Are You Writing in the Right Genre?

By Natalie Bright

The question was posed at a romance writers workshop in Wichita Falls by Jane Graves, an award winning author of contemporary romance. Her advice was to, “hone in on the one thing that speaks to you.”

I’ve always been a huge fan of historical romance, and that seemed the obvious direction when I decided to expand my nonfiction job-related writing to writing fiction. I love history and stories set in the wild west. In the beginning the whole process was a chore; I hated my characters, the dreary plot line, and the editing process seemed like torture. In the back of my mind lurked a ten-year-old boy who found a Comanche as a best friend and one night I dreamed about a wild-haired eleven year old girl who turned a frontier town on its ear. In my minds eye, I could see them clearly and their adventures played out in my head on a daily basis. They refused to leave me alone, and that’s when I realized I wanted to write for children.

I found my notes from that workshop just yesterday, and Jane’s words came back to me, “Freshness and originality come from what you can imagine.”

Rather than fight with myself and feel frustration every time I sit down at the keyboard, I work on the piece that puts a fire in my gut. Today, I’m writing blogs. Tomorrow, who knows?

I’ve finished four middle grade novels since that first romance seminar. Some I’ve entered into contests, some are buried in a closet, and one I self-published. They may never find a place to land in the publishing world and at this point it doesn’t matter because those characters are not waking me up nights anymore. I refuse to ignore the voices in my head.

Are you writing in the Right Genre?

Natalie Bright