I don’t remember specifically choosing mine. Which, by the way, is psychological suspense/thriller (though I’m sure the cartoon version of me in my blog header, standing in an alleyway beside the words “The Serial Killer Files”, gave that away a long time ago).
What I do remember is sitting down one night in the summer of 2007 and writing. And what came out was dark, indeed. But dark like haunted house dark. Like things go bump in the night dark. Like early Stephen King dark (think Salem’s Lot and Pet Sematary). It felt good to write that novel, but it didn’t feel exactly right to write that novel.
So the following year, I tried again.
And what came out was a serial killer story. And that felt totally right. I felt it in my bones. It felt natural, almost like an extension of myself, almost like the story had been buried in my brain all this time and was finally ready to come out and play. I remember being about thirty pages in or so, and my stomach was doing somersaults because the story just felt so, so right. Nothing felt forced, or contrived.
I would say my genre chose me.
This isn’t to say that I don’t ever think I’ll write anything else outside of thrillers. I hope I do someday. But if or when I do, I’m sure that genre will choose me, too.
So, how did you choose your genre? Or did your genre choose you?