There are two questions for the month's post. Extremely open ended, but I'm not the one who asks them.
- What will you absolutely not write no matter what?
I seem to be unable to write straight up literary fiction. I need a genre to play in or I simply don't know what I'm dealing with. I won't say "no matter what" because there could always be a case where I have an idea and then it just suddenly fits. Also don't think there should be "no matter what" when it comes to writing because what doesn't work today might work tomorrow.
That's my problem with the entire topic, to be honest. I don't think there should be limits on your own writing. Yes, there are things that you have problems with writing or simply don't want to write, but to say that you have limits on your writing is to sell yourself short, in my opinion. There are other who are going to say "well, I won't write fanfiction no matter what!" and that's up to them. But again, it's not really a limit but a choice. You're choosing not to write a specific genre and that's okay. You are choosing what you want to write, which writer do every single day, and it's not limiting yourself. It's going where the story wants to take you. Which leads us into the next question.
- Where do you put your foot down in your own genre? For example, do you write fantasy but not a darker shade than a medium shade of gray? Do you write erotica and rape is not acceptable to you?
First off, this "not a darker shade" thing is a bit of bullshit for a fantasy writer like me. There's fantasy and then there's dark fantasy, which is a sub genre of fantasy. Right now, there is a lot more dark fantasy out there, thanks to the Song of Fire and Ice series, but it is not the standard barrier of fantasy. That belongs to some of the older and classic authors, like Tolkien and Lewis (we can go round and round on how Chronicles of Narnia isn't really YA but later), and some of the newer like Anne McCaffrey, Jim Butcher, and Neil Gaiman. I say newer because they aren't really classic just yet, although a case could be made for Neil Gaiman because he's epic in his own right. If you don't believe me, go read American Gods and then get back to me. I'll wait.
While we're waiting, let's get back to the question. No, I cannot write dark fantasy at the moment. I like happy endings and good triumphing over evil; it feels right to have a story that goes with that sort of flow. I also have issues with killing off my characters, which I'm trying to get over, but it's hard. So, no, I don't go beyond the medium shade at the moment. That's not to say it won't happen in the future, but at the moment, no.
As for erotica, no, I wouldn't be able to write rape. Then again, I don't think a lot of erotica writers like to write rape, but not my genre, so I couldn't say. Any erotica writers reading that would like to chime in are welcome.
That's it for this month. Any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll try to answer them the best I can. Cheers!
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