Rebecca over at Scribbler’s Cove wrote a post about What do you love about your genre? I don’t know where she found the writing exercise by David Farland, but hey, I’m game. The rules:
Write down five things that you like best about the genre you write in, then write down five things that might hinder you from achieving those in your work. Then share our list with your writing buddies.
First, the genre question. I identify myself as contemporary fantasy. I may be incorrect in that. When I look up “time travel” – it throws the genre into science fiction. Science fiction? There is nothing scientific about my orb – well, okay, there is a LITTLE about science, I think that’s natural, but the origins are purely magical. Fantasy, right? Still, I looked up contemporary fantasy novels, and nothing came up that I had read. Except Harry Potter, which I loved, but no time travel there. I HAVE read Lesley Livingston’s Wondrous Strange and Darklight, and I enjoyed both of them. While there is no actual time travel happening, it happened in the past, and because of the time travel the story happens today, with all the magical creatures. Contemporary Fantasy, right? I’ve always loved books dealing with time.
BTW, is Phantom of the Opera Contemporary Fantasy for its day?
So here’s the Five Things I LOVE about Time stories, regardless of fantasy/sci-fi:
1) The impossible is possible
2) Mystery, intrigue (I ♥ a good reveal/surprise) ie: In Darklight, we find out how special Sonny REALLY is.
3) Danger, excitement. ACTION!! WAR!! Usually there’s a war, right? F.I.G.H.T.I.N.G.
4) Romance. I know that’s not a boy thing, but I can’t deny myself. When there’s nothing happening between ANYONE… snoozers.
5) Past Influences/History. The current generation having to clean the muck the former generation made. Finding out things aren’t what you thought they were. Getting to experience what isn’t available today.
The 5 things that could hinder me:
1) Not making impossible things possible/believable.
2) Not enough time spent outlining the story so surprises can be found along the way.
3) My conflict may not be “big” enough
4) The balance of “enough” romance without loosing the guys
5) Getting caught up in so much detail that I spend all my time researching and no time writing.
Wow – that really made me think. I think I’m going to work on some structure stuff this week. Anyone else want to take a gander at it?
