NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Genre Jumping

GENRE JUMPING by Kathy Ivan

Do any of you have this problem?  

Almost everything I write has some elements of suspense and/or mystery.  That’s the way my thinking process works.  I have to have some kind of hidden motivation underlying the gist of the story, or I tend to get bored.  My longest series is romantic suspense (New Orleans Connection Series), and it will be fourteen books long after my release next month. 

But, lately I find myself easily distracted and wanting to change things up and switch genres.

My brain is crammed full to overflowing with story ideas, and there is no way I’ll ever be able to tackle them all—not unless cloning becomes possible and legal anytime soon.  LOL 



But recently focusing on one idea is a struggle, because I can’t seem to concentrate on just one thing.  I’ll start outlining and story-boarding a series that sounds amazing, with fully developed characters, and before I start the actual writing, my mind is off onto another tangent, wanting to switch things up and write a cozy mystery.  No, wait, let’s do some paranormal.  Nope, I wanna write that urban fantasy series.  Wait, a hard-boiled detective dark noir sounds awesome.  Oh, maybe it’s time to write some werewolves and vampires.  You get the picture. 



Anybody else have this problem, or is it just me?  What do you do to muffle that little voice that wants to work on all the things—at the same time? 

Kathy Ivan is a USA TODAY Bestselling author who is currently working on a new series—if she can settle onto one idea, and can be found at www.kathyivan.com and www.facebook.com/kathyivanauthor


4 comments:

jean harrington said...

Kathy, Your dilemma sounds familiar. Honestly, I do believe every writer has experienced much the same ambivalence from time to time. After writing 14 books in a series and now leaving it, you probably feel a bit emotionally adrift. These familiar characters have become your friends, and now you must find a whole new assortment of acquaintances. Maybe the best solution is to put thoughts of a new project aside for a while, regroup, recharge and when your mind and body are ready for the change, voila!, a solution will leap into your brain. Anyway, for what it's worth, that's my amateur shrink suggestion for the day.

Toni Anderson said...

It's a tough one, Kathy. My brain gets full of ideas too. I adore Romantic Fantasy and Steampunk. But I'm also very invested and enjoying the main series I'm writing, probably because I don't limit the kinds of stories I allow myself to tell in it (although I'm not about to introduce paranormal elements or anything--except how cool would aliens be??? LOL).
I think you need to follow your passion. Just don't expect all your readers to come with you on the journey. But you might find new ones who will :)

Sandy Parks said...

This is the story of my writing life. I cross way too many genres and it makes it hard to market, a challenge to write, but gratifying in the end. And I have so many other diverse ideas wanting out. Too bad I'm not a speed writer. LOL

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