Young Writers Society

I'm probably getting tired of writing the same genre all the time, even though writing medieval fantasy is my absolute favorite.

Here lately, I've been devoting almost all of my writing time to a new story, a mystery set in the near future. The story follows the adventures of a man named Sean Ian Northway, or S.I.N., a secret agent who fights to protect those he loves. His goal is to eliminate the Halo Corp, an organization of petty but elusive criminals who want S.I.N. dead...as well as anyone else he holds dear in his life. It's been so fun to write this story with my partner and it's nice to write something of a different genre for a change. But I'm worried that I'm losing interest in fantasy. I really don't want to let go of my fantasy works, but I only struggle with writer's block with those stories. Everything else is so much easier to write. What should I do? Should I move on from fantasy since it's been such a struggle to keep up with? Or should I hang onto it and save it for when I'm back in the mood for that genre?

Help?

Many writers write in a variety of genres. If we had to pick one to write in forever, eventually we'd all have writer's block and quit If you're feeling inspired to write a mystery right now, then write that mystery! If you try to force writing that just doesn't want to come out, it will likely make you feel more frustrated and more discouraged. Have fun with the mystery novel, and I bet someday the fantasy spark will come back and you'll be able to write one of those ideas.
Good luck!

Hi,
I completely agree with Carlito. Don't force out fantasy just to hold onto it. Sometimes when you switch writing genres, your brain brain shifts genre modes and that is perhaps why you enjoy the mystery so much and not the fantasy at the moment. It good to take a break. However, if you find yourself wanting to write fantasy but at a block, it helps to read fiction in that genre.

Happy writings
and
Happy Christmas.

I agree with the whole "write what you want" thing, and won't reiterate it.

There's another bit to this question which is "how do I get over writers block in a whole genre?"

As somebody who's just gotten off two years of not writing secondary world fantasy after over a decade writing only that, it's a valid fear where you don't know if you'll ever return to what you love.

Here's three key things I did to bring myself back to old loves:

1- Revisit what you love about the genre

Sometimes, you forget about what it is you love about a genre. Revisiting the core elements— forgetting all the story trappings and focusing on what it is that genre makes you feel like you can do— can help break up all the extra stuff and get you back to what you love.

Distilling that love into a few concepts to string it into ideas. Base everything you come up with on the question "how can I convey what I love about fantasy?"

2- Break your setting "rules"

For a long time, I wrote very "fluffy" magic. No hard spells, just magic existing everywhere all the time and people tap into it to produce different results. I switched to magic items and spells in my latest projects, and it brings the freshness to a situation I'd found super stale

It can be amazing to realize all the secret rules you had for what a fantasy setting looks like. Where you've boxed yourself into a certain concept (like fluffy magic) and a certain world (like, they're some variation of England and Germany) so much that you've stifled the creativity.

3- Mix up the plots

Almost a 2.5, but for me plot and setting are different enough they're separate points.

Give yourself a fantasy plot that isn't what you'd been working on. If you did a Chosen One quest, do a pocket fantasy with everyday people. If you had a "save the world" situation, do a "surviving till tomorrow" situation. If you've gone for the glory of war, go for the grit of a spy or the compassion of a healer and lover.

Reconsider what plots you use in a fantasy setting to get some variety. Because just like setting, you could assume that fantasy plots are a certain kind of plot, instead of working to have humans living in a magical setting.

Hope this helps!

You sound just like Dan Wells. If you're not familiar with the name, he's a very successful author and one of the podcasters on Writing Excuses.

His debut was a YA horror, I Am Not A Serial Killer.

And while trying to get published, he wrote about a zillion high fantasy novels that never went anywhere. He tells this story a lot and you should totally go find him talking about it somewhere. Basically, he loves good old horse-and-sword fantasy, but he was stagnating in his writing, and it wasn't until he broke free of his preconceptions and wrote this idea that wouldn't leave him alone, that he finally broke into the market and made his career. He still loves and reads fantasy, and after several novels, I believe he's begun writing some professionally. But it was letting his side interest of serial killers take over and run wild that made his writing finally pop.