While reading's Kay's piece for this week's go round it occurred to me that half the group's long-term members regularly jump genres. We've experimented with other fields, played around until comfortable. No two members have done so more than Kay and I, begging the question -- Are we not yet comfortable, or are we too comfortable?
Zack and Jim write for adults and young adults, but generally stick with science fiction. Sandy generally focuses on short memoir, often with a humorous bent, but has stretched her pen to include a one-act play and other pieces. Even Joe, though always sticking to memoir, writes both serious reflections and humorous reminisces. Kay, though, has written essays, short stories, humorous pieces, murder mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and I'm sure I'm missing something...
As for me, well, when asked what I write, I always reply, "Whatever pops into my head." I've covered religious fiction, short stories, political satire, sketches, stand-up, poetry, non-fiction, journalism, and picture books. I even have a YA idea bouncing around in my head.
So, Kay, are we abundantly creative or entirely unfocused? Can we be both? Neither? Can one be the former and the other the latter? How does the writer's mind continually conceive new ideas, new projects, new approaches?
I have long argued that all work is autobiographical, even copy writing and journalism. Why did the author take that approach? That angle? Why focus on that aspect of a story or product? Perhaps a better phrase is all work is psychologically revealing, but it doesn't have the ring, the tone, of autobiographical. I can spot "me" in every work. Where it came from, what I'm saying, what scene, place, or person I'm re-creating. Even those that border on fantasy -- I know what I'm trying to say. My change in genre is brought about by what I want to say. And by having to say it, whether to adults, children, or more commonly, myself. I don't know exactly how the finished product will read, but I can't wait to type that final period. And then go back and change it all. I think, for me, it's a matter of being comfortable with myself and with experimentation, but rarely, if ever, the execution.
There is, of course, the other approach -- being too comfortable. Experimenting because you know the group will accept what you have done. Finding support for every effort, regardless of how the critiques come back. There is generally no reason to experiment when happy, but comfortable? Yes, sometimes all the more so. There is a psychological freedom in being comfortable, whether actors and authors like to admit it.
Before this becomes its own novel, author's jump genres for all sorts of reasons: boredom, excitement, inspiration, age, wisdom, drive, dissatisfaction, tragedy, rejection, revulsion.
Why have some of you jumped genres?
3 comments:
My most comfortable genre is the essay, follow by journalism. I do write regular and young adult fiction but I am not nearly as natural at it as I am in polemics. And that's precisely why I do it. I have certain stories in my head that can't be told in the essay form. I enjoy the challenge of exercising a different part of my brain. I can bang out pretty decent essays without a whole lot of trouble. When I write fiction, it's laborious, but it feels more satisfying when I finish something (which does occasionally happen!).
It is an interesting point and I am finding the desire to try different things as I start to do more.
I think starting with a comfortable idea and shepherding it along is a skill. Different life and experiences shape what drives us and our stories. Michelle had plenty to say about jumping out of the poetry canoe for at least a short time and what it meant to her.
Getting the ideas all the way to a resolved end may then be the challenge but...
-Sandy
Self-expression and creativity shouldn't be limited to one mold, one channel, one vessel. That's it. Genres are vessels for our creativity. We should be allowed to pick which one works best for what we want to do and say. For example, I feel a need for a poem coming on to hold all my thoughts and feels on "letting go." Haven't written a poem in several years. Might not be a world-class poem. Still, it's screaming out in my mind to put down the words that way.
I appreciate anyone who has dedicated his or her life to one genre, one art form of any sort. Today, there's a lot of marketing talk about platform and track record and blah blah blah in order to get published. It's a valid point to be able to establish and prove proficiency before someone takes a risk and publishes your work.
However, there are tales of writers who are successful in one area and no publisher will allow them to jump track and try something else. A one-trick pony never gets to be anything else. So, experimentation now can possibly give you more options down the road.
Finally, it's good to have a couple projects of different genres--even if its just fiction to nonfiction--so that if you can burned out in one, a dive in another will revive and reanimate your creativity level.
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