Many of you who follow my blog know that I struggled with the writing of The Gnome. My struggles were mainly about whether it was going to be good enough, and whether or not I could write decent action scenes. I had only written paranormal romance up to that point, but I love to read horror, so I wanted to give it a try. And the kind of “light” horror I wrote wasn’t that far from paranormal romance. There was some romance in The Gnome, but that wasn’t the focus. I feel like The Gnome ended up being one of my better books. I worried about the action, but one of my beta readers told me that’s the area where I “shone” in the book. So where do I go from here? Do I stick with paranormal romance, or should I write more horror? And then there’s the book my husband has an outline for that I need to write, and it seems to fall somewhere in between. Although, since I’m the one writing it, I might put romance in it whether he likes it or not. LOL
How many of you cross genres in your writing? How comfortable do you feel writing something out of your normal genre? I would love to know!
lauralynnelliott.com 
Personally I think you should write whatever your heart is telling you to write. 😉
Oh, but then I would go in all kinds of directions. LOL
When I read this post, I don’t really think about my personal level of comfort in crossing genres, I think about my friend Lauralynn who writes whatever she’s moved to write and is, like, one of the few people I know (perhaps the only one) who doesn’t twist herself into a hand-wringing knot about diluting brand, losing momentum, or whatever silly things we all do to keep ourselves from just writing. She writes whatever she wants to write, stretches herself to try different things, loves what she’s doing, and has a whole bunch of readers who respond to that. She’s awesome. We should totally have lunch with her.
Susan, that’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. 🙂 And we should absolutely, totally have lunch. It’s been too long. And we don’t live THAT far away!
How well is the gnome book selling? Does it average out with your other books? I really enjoyed the gnome book, and I love to read horror so I like the idea. It just depends on if the horror genre works for you as a writer. Of course, it might also take more than one horror book to get a good view of how well it does with your audience. 😀 And there’s also the enjoyment factor. I’ve decided to write that Snow White story on a private blog where it’s free writing for 15 minutes, and if I get bored of it, I can write something else. I really need something that is private where my readers won’t want more of in case I ditch the project.
Good luck! I know it’s not an easy decision.
The Gnome isn’t doing well at all right now, but neither are my Libby Fox novellas. Haunted Lake is my best seller, but it did nothing for months before it took off. Then suddenly, it was selling like crazy. Guardian Vampire is still my best seller of all time, and it’s a novella, so I can’t say the others aren’t selling because they are short. Plus, the Libby Fox novellas are compiled into a trilogy, and that one isn’t selling that well, either. Sometimes I think the title of a book makes a big difference. There was something about Guardian Vampire that drew people in. I’m sort of banking on that with my current WIP. I think it has a great title, but we’ll see. I’m going to write the book my husband outlined right after the one I’m doing now. It has a great premise if only I can write it the way he envisions it. And I’m going to share the credit with him on the authors’ names. Hopefully, I can come up with a good title for it, too. To be honest, a good title catches my eye as much, if not more, than the cover.
I agree about the title being a big factor. Sometimes the title will get my attention more than the cover will. It esp. factors in when browsing a list of books.
I got The Gnome and am looking forward to reading it. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone every now and again.
Thanks, Emma, I hope you enjoy The Gnome. 🙂
I’m a huge fan of genre mixing and an even bigger fan of just writing whatever feels right for the moment. You know me; I’m constantly juggling a gazillion different books, and very rarely are they the same genre. I’m most comfortable with fantasy, and almost all my work involves some magic realism, and I guess I’m more uncomfortable with contemporary straight fiction…it just never seems interesting enough.
So if the Muse is pulling you towards more horror, follow it. If she pulls you toward something entirely different than that, embrace it. Trying to conform to one idea or expectation only leads to restricted writing, but if you follow you’re heart, it’s bound to be good.
Now, excuse me while I return to making a Western/Dragons hybrid work. ; ) And I’ve been dying to read The Gnome, but I still haven’t been able to afford the new charger for my Kindle. As soon I get one, though….! Whoo-hoo!
Thanks, L.S.! I think the one writer I can think of that did the genre mixing beautifully is Michael Crichton. It’s hard to believe the same person who wrote Jurassic Park also wrote Disclosure, Timeline, and Airframe. These four books were in totally different genres. And he got away with it in trad publishing, which is kind of unusual since it seems like it’s something publishers would frown upon. I’m also a big fan of genre crossing because I think it keeps things interesting. I believe writers should stretch their writing muscles.
