Two options for when to decide on genre. Many people advise you to consider genre at the very start of your writing process, and that’s good advice if you’re a plotter—one who plots their stories in detail from the start. Then you can be clear on what kind of story you’re writing, and you can write specifically to suit that market. Excellent. Problem solved. All you have to do is make sure that your story has all the elements to satisfy reader expectations. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work for those who discover a story somewhere in their creative mind and then write it down. Such stories often don’t fit into clear genres. Nor does it work for those who like to write their first draft without concerning themselves with where it’s going (pansters). In these cases the author may not know exactly what it is they’ve written until they’ve written it. Looking back and seeing what it is that you’re trying to achieve with a story is something you do at the second … [Read more...]