Writing rambles: I'm a branding nightmare
Mar. 17th, 2022 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkSo...I'm a branding nightmare when it comes to writing.
I've written across a varied spectrum of genres: fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, contemporary romance...and I just got an idea for a horror novel.
Lol.
But here's the reason why I write in different genres:
I am usually a themes-driven writer.
Which means I come up with the theme/message of a story first, and then select a genre second as the vehicle for that theme/message.
Nowhere is that more obvious than the story behind Novel #3. When I was reading back over my trunked fragments of novels I attempted and then abandoned before drafting Novel #3, I realized I had worked on 2 or 3 novels that tried to encapsulate the same themes that I finally captured in Novel #3 (immigrant burnout and stigmatization of mental health issues in Asian American communities).
Two of those were contemporary romances, like Novel #3. But one of them...was not. It was a speculative, superhero (!!) romance.
And my horror idea circles the same theme. (Maybe I, as an author, am haunted by certain themes and will keep writing them until I have a traditionally published novel.)
It's tough, because this is, once again, where the art and business of writing clash. Publishers expect you to write in one genre and stick to it for the purposes of brand recognition. But some authors write in a variety of genres because, well, that's where the muse takes us.
My dream is to one day be an author like Silvia Moreno-Garcia or Jesse Q. Sutanto--someone who is allowed to dabble in multiple genres because their name itself has become the brand.
I can dream, at least.
I've written across a varied spectrum of genres: fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, contemporary romance...and I just got an idea for a horror novel.
Lol.
But here's the reason why I write in different genres:
I am usually a themes-driven writer.
Which means I come up with the theme/message of a story first, and then select a genre second as the vehicle for that theme/message.
Nowhere is that more obvious than the story behind Novel #3. When I was reading back over my trunked fragments of novels I attempted and then abandoned before drafting Novel #3, I realized I had worked on 2 or 3 novels that tried to encapsulate the same themes that I finally captured in Novel #3 (immigrant burnout and stigmatization of mental health issues in Asian American communities).
Two of those were contemporary romances, like Novel #3. But one of them...was not. It was a speculative, superhero (!!) romance.
And my horror idea circles the same theme. (Maybe I, as an author, am haunted by certain themes and will keep writing them until I have a traditionally published novel.)
It's tough, because this is, once again, where the art and business of writing clash. Publishers expect you to write in one genre and stick to it for the purposes of brand recognition. But some authors write in a variety of genres because, well, that's where the muse takes us.
My dream is to one day be an author like Silvia Moreno-Garcia or Jesse Q. Sutanto--someone who is allowed to dabble in multiple genres because their name itself has become the brand.
I can dream, at least.
