I had a lot of things I wanted to talk about yesterday, but yesterday turned out to be a bad day for me. I won't go into it, I don't want a drama blog but I would like to thank my best friend Bear aka M.E for being there for me literally at the drop of a hat and kicking my arse into shape, I love you for that. And I want to squish my other very close friend G.C too for also being around when I needed her, it's not often the people you revolve your life around are there when it counts, friends, family, lovers, so I definitely love you for saying 'HA' to my cynical side.
I confess I fully intended to bitch and moan about my life yesterday. The title was "Cry To Me.' I know, unforgivable. However, having given myself a day to remember why I wanted to keep this blog in the first place I realized I'd only be setting a precedent to cry my heart out, if anything I wanted to inspire and encourage, not leave anyone feeling all 'awww bless her' or 'Shut up, and quit whining' because the truth is everyone's life sucks sometimes, if we spent time dwelling on it every time then life would suck permanently.
So moving on, I was writing notes on a story, yes another one and not 'Rehab', wait a minute, let me explain? I was writing notes on this Urban Fantasy I've been dying to write, the adventure, the exploring of a different way, life, it fascinates me. Anyway, I wasted a little bit of my life when I signed into facebook to see what was on other peoples mind and found the update of a group I'd joined called 'The Writing Hall' to be very interesting. It was something like... Do you write for different genres, or do you stick to the same one?
I definitely like to venture into other genres, and if I'm honest I wouldn't have it any other way, I have an unruly muse and as a few friends have said an imagination outside the box, I'm not always as confident as I should be about my writing. My reason for this is simple, loved ones lie, I can understand why too, you want to encourage the people you love to prosper, and they need people to believe in them even when they don’t believe in themselves.
A perfect example is American Idol. Need I say more? Thousands of bad singers, and I mean the very best of the tone deaf singers audition every year on that show, they're taken the piss out of too, their sham auditions always overshadowing the good ones and all for ratings. Their families are constantly telling them they are good, that they can sing Mariah Carey, Whitney and Christina Aguilera songs when they can't even sing 'Twinkle Little Star' without getting pitchy. It's not good to lie to your closest, compliments gives confidence and criticism kind of deflates some of that confidence but ultimately we learn from the latter. I get that you want your child to believe that they can do anything, and why not right? But don't send them into the real world unprepared, give them options, show them the long road to achieving their dreams not the easy one. Audition on live TV. No, get singing lessons, train your voice, learn to play an instrument. Am I wrong?
So yeah, sometimes I question whether my family and friends love me too much to point out what doesn't work, and I understand it but we all need to strive to be better anyway no matter how good we 'think' we are!
I've gotta start learning to stay on topic, ugh. The point was, I write in as many as I can but after stumbling on an article titled 'Generalist' which is what I am, I found myself wondering if that is in fact a good thing.
Generalist VS Specialist
I have a friend who only writes romances, another who only writes horrors while I've done both on more than one occasion among other genres, I wouldn’t say I was perfect at either. Some compliment me on thinking outside the box and being full of so many fresh ideas I wonder if it is the reason I never finish any of my stories, in fact I don’t have to wonder. I don't give myself enough time to develop a niche in any particular genre, though I mostly attempt supernatural type stories recently.
Is it good to be a Generalist writer, or should we master one genre?
Generalists have short attention spans, check, but we can market to a broader audience. While being a specialist at something is important I think it limits you as a writer to be a specialist of one, I'd rather be a Jack of all trades and have a little knowledge about a lot of things, just enough to make me dangerous. LOL
I love letting my characters take control, and I love that my freak muse Clo can't even sit still let alone stick to one genre of writing. I don't finish stories because I'm not strong enough to let my babies go yet, to let them into the world to be judged, when I am you'll know about it.
Title info. None
Gece,
ThaWriterzSoundtrack.
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