 Drama: April 30, 2014 Issue [#6273] |
  Drama
This week: Trying on Unfamiliar Genres Edited by: Joy  
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Genres aren't closed boxes. Stuff flows back and forth across the borders all the time.
Margaret Atwood
“In the industry, trying out new genres is not always encouraged but what I've discovered is that as a writer, a jaunt outside my comfort zone generally brings new skills to the main body of my work.”
Sara Sheridan
Literary fiction, as a strict genre, is all but dead. Meanwhile, most genres flourish.
Dean Koontz
“Writing historical fiction has many common traits with writing sci-fi or fantasy books. The past is another country - a very different world - and historical readers want to see, smell and touch what it was like living there.”
Sara Sheridan
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about experimenting with different genres to deepen the craft.
Your Drama Newsletter Editors: zwisis NickiD89  kittiara Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Probing a different genre from what you usually write in? Why not? A new venture is exciting because it is full of speculation, and you could easily anticipate pleasure for the outcome of your efforts.
An unaccustomed genre may heighten anxiety, but it also prevents your writing from going stale, especially if you have a set routine and an established readership base. Many noted authors write in more than one area, sometimes under different pen names. Did you know that Dean Koontz’s other pen names are John Hill and Aaron Wolfe, or Anne Rice’s pen names are Howard Allen, Frances O'Brien, Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure, or Nora Roberts’ other pen name is J.D.Robb, or Michael Crichton’s is John Lange? The list is endless. This may happen if you are already a well-established author with several volumes and a few awards under your belt because it may be a bit sticky undertaking to change suddenly and shock your fan base if you use the same pen name.
Experimenting with different genres, even if you don’t publish in them, can expand your experience, and as you become more confident, it will add additional depth to your writing. Besides, who knows if you won’t be more successful in the new genre? You wouldn’t find out unless you tried.
Most mainstream fiction has sci-fi, fantasy, and horror overtones. Some stories change genres in the middle of being written, as each Genre has its advantages:
Romance will have you go deep into character emotion.
Horror will offer insight into evil and suspend belief in the ordinary. It will also teach how to develop exciting and quirky characters.
Science Fiction shows how to handle backstory without boring the readers, especially where pacing is concerned.
Mystery and Thrillers also teach pacing well, as well as escalating plot action and tension and writing cliffhangers.
Action/Adventure genre shows how to insert excitement, risk, and physical danger into a storyline.
Historical fiction genre teaches the importance of research, weaving in details such as causes and effects, and reflecting the atmosphere of a certain time period.
Humor genre teaches wittiness, playfulness, and lightness to your writing, and may enable you to insert some humor into the mainstream fiction or the other genres in which you may choose to write.
The key to a transition to a new genre is to start reading in the genre first, then trying your hand out with short short stories or vignettes and scenes. Another point to keep in mind is that good characterization, solid plot, skillful pacing, and strong construction should apply to all genres.
Although the genres may feel different, the goal for each of them stays the same. That is, to evoke strong emotion in the reader. If you are able to do that already, why not experiment with all the genres. Who knows, you may end up with a best seller or a coveted award, as I certainly hope you do.
Until next time...
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 This Issue's Tip: If you are writing novels in series, influence of the characters' backstories need to be your primary concern throughout the series.
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Quick-Quill 
Thank you for this newsletter. I went over my novel and though it isn't intense, my drama is about the people. I have two main characters, one in the present and one in the past. What is at stake? That was a problem for me. I had to do some rework to "Up the stakes." You made the point exact and understood. Great job.
Thank you very much for the feedback. I am glad the newsletter helped.
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A*Monaing*Faith 
love the quotes! especially Tolstoy's
Katniss is most prominent on my brain after reading the quotes, because no spoiling the 3rd movie for you non-readers but ....man, that ending truly unraveled who that girl was and who we all (as in me, can't speak for others) though she was going to end up being....
Thank you. I like using quotes, too, everywhere.
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BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
Life will have trouble.
Doesn't it always!
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