La Bene Vita

More On Writing

I was reading an article about genre and marketing, which I hated but totally agreed with. In summary: as an author, I don't want to be pigeonholed into a genre. But if I want to be successful, it doesn't much matter what I want. I have to specialize to create a loyal reader base.

I decided that my best genre is fantasy. I'd bet a paycheck (small as they are) that most of my readers prefer Poor Witch, and even The Butterfly Stone, over Andromeda Sings. Maybe I'll revisit Meda someday and rewrite her to be a bit more speculative.

I also decided that this explains why I'm floundering in the writing department. I've dabbled in romance and mystery and decided I suck at both. I'm trying to write fantasy, comedy, thrillers and nonfiction,which I don't suck at, but the whole thing feels like massive scope creep because it's too much. So when I sit down to "write" on a given day, I end up farting around on Facebook instead, because I have no idea what to work on.

Picking a genre will help me focus on attainable goals.

So, I have decided to NaNo Poor Witch again this year, and continue the saga with a sequel. (Like how I verbed that noun, just now?) I've already started to outline what comes next, and it involves at least two, maybe three, sequels.