Starting a New Genre

I am a dilettante author. I like to say it’s my intellectual curiosity that leads me to try writing in various genres. I wonder what the challenges are, what the pay off is, is it possible for me to switch genres successfully. But that would be lying to myself a little bit.

Sure, those are factors, but probably a bigger role is played by boredom. Sticking with one thing, doing it over and over, is not as satisfying to me as striking out with something new. I’ve said for years, give me a blank page any day over revising and editing a completed manuscript. I say that I know edits and revisions are the what really make a manuscript publishable, but, I don’t think, down in my soul, I’m convinced of that.

Starting a new project always excites me more than finishing an old one. That explains why I am always working on several manuscripts at once. I love the writing. The fixing, meh, not so much. I am hesitant, sometimes, to call myself an author because of that characteristic. I admire my author friends who love fixing their manuscripts. Alas, I am not among them. I do the fixing, but I am not a gleeful participant. For me, it’s like a dental visit. Necessary, but to be avoided as long as possible. Not good, I know!

Not to dwell in anti-matter territory, what’s positive in my predilection to try the new?

Whereas all novels have essential elements in common (character development, story arc, multi-problem/solution scenes, and so on), there is the ability to transfer story components to writing different genres. However, there are also specific elements that make that genre distinct from any other. I make it a goal to find out all I can about the new genre I’m attempting before I write the first paragraph.

An example of an epic fail on my part, is writing middle school biographies of intrepid women. I have dozens of women candidates for engaging books. I have passion for my project. I think it is really important to shine light on women who have gone unrecognized for so long. However, biography isn’t novel writing. It’s such a different skill set, informational text writing in a voice appropriate to the age group and with vocabulary that fits a specific developmental level, that I have struggled. My text is gasping for life. It’s stilted prose at its worst. I haven’t given up, but I don’t know when I’ll have the energy to return to working out the vagaries of the genre.

But, obstacles and roadblocks in one genre do not stop me from attempting others! This National Novel Writing Month, I am joining nearly a half million writers from across the globe as we set out to “win” NaNoWriMo by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s 1667 words a day. Almost 7 pages. Every day. For 30 straight days.

This year I am finally brave enough to attempt a genre I have admired for a long time. I love reading hard science fiction. That’s science fiction rooted in the science, a novel that takes the laws of physics and biology as we know them, and pushes forward to what might be possible in the future. Three authors I recommend for dipping into hard scifi, are Larry K. Collins (The McGregor Chronicles), Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars trilogy), and Andy Weir (The Martian). Of course, I have a pen name for my scifi stuff so as not to confuse readers. River Glynn will be penning and publishing this novel.

River has spent a good bit of time reading up on how to colonize space, what the challenges are, what some solutions might be, and where we are currently in the process of making space living a reality. In a few days, she’ll get a gauge of whether she can pull off a hard scifi novel in the first of her Mars Murder Mysteries.

I think River Glynn has a good story premise and a base from writing contemporary mysteries with another pen name. She’s done character sketches and plotting. She figures the worst that can happen is that she can only turn out a soft science fiction novel. Not the worst thing at all, right? Go, River!