I envy writers that stick to the same genre for their entire career. I don’t know how they do it but it must get annoying after a while trying to only be that one thing. I am not good at that. Some days I am a super nerd, others I am a political activist. Once in a while my family really pisses me off or my kid makes me super proud.
If you follow me on Twitter, this is no surprise to you.
I get nasty messages and drop followers pretty regularly as a result. I wish I had a way of imparting instantly on any one that comes across me on the web (or IRL for that matter) how cool I am but it’s just not possible. Some days, depending on how I wake up, it makes me feel terrible. Most days, I just don’t care. I have had a crazy life and if there is one thing that I know for sure is that I can’t try to be everything to everyone. There will always be someone who doesn’t like me.
Really, it’s their loss.
This week I started my next novel. Although I have several things in the works, none of them are the same genre and this current project is a memoir. ::collective gasp:: While it seems a little weird, it’s not really if you hang around me long enough.
It started with one NaNoWriMo.
My first NaNo I didn’t finish. My second one I did and that is the one that really sent my mind into overdrive. I have written since the fourth grade, poetry mostly, and often felt I could never tell a LONG story, much less write a novel. I mean WHO DOES THAT? But once I finished my first novel (it is chick lit) suddenly there where a million stories I wanted to tell swimming around in my head.
Next it was short erotic tales that found a publisher and a loyal fan base. I don’t even remember how they found me or I found them but one became seven or eight. And I made MONEY! Later came short stories for kids because I wanted to do something for my littlest monkey that I posted to Amazon. And I made MORE MONEY! The next NaNo effort resulted in a Young Adult Sci-Fi book that I didn’t finish but still intend to get back to after a while. After that, one of the characters from my erotica stories became another finished NaNo project because she just wouldn’t stop talking to me. Then this past year, my newest novel is a dramatic military-veteran-returns-for-one-last-mission ball of awesome. It is with my long time editor now and I already have a couple of competitions where it will be headed after that.
Now a memoir. Is that weird? Probably.
I am doing it not really because I am important to other people. I mean, I KNOW I am important to some people but for the most part, I don’t seem special. It’s mostly because I happen to be blessed with one of those really messed up lives. I have never read a book that shows what my kind of messed up can be or how it can shape a person. Sometimes there is a chapter or two that I can identify with but not a whole book that says, “all the bad things are bad but you can be better.”
That’s mostly what it’s about. You can be better no matter what.
Everything I have written was the story that came to me at the time. Its unconventional but 100% me. (We covered that already, remember?) I am totally okay with it too.
So tell me…
What about you? Do you pursue multiple creative adventures or do you stay in one lane?
