New Segment – Genre Writing

Writing for a specific genre is not always easy. There are elements to consider. Writing styles to keep to. Subject matter to think about. The whole spiel.

I’ve decided to share with you my personal writing processes for specific genres. Every month I will select a genre I have worked on and give insights as to how I write stories for it.

Why am I doing this?

There are so many of us writing out there. There are plenty of advice blogs, writing blogs, and tips galore. You just have to Google “How to write *insert genre* stories” and you’ll have plenty to keep you busy. While I have done the same, I find that not all of them work for me. I don’t expect my little segment to be useful to everyone, but maybe you’ll find something helpful nonetheless.

Am I sharing advice?

While general advice is good, it’s still… general. Yes, you as the author must take that general advice and turn it into your own unique story. We may use the same basics but the results we produce are unique to each of us.

Think of clay. In its liquid state it is shapeless potential. That is your idea. There are techniques used to shape the clay and that is general advice. The kiln used to harden the clay is editing. Adding finishing touches like paint is your final draft.

My goal here is to show you how I turn my clay into specific pottery wares.

What genres will I be covering?

At this point there are four genre’s I’d like to focus on. This will start officially in September.

1. Horror
2. Steampunk
3. Sci-fi
4. Fantasy

That will take me up to December. If it works well enough, I’ll work on other genres too.

What I hope to accomplish

This segment is for me as much as it is for you, dear reader. My writing processes change so much that I become inconsistent between works. Maybe that is something you deal with too, or maybe you want a different perspective. For me, it is a way to learn more about my writing style, while figuring out the fundamentals I use consistently.

I do hope you will comment your own thoughts, ideas and advice with each segment. This is for both readers and writers alike. I’m no expert so perhaps you have insights I’m lacking. Either way, I do hope we can grow together and help each other.

Now, onward to writing!

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NaNo Insights: Week 4

I stretched over the 30K line. Barely. Statistically I should be at 35K words by now but 72% of all statistics are made up anyway so whatever right? You may be asking the same question I ask myself every time I fall another 1666 words behind with each missed day; will I make it to 50,000 words.

The answer is as mysterious as the novel I’m writing. Would you believe me if I told you that at 30K, I finished the first of three arcs in the story? Yep, that was just the introductory section and if I wrote it right, when you get to the end of it you should be like:

Now the hard work begins.

I have to tie them all in during the middle ground, building the tension and drama and action that led to that (hopefully) shocking first arc. Answering all the major questions that would be running through the readers’ minds. The only problem is… I know what has to happen, I have no idea how. Most authors will know, sometimes your characters just jump into their roles and lead the story along a different path to what was initially planned. A lot of times I had to rope them in and at least let them run parallel to the plan which rounded up perfectly after all. The story is on track.

What’s really satisfying is the fact that I’m happy with my story so far regardless of word count. That quality vs quantity idea, of building a more a solid work to edit later, turning out better than just a rambling of words that I know I’ll probably delete later anyway. While others may be happy to say,

“It doesn’t matter, they added to the word count and that’s awesome!”

I’d rather say, at least in this point in time,

“They were worth adding to the word count and that’s great!”

I may be behind on but guess what: