Skip to main content

Theatrical Tuesday - What Genre Do I Write?

TuesdayI finally remember what I wanted to post about the other week. And this week's theme is soul, so it's the perfect time to discuss this.

For a novelist, genre is of key importance. Indeed, it seems you must choose one main genre such as Romance or Horror and forget about writing a children's book unless you use a pen name for something else you'd like to do. This limitation harkens back to putting your books on a shelf. It's all about branding yourself as a novelist.

But I'm a free spirit and I don't want to write a specific genre.

This is what I love about screen writing. If I feel like writing a horror today and a romantic comedy tomorrow, I can.

Now, I mostly write horror, fantasy, and sci-fi anyway, but every now and then I get an idea for a kid's TV show, an action movie, a thriller, a sports story, or a historical fiction piece and I want to be able to write it all.

My plays tend to be more dramatic works that have a specific goal beyond entertaining. My movies aim to entertain while subtly saying something about life.

I think the whole idea of being shackled to a specific genre is tragic, though I do understand the why. If Stephen King wrote a normal children's story, most would have in their mind an idea that it is inappropriate for children. Under a pen name, he's free to explore that idea, but it would be like a brand new writer on the scene instead of an almost prolific and well-known one.

Today I'm pitching a dramedic TV show about retired life and tomorrow I'm pitching a small creature horror film to local industry experts. I'm nervous and excited about it all. We're getting closer to the end of the year and my future is still murky though it's filled with positive potential.

In closing, I write just about every genre and I love it!

And that's how life's river flows today.
R~
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...
Read more

Warrior Wednesday - Cross-training

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Martial arts are a great workout, but it can be easy to forget that we need to do other exercises to ensure total body fitness. That being said, it doesn't have to take a lot of time or be a miserable experience. One of my Iaido mentors, 8th Dan Hatekenaka Sensei, does hot yoga when she isn't practicing Iaido. She practices Iaido every day whether there is class or not. Now Iaido is great for many things. Swinging a sword about takes *some* strength, so it works the upper body. It's important to mention that we try to get a sword that is a reasonable weight. Many are only a couple of pounds because they are a giant razor and don't need to be heavy in order to cut things. Also, a light sword should be able to be swung as thought it were heavy and a heavy one as though it were light. It also is helpful to prevent repetitive strain injuries. W...
Read more

Change is in the Air

I've been making a lot of changes lately around my home and some of them might seem a little odd, but they're making me happy. One thing I've done is taken apart my dining table. I never eat in there or have people over to eat. It was just another horizontal surface that would collect things like receipts, odd screws from various projects, and countless piles of paper. I had been frustrated because of the clutter it encouraged, but also because I didn't have a space for my Yamaha keyboard. I had been trying to use my keyboard in the living room, but it felt too cluttered and it wasn't sitting at the right height. With it now in my dining room, I was able to relocate my storage bench, which happens to be the perfect height to sit at while playing my keyboard. I now have much more breathing room. There is still a lot of mess to handle here yet, but I'm making solid progress. A lot of people suggest the bedroom is the place to start when decluttering, but I haven...
Read more