Being a writer in constant search for his genre where I write most expressively, I have often been interested in knowing how did best selling authors know which genre would work for them. Did Jeffrey Archer wake up one morning and decide to write fiction? Did JK Rowling pen down a drowsy biography before coming up with her masterpiece? By the way these are one of those renowned authors I know. I am not really into books.
But one may ask; why can't I take the movies analogy and compare the kind of genres different directors have attempted. Honestly, I do not think movie direction and film making could be linked up to writing and a particular genre. The risk that a film maker takes is tremendously huge when compared to a book writer and hence I cannot totally dwell into it. Its a form of art I really admire and one day it will have me setting pace with the money makers...! And the whole point of movie making is to entertain the audience than to merely pen down an obsessed thought into the form of a book. Not trying to demean book writers but co-relating them to film makers saddens me.
Of course books are transformed into movies; there are adopted screenplays which actually work wonders, but for the book to really work on the screen the director must be an absolute genius to portray what the writer has in the book. I do not think I really want to dwell into this subject for long but again the question just rings my mind every time I sit to write something.
This question must have haunted the book writers as it haunts me. What is even more interesting though, is that once an author has established himself in a particular genre, is he able to ever break out of it and try a new genre? I do believe transition is something every author dares to do, but isn't easy for all.
So the question remains. How does an author find his genre? And having found it, is it wise to experiment outside of it? Do you know any person whom it worked for?
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