Lessons Learned From Different Genres

Hey, hey folks. Back again with another (hopefully) enlightening blog post. I wanted this blog to give insights into my mindset whether it’s with my process, inspiration, or other things related to my writing. So that brings me to today’s topic.

As authors we juggle a lot and in doing so some of us can’t always make time to read. Most authors that I know say that reading helps them grow as a writer and I believe that as well. It’s why not being able to read as much as I would like can sometimes be annoying. As an indie I wear lots of hats and that’s on top of family life things I have to juggle. I used to not be into audiobooks because I can be sensitive to sounds and “talking to me” wasn’t something I wanted to deal with. But man oh man have times changed and I have become an audiobook lover for sure because they have been a game changer in my reading consumption. 

Now I’m a romance girlie. It’s what I write, and it’s what I tend to lean toward in my reading. And mostly contemporary. However, this year The Squad decided to do a book club of sorts. The others in the group were already reading things other than romance which is good because I did need to expand on the genres that I read. It’s been interesting so far. 

Along with reading mainly romance, I also stick with the adult age group. The first book on our list was a YA (as was the second and third) and I admit to being a little on the fence because I know I’m not the target audience and I worried my old self wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the story. While sometimes I would get annoyed with a decision the main character made, I gave leeway remembering the age of said character. So, overall I have been able to enjoy the YA books we’ve read so far.

In general, reading more is good for me because I know I can get comfortable with my writing style. Sentence structure, vocabulary choices, ways I describe things can get stagnant. And I don’t want that. Yes, my voice should always be there, but how I use it should change and remain fresh.

Outside of enjoying the stories at hand, and absorbing different writing styles, these are my two biggest takeaways from what we’ve read so far.

*World building*

Admittedly this is something I don’t do a whole lot. Since I write contemporary and set my stories in real places I never thought I needed to “set up the world”. Most take place in Atlanta so at best I’ll throw in a few neighborhoods that are known, or talk about driving on the main interstates to get wherever my characters need to be but it’s nothing elaborate or immersive. 

The first book we read this year was I Feed Her To The Beast And The Beast Was Me. The story takes place in current day Paris and while not a lot of detail was given on the city itself, the author still pulled you into the focused world of ballet. As someone who knows nothing about ballet, the author had a way of describing the details that weren’t overly complicated for someone who is clueless. And she made the world around the FMC something you felt a part of.

Another one we read that had good world building was So Let Them Burn. That book takes place in a Jamaican inspired fantasy world. I’ve always said it’s better for me to watch something sci-fi/fantasy like rather than read it because my brain has a hard time forming a picture. I didn’t have that issue when reading this book. Instead of trying to layout the world all at once, we got gradual bits of information that built on the last to help piece it all together. That approach worked for me and I think since it was inspired by a real place that helped since I already had a base idea.

I’ve only created a fictional town once and I did something similar by basing it off a real place. Madison Island is my smalltown that I created pulling in parts of Savannah and Tybee Island. I needed that foundation on which to build the location. It was great because there were maps and city info that was readily available so I could take what I needed and shape it to fit what I wanted. 
But even with all that, things slipped through the cracks, (like not having a pier/beach for my town which was an island) but luckily I have a great group of folks around me to help catch these things. LOL I don’t know if I would create another fictional town, but I do appreciate what I learned. Both of these books had a different approach to the world building (as did the other books we’ve read so far) but they both gave me take aways that I could apply to my own writing. 

*Higher Stakes*

In my own stories I tend to not have a lot of outside obstacles for my people to overcome. The plot/issues is usually the couple having to deal with their hang ups or whatever so that the relationship works in the end. That’s not to say my characters don’t have other things going on during the story, it’s just that usually those things don’t have much if any impact on the relationship.

Not all romances are like that, plenty have more outside plot that the characters have to deal with on top of trying to build the relationship. The Boyfriend Subscription is an example of that. The book is a gender bend of Pretty Woman. MMC1 is a sex worker, but also the one with the money in this situation. MMC 2 is newly divorced and broke and hired to be the pretend boyfriend for a week. 

On top of the usual ‘I don’t believe in love/relationships’ that can happen in romances, they also have to deal with an economic power imbalance, and they have villains who are actively working against them trying to sabotage. 

The ultimate stake is death and in the first two books mentioned that was absolutely on the line. And boy does that stress me out! Romance gives you that guarantee that the people you’ve been rooting for will make it to the end of the book. Reading thrillers, and fantasy novels don’t offer me that same sort of guarantee and that is something I’m still trying to get used to as we continue on with the book club reading. 

Now, I’m not likely to kill off anyone in any upcoming novels (unless I somehow start writing romantic suspense) but reading these other genres does make me consider having “side quests” as it were. Maybe my characters issues don’t always have to be them getting out of their own way in order to find their happiness. Maybe at some point they can be locked in and together have to fight for their love against the odds of others trying to tear them apart. I like challenging myself and doing new things to keep it interesting in my writing, so it’s a real possibility for some future story.

Okay, that’s it for this time. Have you read any good books lately? Let me know and tell me what you liked about them. Also if there’s a book you think I should read to keep expanding on genres, drop it in the comments.
Until next time,
~Meka