Second September Blog. 3-9-14 Hello dear people, Today I would like to talk to you about genres. How do you decide, for a novel, or a second or third novel, what genre to write in? Do you have a theme from the first published book that has set you on a path? If so, then for now, this heady topic hardly concerns you. If, however, your first book was sucessfully written and you do not know where to go for ideas for your second novel, then this may be of interest to you, or you may come up with ideas you can pass back in the comments section. Either way, it is interesting or helpful. The reason I pose this questions is this. I write short stories in many genres. I am talking about stories of between 1,000 and 5,000 words. These pieces do not engage the writer or the reader for too long, Also choosing a genre for the next short story, matters not so much. You have a tale to tell and the plot is over quite quickly. However, if you want to delve into novella or even novel-sized projects, then a decision has to be made from the outset, what genre do you feel would suit your style of writing, what genre you think you could manage without too much research? Research, if you want to write in an historical vein, needs time. Then you also have to decide if you want to write an historical mystery, romance, horror …… You get the picture. Not all plain sailing, my friends, by any stretch of the imagination. The same goes for any genre that takes your fancy. Take, for instance, romance. Yeah, yeah! Not everyone’s cup of tea. But there can be all kinds of romance too. Modern, Western, historical, zombie if you will, murder can be included, ad infinitum! I have started something myself. I am not sure if I am running with it but , you have to make a start. At first. i thought, another romance. But, this is not shouting romance to me, as such. My WIP in edit started off well and I ran with it and I like it. Need to come up with something different for my next project – have to keep that old ball rolling! Even if I use what I have started with and turn it into something else, I do have other book projects waiting in the wings. So you see, I do have a quandary. Does anyone reading this have any answers? I suppose, with novels in edit, waiting to be worked on, i may have too much on my mind at present to settle down to serious thinking about my next project. In fact, I feel as though (to coin the old proverbial) I am between the Devil and the deep blue sea. You might say I have ‘lost my muse’, and that too may be true. We shall find out. I am not prevaricating here. I do so desparately want to get back to writing more than I am now. Now I have to be content with poems and short pieces of work. Perhaps it is because the weather is still mild enough to work outside. My mindset is, outside in the good weather, spring, summer, early September. When it gets chilly, inside is the thing. Never the twain, as it were. I leave it with you good people, Take care, Evelyn