I’m like you…contemporary straight fiction usually bores me unless the writing is REALLY good.
Western/Dragon? Now THAT would be a challenge!
Sorry about your Kindle charger. That’s a bummer.
You’re so on point with Michael Crichton. I think you’ve just given me a new author to claim as wanting to emulate.
Emulating Michael Crichton certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. 🙂
Western/Dragons hybrid? That’s something I gotta read. 🙂
Well, crap. Now I definitely have to write it… ; )
Write whatever you want to write however you want to write it! I’ve read a few of your books and have enjoyed all of them, but ‘The Gnome’ was my favourite, not because of the horror element or less romancy thing, just because the idea and your writing grabbed me so well. A good author, such as yourself, should not feel constrained or bound to any one genre unless that’s all he or she wishes to write about. I’ve blogged about this subject many times and I know that I myself don’t want to get pigeon-holed into any one catagory (I’m a peacock, let me fly!), So go do your thing, your way, not what you think we want from you. We like surprises (and candy).
Thanks for your support and kind words, Chris. The Gnome really surprised me…I wasn’t sure I was going to like it after I finished it, but I did. 🙂 I have to weight the artist in me against the business person in me when deciding what to write. I think I want to try at least one more horror book and see how it does. I want to make a living at this someday, but I also want to write books I’M interested in.
Candy is okay, but you can surprise me with a pizza. LOL
Hey there! I thought the action in The Gnome was very good. You should explore..be a peacock…lol. I like to write in different genres…it keeps it fresh for me. Then I can stew on different types of stories. But I think historical is my favorite. LIke you, however, I don’t want to be locked into one type of writing. I’d also like to write a comical romance. I think that would be a hoot!
Thanks, Nadja! I was so worried about the action, but when you told me it was good, I felt SO much better. You definitely write in different genres, but you write them well. I’m glad historical is your favorite because Her Dark Baron is my favorite of your work.
A comical romance. That would definitely be fun.
If you’re not writing what you really want to, then it’s probably the wrong book to write. Just write what makes you happy. It’s worked so far.
Andrew, right now I’m writing what I want. But I’m not sure it’s ALL I want. Does that make sense? There are so many different things I want to write, so many directions I want to go in. I feel like I should stay CLOSE to my genre. For instance, if I ever get that Christian romance done, I’ll probably use a different pen name. I guess since my reading tastes are so eclectic, it makes me want to write the same way. If I could quit the day job, I could do so much more! Grrrrr.
Makes complete sense to me. Over the years I’ve compiled ideas and storylines for many fantasy and science fiction stories, as well as a smattering of romance, paranormal romance, steampunk, alternative history, horror, thriller, mystery (that didn’t go well) … I’m probably missing a couple of genres/subgenres, but I believe I’ve made my point. 🙂
I feel like denying myself any of these forms is tantamount to severing a limb from my creativity. You never know what you’re going to come up with, especially not if you have established areas that are “off limits.” That said, if you go that way you might write a book (or at least part of one) that you don’t know what to do with. But that’s not the worst problem to have.
You know, that’s the beauty of self-publishing. You don’t have to stick with a genre just because a publisher tells you to. There’s so much to write!
I know exactly where you’re coming from here. My mind is always abuzz with something I want to write. I love reading horror but when I write it it comes out much softer then the stuff I read… Maybe settle on a middle ground like Laurel K Hamilton (early days lol) and write dark urban fantasy. That way you can play around with all the dark themes and scary things you like without the grittiness of true horror.
lol right now I’m working on a novella series that’s dark urban fantasy but at the same time I have a literary fiction story dancing around the edges of my mind begging me to play with it.
Hi, Sandy. The Gnome was pretty light as far as horror goes. I don’t know if I could write as dark as my favorite author…Stephen King. As far as Laurel K. Hamilton goes…I just had to stop reading. It just got too weird for me. Like you said…early days.
Are you close to publishing or is it a while down the road?
Yeah I’m probably a few months away from publishing my first in the urban fantasy genre. I’ve been publishing short pulp stories under another name for a while and have been making some fun pocket money. But now it’s time to start taking it all more seriously, I want to see if I can really make it as an indie writer taking everything I’ve learned so far and creating a real business where i get to be creative and make a living doing what I love.