I hope this is a good place to post this. I figured you other literary-minded folks might have a solution or maybe you could just commiserate.
I like to think my reading is pretty varied. I love everything from hard boiled detective stories to essays to horror to, of course, literary fiction.
Here's my problem:
Every time I sit down to write the only types of stories that seem to want to come out are literary. I'll start on something that I want to be a horror story or a mystery and it just ends up being some sad, deeply introspective piece. That's sort of an exaggeration, but you get the picture. Either that or the genre piece I am working on comes out stale or stops dead in its tracks.
I've taken breaks in writing(maybe you've noticed I have been here five years with only 93 posts), I have stopped reading literary fiction, I have only read literary fiction to try to make myself sick of it. Nothing seems to work.
I enjoy the literary pieces I write, but I mean come on, I feel like I need a little change now and again. I know this all may sound sort of trivial or whiny, but it's starting to drive me nuts.
Is there something wrong with me? Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this something I should just stop fighting and let happen? Or am I just making a really big deal out of nothing?
Please God, at least, tell me I'm not the only one.
I like to think my reading is pretty varied. I love everything from hard boiled detective stories to essays to horror to, of course, literary fiction.
Here's my problem:
Every time I sit down to write the only types of stories that seem to want to come out are literary. I'll start on something that I want to be a horror story or a mystery and it just ends up being some sad, deeply introspective piece. That's sort of an exaggeration, but you get the picture. Either that or the genre piece I am working on comes out stale or stops dead in its tracks.
I've taken breaks in writing(maybe you've noticed I have been here five years with only 93 posts), I have stopped reading literary fiction, I have only read literary fiction to try to make myself sick of it. Nothing seems to work.
I enjoy the literary pieces I write, but I mean come on, I feel like I need a little change now and again. I know this all may sound sort of trivial or whiny, but it's starting to drive me nuts.
Is there something wrong with me? Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this something I should just stop fighting and let happen? Or am I just making a really big deal out of nothing?
Please God, at least, tell me I'm not the only one.