Did you choose your genre, or did your genre choose you?

Lord, I wish a genre would hurry up and pick me. I try to describe my WIP and it turns out like, "Philosophical science fiction with a dash of high fantasy elements" when I'm being serious and, "Capitalism plus Gossip Girl-esque trash" when I'm not.

Disclaimer: I love Gossip Girl.

But I think what ends up happening a lot of the time is that people write themselves into the genres they like or want to be in. I highly doubt we inherently gravitate toward one genre. It's just a matter of "acting appropriate" as writers, or something. Dunno.

I've mostly written in Historical Fiction, which I barely read.
I've tried my hand at some Sci-Fi and Fantasy which are familiar genres for me as a reader.
I've done some coming-of-age dramas and dabbled in some horror, crime and mystery.
I'm currently attempting some Magical Realism, which is a bit of a new one.

My preferences for reading seem to be the same as my preferences for writing. So I would say I picked the genre based on both my interests and what I know and am familiar with. That's my comfort zone and where I feel most creative and able to spread my wings.

I think the question is a kind of chicken/egg question. Which came first? And the answer is usually going to be found in the soup of emotion, if we are honest in our writing. What excites us, saddens us, exhilarates us? That's why I don't put too much stock in genre labels. I write what I write, with a background of crime and police, but the heart of the writing is in the exploration of human emotion and the psyche, and I have no idea what to call it, except crime thriller, perhaps. But my stuff never fits neatly into one label. And I don't sweat it.

An oracle told me I was destined to write my genre.

sayamini said:

But I think what ends up happening a lot of the time is that people write themselves into the genres they like or want to be in. I highly doubt we inherently gravitate toward one genre. It's just a matter of "acting appropriate" as writers, or something. Dunno.

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On a more serious note, I definitely gravitate towards fantasy, and I flirt with the romance line a little too much for a fantasy novel. If new adult broadens up a bit, I'm pretty sure I would fall in line there as well. Then I dabble in a bit of mystery since I believe magic should be surrounded by mystery. But when I'm asked, I simply say fantasy because if that was taken away from me I'd never write a word.

In terms of short stories, most of my ideas just fall right into the horror genre. I think it's because that's where most of the shorts I read and like fall. As for novels? I don't even know what genre I'm writing in. Wish I did.

I write in the "fantasy/science fiction" umbrella genre, though often flitting between the two as ideas come to me.

I've tried writing other genres but they've just never struck me the same way so I've never really been able to stick with them as anything except a passing fancy that inevitably ends in failure. The closest I get to other genres is working elements of them in, but even then it's usually an extra thing on top of the fantasy/sci-fi. Like romance plots or horror elements; can't maintain writing them when the romance and horror are the prime central focus, but as ideas inside a broader fantasy/sci-fi narrative? I can get on board with that.

I don't think I chose fantasy and science fiction, I do feel like writing them was just the natural progression for me based on the stories that have always most interested me. It just made the most sense to me that when I made my first steps into this whole "writing" thing, that was where I went.

Hell I remember back even in primary school when we were given any kind of writing assignment in class, even if the prompt or the task sounded thoroughly ordinary, I'd still always try and put some fantasy or sci-fi spin to it just because I didn't see much of a grand point in writing something that I wouldn't like to read.

My genre picked me. I never thought I would write Urban Fantasy. /o\

I've been writing since I was about 12, and most of what I've written doesn't seem to fit any genre at all. However, I've more recently become obsessed with the palaeolithic era - mostly my interest in it is scientific, but that has spilled over into my writing, so these days I write prehistoric fiction. I've also fairly recently written some comedy sci-fi, which naturally have some connection with palaeolithic people.

I write fantasy, but I can now comfortably say that I write science fiction too. They are the genres I read and watch the most. I find them fascinating and get lost in them, so I gravitated to crafting stories of the genre.

I've never written outside of these genres. I'm sure I could try. There's a story that's been eating away at me that is very much not speculative. However, I don't read much outside of those genres, so I don't know if my idea would be any good.