Rain, Writing, and Finding Your Niche

Over the last few weeks I've been in a bit of a writing rut. Characters didn't talk to me, no plots or ideas caught my interest. And combine that the rainy, cloudy forecast and you've got a very frustrated and frazzled writer who can't find anything to do with herself. 

This always happens to me after I finish a project like Weapon Icean and after I've been in the editing and revising cave for so long. All I did was write, write, write and edit, edit, edit the crap out of that thing and I still have so much to do with it! But that's a topic for a different post. Right now I want to talk about finding your niche and if that's even a thing. If, as a writer, you even have to find a niche and stick to it.

A few days ago I was watching an interview with Shannon Messenger (one of my favorite authors) and she said how she was working on a side project but that her publisher might not want it because of how it's a slightly different genre from her other two series. That got me thinking, does that mean that as a writer I have to stick to only one kind of genre. I know that lots of authors do it. Marissa Mayer for example has written her science fiction fairytale retellings and I can't wait for her graphic Iko novel and her retelling of Alice in Wonderland called Heartless. I also heard that she's going to come out with a superhero trilogy. All of those books have something in common. Either their fairytale retellings or part of the science fiction genre.

Shannon Messenger writes fantasy. Rick Riordan writes mythology. And A. G. Howard rights dark retellings like her Splintered series and her new Roseblood novel. Does that mean that I have to limit myself to a genre and all of it's subgenres. I love my superhero book and all of it's characters and I feel that this might be the one. The one to carry me through publication but I also love the project I'm working on now, a young adult fantasy novel. I also wouldn't my dabbling in the vampire romance genre or science fiction genre with spaceships and aliens. But for publicity's sake do I have to suck it up and write more books that fall into the science fiction category and it's subgenres?

The answer is no. I don't like putting boundaries to my creativity and limiting myself. That only makes finding and keeping my inspiration and passion for writing harder. I have a hard time finding an idea and characters that keep my interest for as long as it takes to finish a book and I don't want to limit myself to just one genre or subgenre.

Yes I can understand how it would be and probably will be harder to go from advertising a young adult superhero book to advertising a young adult fantasy novel but isn't it worth it? I love variety and I would love to read different types of genres from some of my favorite authors.

And really since I've been on the Go Teen Writers community on Facebook I've come to realize that this new generation of writers are breaking down rules and boundaries and paving the way for new writers. Their self-publishing, their writing obscure and awesome subgenres, and their not afraid to break some writing rules to make their books as amazing as they can be.

So can a writer break the having-a-niche rule? Yes I think we can and I think we're allowed to. Don't hold down your creativity. Let it go crazy and if that means writing a vampire romance story one year and then writing a science fiction adventure the next year than so be it. Listen to those voices in your head and let your characters take you to whatever genre and world they want to be in. Don't restrict them and don't restrict yourself.

What do you think about finding your niche? What genres do you enjoy writing?