Saturday, May 21, 2016

The Importance of Studying 'Your' Genre

"The thing about creativity is, people are going to laugh at it," -Twyla Tharp

In my bookshelf, I have an entire section dedicated to what I call 'my genre', which is along the blurry lines of survival/disaster/personal growth and change/romance. Seriously.  It's full of media, from my favorite movies (127 Hours, Titanic)  favorite TV shows (LOST),  favorite books (The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Book Thief), testimonials and true stories, along with reference journals and informational books all concerning my genre.

What makes it 'my genre' is that I enjoy the media in it so much and most of my novel writing falls in this genre. For a friend that I have, she loves the fantasy genre, and she pursues and consumes all the media she can about the sub-genres of fantasy.

However, what makes studying your genre so important is that you can know what works and what doesn't.  You can learn from the masters - or, at least, the people who are out there and producing publishable work. If you seek the media in your genre with a learning heart and a critical eye, you can then apply this to your work and see the flaws and strengths.

Enjoy watching movies and reading books, my writers!

~The WordShaker

3 comments:

  1. Very true! Also knowing your genre makes book proposals a whole lot aggravating like when you have to find comparable titles. XD

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks for leaving a comment, and yes, so true! I checked out your blog, and I like it a lot! I'll definitely be reading regularly.

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    2. Aw thank you! I'm glad you like it. ^ ^

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