text;

[fridgeflower]

Tell me about your favorite literary genres? Or your favorite books/stories? I need to do some market research or something.

I've been in a rut with my writing for several months, which is a bummer because I just graduated. So I now probably NEED TO WORK, but I'm a writer who hates everything I try to write right now.

It's very lame.

Alternatively, I'll take suggestions for career paths. Keep in mind that my degree is widely panned as being functionally useless.

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

Anyone who considers your degree useless is wrong.

And I'm a fantasy sort of person. Grand quests and magical spells and unexpected love bringing two parties together.

Guess I'm a romantic.

[fridgeflower]

David, you've MET ME, right? My romantic heart runs the gamut from classy to trashy. It's shameful.

I could do more Fantasy, though! I've covered the standards, of course, but it's a huge area that I haven't done a whole lot of digging through.

[helpdesk_hero]

Then dig away. I promise I'll pre-order.

[fridgeflower]

Are there particular sub-genres you recommend? Anything like that?

[adamantlyardent]

I don't blame your lack of spark. There's not very much in this place that inspires the beauty of creativity, is there?
I find it remarkable enjoyable books are even found here and there when they can be.

[fridgeflower]

It takes a little digging sometimes, but they're around!

I'm pretty easily entertained, though. It's feeling like I can entertain others where I find the difficulty.

[adamantlyardent]

Is that not the case for all art? I would hope so. I find it fairly repulsive how people in this society see some sign of a talent like writing or painting and their first question is to ask how or where it is sold.
I've not thought to be expected to be a minstrel as well as a writer, but perhaps I'm alone in this thinking.

[fridgeflower]

Congrats on not being from a Capitalist Hellscape, then.

So... You write? (But not songs?)

text;

[storyseeker]

Fiction only? Maybe you could get out of the rut with something else. Work on your memoirs or something.

text;

[fridgeflower]

My first book was a memoir. Or at least memoir-adjacent? Kinda?

It was compiled diary entries, more or less. I have tons more similar material, but I'd have trouble making it thematically cohesive, I think. I'm also pretty sure it's not interesting.

So I'm not against the concept! I just feel... Boring? Similarly uninspired?

text;

[storyseeker]

No, I get it. Been there. Most writers hate all our stuff at one time or another, the lack of inspiration is normal, but that doesn't help you now.

text;

[fridgeflower]

Yeah. It's a bummer.

It's not a life-or-death problem. I have things I can do for a "living," I just... Want to write and feel good about it and love what I put out.

Probably a pretty universal problem.

[goldtoxicity]

comic books mostly

[fridgeflower]

Oh, there you go. There's an avenue I hadn't considered.

I mean, I know nothing about comic books, but... At least the research might be fun? Not that I'm too keen on reading about superheroes.

[iminthebook]

Old fantasy, or hard sci-fi, like from the 50's.

Also, what is your degree in?

[fridgeflower]

I'll have to familiarize myself.

Predictably, Literature and Creative Writing.

[iminthebook]

I grew up reading a lot of the oldies, like Theodore Sturgeon and Isaac Asimov. Some of the writing is... problematic. but some is just pure joy in words.

Hmm. I think those degrees could be turned, with some work, into plan writing and situational analysis, or public relations, or even a position as a reviewer or editor, positions which publication companies need, some.

Or maybe even political writing, depending on if you have the stomach for it.

[ text ] » ID: Wanda Maximoff

[divaricate]

My weakness is super cheesy horror novels. Hilarious, and everything about a bad 1980s summer camp horror trope rolled into one.
(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

[fridgeflower]

You know, I'm such a weeny when it comes to horror movies that I never considered, like, slasher literature. I didn't even know that was a thing.

The occasional psychological horror and/or ghost story... It can't be as spooky as those, right?

[bifroster]

Science fiction.

I would recommend Arthur C. Clark and Victor Hugo. If you want some really good adventure novels, look up Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. They should be different enough from other stuff you've read to give you some new inspiration.

What are you currently trying to write?

[fridgeflower]

I'm familiar with all of those authors. They're the classic-ish standards. No offense to the suggestions, of course. I haven't read everything they EVER did, so...

I have a short memoir and a novel published here. I think I'd rather stay to the fiction route, but I'm having trouble making decisions and wrapping things up.

[bifroster]

No worries. I listed them first, in case you weren't familiar with them. Hard to know sometimes. But then, I would look into the works of William Gibson and Lord Dunsany. Have you read Dune by any chance?

If that is the case, maybe writing out brief summaries or bullet lists of your options can help. Then you can kind of see it all at once.

text; slides in late with sponanteously-generated sbux

[eloquentness]

I love non-fiction. I know you primarily write fiction and/or memoirs, but the storytelling and narratives in a good non-fiction novel are phenomenal.

Spotlight did a great job tackling a religious scandal, for example, and 'In the Falls' discusses the history of crime in Maurtia Falls.

Maybe look into literary journalism? Or any sort of non-fiction? The best stories are wrapped in a nugget of truth, after all.

text; niccccce!

[fridgeflower]

I will look up these titles and crack into the genre in general.

I do enjoy, like... Podcasts and articles with a storytelling feel around non-fiction subjects, which is, yeah, "literary journalism." Like you said.

I have a bad habit of thinking of "Journalism" as a completely different beast.

text;

[eloquentness]

I don't blame you. Most people are trained to think they're more different than they are. Or that non-fiction is a lot more cut and dry than it is. Stories about humans or human-like species are never going to be neat and clean, though - so non-fiction being the same way makes a lot of sense.

tbh if you're in a rut, forcing yourself to write isn't going to help. I can offer a media reviewer gig with the Citizen, but idt it would solve your long-term problem.

If you can afford ~a week to not think about writing, I'd do that instead.