Genre, how to decide and what’s the next step?

Hey everyone!

I did a Google search when I started writing mystery and suspense. You can go here

to find out more:

https://bookstr.com/article/book-genres-that-make-the-most-money

It amazes me that mystery came in second but I’m glad that I am not the only one

that loves a good mystery book. When deciding what genre, you want to write about

is probably the hardest if you’re not really knowing where to start. For me, it was

pretty easy to decide which one I wanted to write about. I think for the most part four

writers in my opinion of course, is that we all have different ideas as our imagination

can go wild. It’s hard for me to fathom anything else besides mystery and suspense

but I am open to learning and using my imagination for others but for the most part I

just love being in the mystery and suspense genre.

Brainstorming comes to mind when deciding which genre would be best for someone

else to write about. Let’s just say, you put on a piece of paper on the left side you

would put pros list and, on the right, would be a cons list. Brainstorming ideas is not

always easy but it is a tool to help process a decision or decisions. So, getting back to

pros list, when you read what is the very first kinds of genres that you like to look for

and write them all down. For the cons list, you can write down all the genres that you

when you pick up to read and put them down on the list. Now while brainstorming as

you look at the cons list you already know what you don’t want to write about. And

for the pros list, this is where it gets a little tricky.

Say you have six genres in your Pro list picked three of your best ones that you would

like to write about. Then in your three that you picked put in an order of way you

want to write them say for example, mine would be mystery and suspense as the first

one, the second will be a children’s book, and for the third and inspirational book.

And in that order, I have just decided which one would be my priority and my genre.

Another tool that comes to mind when deciding which genre would be best for you

to write about is researching. Researching is a tool I must admit I love to do. Now I

know it’s may not be someone else’s cup of tea but researching can be very beneficial

when finding a genre to write about.

Now once you find your genre that you’re going to write about there’s some things

you need to know. When I started having my creative flow into my mysteries and

suspense and had to figure out what the book was going to be about like the setting

where was the whole story going to start at. In Her Million Miles, my setting was in

Plainfield, Illinois which I have lived at when I was young and I lived not far from an

Amish community. Even though I lived near the community that surrounded me was

small I still learned a lot.

Now since I had my setting, I had to figure out the characters not only my main

character but the surrounding characters around her. I don’t know if anybody

remembers the Sims game and how can create a character from scratch and this is

what I did. Goodness, in this series I have a huge amount of characters almost thirty

in all. Yes, amazingly crazy but also effective in seeing how Sabrina reacts too many of

them.

Now I’m not saying you need to have that many characters in your novel this only

helps for me considering I made a world around this little girl. Some choose only one

character some choose only to is totally up to you how many characters you have. I

also had to figure out what is the whole shebang about the story and about Sabrina.

What is it really about this little girl, what is my message, who is she really, and how is

the plot going to manifest this book? The most important for me was the point of

view but not only the point of view of Sabrina but all others that are in the connection

of who she is.

Quite simply, writing a book is not so easy to take in account with everything that

you’re reading right now. It is in the dedication and the determination of the writer. I

have a laughing joke with my friends, it is easier to read a book and to write one.

Although, I feel that I made the right decision when I write novels because is

something that all too well, I’ve heard in my life.

People have stated…

“You will never amount to anything.”

“You’re better off being just married.”

“Being a writer is lazy.”

That’s their opinion not mine.

I hope this has helped you today on your path for writing your truths and if for

any reason you have more questions, please feel free to ask me at my author’s

inbox @ https://www.facebook.com/authormarinaobrix/

Join the conversation so that we can all learn from each other.