Genre Schmenre

As for me, I don’t pick genres. Not anymore.


A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when I was trying to be the next Stephen King, I always had lots of story ideas, but never pursued the ones which weren’t of the horror genre. Even if I had a great idea for a humorous story or adventure tale, I’d choose to write horror, even if my idea for that story wasn’t as good. I wanted to be known as a horror writer.

Though I managed to publish a few, most of them weren’t any good, and horror became less enjoyable to try and write. I have to enjoy the process of writing, even if that means getting rid of the notion I need to write in a specific genre. After all, the books I read aren’t exclusively of one genre, so why should my own stories be?

That’s how I came to write what would be my first published novel. Other than the target audience (young adults), I didn’t write Killer Cows to try and fit into any particular genre. It ended up being a big mixed-bag of realistic fiction, humor, B-movies and sci-fi. But most importantly, I liked it. And if you can’t love your own work, how can you expect someone else to?

And even though it was my first sale, I didn’t try to duplicate it with my second novel. Though aimed at the same age, it’s an entirely different genre. My third book (a work in progress) is different from both of those.

The important thing for me, just like for any reader, is the story comes first. Who cares what genre it falls under?

D.M. Anderson
http://dmanderson.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/frandavea
Killer Cows available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Cows-ebook/dp/B003CT33LY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
and Fictionwise: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b107106/Killer-Cows/DM-Anderson/?