemporary, horror, and my latest project involves dabbling in high fantasy.
I think it's important sometimes to break out of your comfort zone and try new things. See what works and what doesn't - especially if you haven't been published yet. Because once you're published it's very easy to find yourself stuck on a platform. Your agent and editor may want you to write several novels in that genre in order to establish your audience before you start playing around with something else. Or you may choose to have a penname if your topics are drastically different and you don't want your audiences overlapping!
Do you ever try different styles of writing? Could you see yourself writing something different?
just switching from 1st person to 3rd, or from past to present tense, can really make a difference in your writing. the challenge is good for us!
ReplyDeleteI am trying to third person and maybe even past tense if I can manage. I start to unconsciously write 'I' and 'say' not 'said'
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! BROKEN is the first story I've written that was THAT heartbreaking and romantic. It's also the first book I've written without a character with supernatural abilities.
ReplyDeleteI'm all about 20th century historical, but sometimes I write soft sci-fi. I've always been a natural writer of third-person omniscient, but once in awhile I might write something closer to third-person limited. I write in both past and present tense, though most of my books seem to be in past, other than my Russian novels and contemporary historical family saga. I recently decided that I might like to go back to a long-shelved project, a saga told in diary form, about a young girl who runs away from Plymouth, Massachusetts to what was then Oregon Country (Pocatello, Idaho, to be exact), starting in 1840 and going into the 20th century. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how well I remember how to write first-person for an entire book, not just letters, after over 20 years.
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