Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of the amazing and generous Alex Cavanaugh. Thank you to September co-hosts: Kim Lajevardi, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguirre, Olga Godim, Michelle Wallace, and Louise - Fundy Blue! To find links to other monthly contributors, click here.
This month’s optional question: What genre would be the
worst one for you to tackle and why?
In real life as well as fiction, I stay away from anything
that might lead to a sleepless night, which means no horror for me. I write because I love getting lost in other worlds (and words), not to increase my heart
rate. Somewhere on this blog I wrote about a summer roommate who wouldn’t leave
me alone until I agreed to read Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. About a third of
the way through, I tossed the book across the room. It sat in the corner until
we weren’t roommates anymore. As with my reading, so goes my writing.
As for other genres, well, erotica is out, I don’t feel like
I have the voice in my head for YA and, being the ultimate panster, it’s unlikely I
could write a mystery because that would require making a plan. (In high school I wrote my papers before the required outline
since it was the only way I could figure out what to write.) Other than moon-to-earth
big picture, I don’t have much of a clue as to where my stories are going until
they get there. Once they do, I spend eons editing the the heck out of them, paring them to final form. Not the most efficient way to write, but here we are…
In that regard, I have the utmost admiration for authors of
historical fiction. Most recently, I read The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn, whose
story portrays British civilians trained to break German military
codes during the war. If I dove into something that complex, I doubt I’d
resurface from the research, never mind demonstrate the skill to write about it. It takes a lot of organization and confidence to embark on a story with such depth.
Sometimes, I wish my wiring worked that way.
What would be the most difficult kind of story for you to write?
