Genres

This writing process has been so much  harder than I ever imagined!  Don't get me wrong, I have experienced all the usual writing difficulties--writer's block, not deep enough characters, cliches, etc.  But, lately, I find myself struggling on where I want my writing to put me.  I think I need to know what kind of books I want to write, before I actually go through the entire process of writing one!   Although I don't have to write to sell, what would be the point?  And yet, I can't focus so much on what is popular, what will sell, etc. that I completely lose who I am as a writer.

I've had to sit back and ask myself, who am I writing to?  Am I writing just to an editor? Am I writing to other women?  Am I writing to anyone willing to read?  Am I writing to purple polka-dotted rhino's?  It feels that way (to the latter) on some days!  I enjoy writing about emotions and people and the depth that make each of us feel and live life to the fullest.  So, in some ways,  I've been drawn to the genre of women's fiction.  I love romance and people falling in love and the deep emotions that go into play in creating those types of relationships.  Romance is fun and exciting and high like none else, but do adults today really want to read a romance without sex?  And I'll be honest, I won't write sex.  I love delving into the depths of  human peril and society and figuring out what makes a group of people work or not work.  But, I'm not a pro on politics and governments (not just ours in the US, but governments of all type).  I don't feel like I'm an expert of any one thing, but love to think and feel all of it.  See, I think I stopped making sense after my first sentence.  Maybe I should have just left it there.

In many ways, I feel drawn to the stories that my children read.  I like to read books that are clean.  Does that make me a prude?  I don't like books filled with swear words or explicit sex scenes.  I don't like things that are graphic.  I know that horrible thing happen in the world, like murder and rape, but I don't want to read about them in detail.  Maybe its because I read to find an escape, to some degree, and I want that world to be safe and beautiful and inviting and make me a better person because I visited there for a time.  If I write books like this, will there be a market?  I don't know the answer, and perhaps I never will until I just stop worrying about it and write!  Ultimately, perhaps I'm mostly fighting against my fear of failing.  What if I pour my time, my heart, my soul into a story only to have it fail miserably?  I  think it is safe to say that this last sentence is what keeps most people from ever writing the story they long to write!  Because I am determined to do this, even if only for myself, then I am going to just do it!  So what if I fail.  And in a nutshell, I guess the audience I am writing to is myself.  I will write what I would want to read and not worry if no one else shares my taste in stories.