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As a writer, you aspire to become the best and write award-winning pieces that the nation will praise you for. Your goals are to touch and tell a story that will ultimately touch people. This takes a lot of talent and ability to implement the feedback you receive. To be a great writer you need to be able to switch off from the rest of the world and get infused in your story.
You can improve your writing, by writing all the time and mastering descriptive storytelling. As you advance your skills and become the best, it is important to know that every written piece is tailored for a specific genre. This helps you to define the writing style, the tone and the technique of every piece that you write. Whether you are an online or book writer, it is important to understand the elements of creative writing especially the genre category.
Genre writing can be defined as various literary forms in which a writer can choose to write their piece. It can fall under a fiction (non-factual) or non-fiction (factual) categories. There is a diverse list of genres that writers can use to characterise their work. These genres help readers define what to expect from writing.
It is crucial for you to choose specific genres that you want to major in. Usually, these are genres you are most passionate about and enjoy writing about. It is important to expand your skill level in that genre so that you produce outstanding content. This is where your personality can come through as a writer and readers can connect with you as the writer.
You can build your brand around the genres
As you write for specific genres and your pieces are being digested by readers, people will start to relate to your work. As your work takes a distinctive shape, and your writing style for the genres becomes more superior, your work will start appealing to the audiences in that genre. Readers fall in love with your perception, your wisdom and your interpretation as a writer in that genre.
It increases your creativity
As you produce content for your defined genres, you will develop ways to enhance your writing which will make you more skillful at what you do. This is because you will have more insights and understanding on those genres.
When you exercise your creativity and practice writing in a particular genre, you become more creative and inventive than before.
As someone who is familiar with the genre, you will know more insights and ideas which will cause you to generate outstanding content.
You can become an expert in writing for defined genres
Some of the best-selling authors today are writers who focus their work on specific genres. They are writers who provide skillful writing or excellent content in their genres. These writers earn a reputation as specialists in that distinct genre of writing.
As a writer, you can build a following of fans who will acknowledge that you are one of the best writers of that particular genre. As you gain loyal fans you will see the benefit of having readers who become advocates for your brand. This sets you up to be perceived as an expert writer in that specific field.
You start writing with purpose
As a genre writer, you can learn to write for the purpose of the genre. If you are writing for academics, fashion or business, you can ensure the writing style and objectives of the topics are fulfilled.
The genre choice helps you decide on a writing technique that will create a desired effect of the piece. You are also able to explore all the dynamics of the topic or genre. You write as someone who understands that the piece is written to specifically serve the genre.
Genre writing tips from David Cornwell - Creative Writing Lecturer at CityVarsity Online
David Cornwell is an Online Course Lecturer (OCL) of CityVarsity Online’s Creative Writing Course. He is the author of the book, Like it Matters. David shares his advice and knowledge on genre writing.
Which specific writing skills can a person studying genre writing expect to hone?
Writing in a variety of different genres will add nuance and flexibility to your creative writing voice. This is because each genre will require different skills: adventure stories, for example, require great skill with plotting, while horror stories come alive through the use of atmospheric language. It’s also interesting to learn about the history of different genres because they all developed for a reason and often this reason can tell you something interesting about the nature of storytelling, or the changing psychology of readers through the ages.
What kind of career opportunities exists for creative writers who specialise in genre writing?
Being able to write in different genres gives you more opportunities to gain exposure for your work. Genre fiction generally attracts a very loyal and supportive market, and there are plenty of genre-specific magazines and competitions that you can submit your writing to. Having a firm working knowledge of what makes different genres unique is also a great skill for script and television writing, as often shows will borrow from these generic conventions to help them add narrative layers to the unfolding stories.
Tell us more about how genre writing offers aspiring authors opportunities in the self-publishing scene (for example - on Amazon.com)
The online self-publishing market is, in many ways, more accessible than traditional publishing - and in addition to this, sites such as Amazon and Lulu allow you to market your genre fiction very effectively. Readers of genre fiction tend to be loyal to the genre (in the sense that they’ll ‘try’ a new author if they seem to write the kind of books that they already enjoy), and so this could be a direct route to a wider (i.e. international) audience.
Study a creative writing course to become an exceptional genre writer
To become a good genre writer you have to comprehend and be able to use creative writing techniques to improve your writing. This will help you produce brilliant storytelling and structured writing techniques. When you study a creative writing course, you can gain much more as a writer that will help you express imaginative ideas and thoughts.
The Creative Writing Course covers writing principles such as:
- How to write
- Using narrative perspective
- Character and characterisation
- Narrative structure
- Fictional language
- Using feedback and rewriting
When you are a writer who focuses on specific genres, it makes readers easily recognise you as a writer and a brand. People will start looking for your work in those genres and will start purchasing material or books because of your name. This is a win for your brand as a writer that will enable your writing career to flourish.
