7 Things I Learned While Writing Across Genres
This year, I have three drastically different books coming out:
The Lies Among Us (Lake Union, February 2024)—book club fiction about sisterhood, grief, and the corrosive nature of lies, as seen through the eyes of a woman who does not exist.Spy Ring (HarperCollins/Clarion Books, May 2024)—a kids book that mixes a contemporary treasure-hunt adventure with historical facts about the American Revolutionary War.The Spellshop (Macmillan/Tor/Bramble, July 2024)—a cozy fantasy about a rogue librarian and a talking spider plant, full of stolen spell books, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.
They are different in pretty much every way possible: voice, character, theme, plot, audience, and purpose. And I learned a ton while writing them. So, without further ado, here are seven things I learned while writing across genres.
You don’t have to put yourself in a box (unless you want to).
You sometimes run across writing advice that tells you to pick a lane and stay in it. Build a brand. Grow a readership. Hone your craft in a single genre aimed at a single audience. And yes, that is absolutely a valid approach. But you don’t have to! You can build a writing career by exploring multiple passions at once.
Everyone’s path is different. Just because you started in one genre or one age group doesn’t mean you can’t also write other kinds of books. There is no One True Way to be a writer. It’s okay to make your own way.
It’s not all that different.
When I wrote my first book for adults after writing multiple books for kids, every single interviewer asked me, “Was it difficult to switch?” And I remember thinking, “No one ever told me it was supposed to be.” And I was grateful they hadn’t.
The fact is that it all boils down to telling a story. No matter what you’re writing or who you’re writing it for, you are still stringing sentences together in order to create an illusory world and breathe life into people who don’t exist. You are always crafting lies to reveal truths.
So please don’t let the differences between genres/audiences intimidate you. It’s all storytelling. Just… different flavors. The process remains the same: You do the work, and then you try to make it better.
And if a particular story never comes together, you will still have learned something about yourself and your craft. I strongly believe that no writing is ever wasted.
Identify the heart of your genre.
The key to writing different kinds of books is identifying the beating heart within each genre. Once you know what the driving force behind the type of story you want to tell is, once you’ve absorbed that on an intuitive level, you’ll be able to find the voice for your book.
But the first step is to find that heart.
For me, the core of book club fiction is theme. Everything else is in service to the aspect of the human condition that’s being explored within the novel. In The Lies Among Us, I wanted to unpack the concept of lies. I made the choice to delve into this universal theme that is invading every aspect of our lives—through politics, news, social media, and so forth—through the highly intimate lens of a family drama.
My main character can see the physical manifestations of the lies we tell. Harmful lies exude a toxic sludge that churns through the streets. Beautiful lies drape illusions over painful realities. And she has to learn to navigate all of this in the wake of her mother’s death and somehow connect with a sister who can neither see nor hear her.
Check out Sarah Beth Durst’s The Lies Among Us here:
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A treasure-hunt adventure for kids, on the other hand, is driven by plot. Each piece has to connect to the next. All the rest has to be there too, of course—character, plot, setting, theme—but the essential element that propels the reader forward is what-happens-next. In Spy Ring, two kids discover a ring that supposedly belonged to Anna Smith Strong, the only female member of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, which has a secret code inside and the words, “Find me.” Each step of their journey unearths the next clue. The plot is the glue that holds it together.
In a cozy fantasy, though, plot is secondary. Cozy fantasy is all about the vibe. It’s meant to feel like a warm hug. It needs to be warm and uplifting, which means that its beating heart is the characters’ emotional and visceral experience of the world around them.
For The Spellshop, I paid particular attention to the sensory details of each moment. When my character rides a merhorse, she feels the spray of the ocean on her face and the sun on her back. When she eats a raspberry, she tastes the explosion of sweetness. It’s a genre that lingers on moments of joy. The goal is to make the reader feel relaxed, happy, and safe.
Identifying what element burns brightest in your chosen genre—whatever it may be—will help give your novel a cohesion of purpose and voice.
And keep in mind that there’s no right or wrong answer. This is writer-specific, as well as genre-specific (and even book-specific). So long as you find the heart of your story, you’ll be fine.
Ask yourself why.
It helps if you ask yourself why you’re writing a particular book. How do you want to feel while you’re writing it, and how do you want a reader to feel while they’re reading it?
Whenever I get stuck or run into that old friend writer’s block, the question I always go back to is: Why did I fall in love with this story? If I can rediscover what I loved about it, then I can find my way back into the story, the characters, and the plot.
Pay close attention to whatever passion leads you to your story. Whatever spark led you to begin will become the strength that leads you through to the end.
See through the eyes of your character.
I cannot stress enough how important this is, especially when you’re writing for different age groups. If you sit down and say to yourself, “I’m going to write a book for the children” or “I am going to write an Important Work of Fiction,” it will not go well.
But if you tell your story through the eyes of your character as honestly as you can—if you see your character as a person rather than an age or an archetype—then it will ring true on the page. And if a reader believes in your character and cares about your character, then they will come with you on whatever journey you want to take them on, whether it’s an exploration of the concept of lies, a treasure hunt on bikes, or a cottagecore dream.
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Respect the genre.
You can tell if a writer doesn’t have respect for the genre they’re writing in. A writer who writes fantasy while dripping with disdain for fantasy books… is going to write a terrible book. A writer who thinks it’s easy to write a children’s book because “they’re just for kids” is doomed to fail.
Read in the genre you want to write. Fall in love with it. Obsess over it. And then go write it. I promise it will result in a much, much better book.
Trust yourself.
Everyone has a plethora of stories inside. You just have to give yourself permission to tell them. Trust that they’re inside you, and let them out.