I am currently plotting out a fantasy novel, which also has some humour in it. I now also have plot ideas and characters forming for an action thriller, very different indeed from the fantasy novel. What should I do in this situation? I am not sure any publisher would be happy to accept a writer who is offering radically different genres. To elaborate on this, I read both fantasy and action thrillers, so am writing in subjects I am familiar with, but the edge is that the action thriller would be incorporating real life elements that I know very well and can write about. But I know if I abandon one project in favour of another that could become a seriously bad habit.

Sorry I have gone on and on, perhaps this post should have been broken down into chapters!
Thanks for bothering to bear with me.

All writing experience is valuable to a writer, and if you explore the genres while racking up that experience then so much the better. I wouldn't worry about publishers at this stage in the game.



- NaomiM

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Just to add, Agents tend to specialise in genres, so you wouldn't be submitting your thriller and your fantasy novel to the same batch of agents. Likewise, a commissioning editor at a publishing house looking at Fantasy, may not be the same one looking at thrillers. You can publish in two, or more, different genres, but it may mean having different agents and publishers.
However, first things first, concentrate on actually finishing the novels.

So let them both work themselves out and evolve side by side and see how they go?

Sure. I've got about 4 wips on the go, each in different genres.

Oh that is such a lot of help in so few posts, thanks very much. I seemed to have this idea that it was best to devote your efforts to one novel - don't ask me where that thought came from. As you so rightly say, get some work finished first.
Thanks very much for your advice and help

And besides, you can always have more than one nom de plume.

I seemed to have this idea that it was best to devote your efforts to one novel

I think writers vary very much with this, but 'writing' a novel has many different stages to it, and there's no reason they shouldn't overlap. Some - like Naomi? - actually have more than one manuscript on the go, others (like me) have one which is the main draft, but have another in their head that they're reading/thinking/reasearching for. And then maybe put the main draft aside for a story you want to write or have commissioned...

I call this leap-frogging - where each takes its turn to be advanced to the next stage. It can actually be very helpful, because while you're working on one thing, your palate's being cleared, and when you go back to the other, you see it with a cooler, clearer gaze. The only risk is that you switch between them not as a fruitful practice, but as a form of displacement activity. If every time things get a bit tricky, you let yourself be diverted, the risk is that you never get deeply into any of them.

Yes, if in doubt, just do lots of writing as seems best on the day, and see what you end up with. Time enough to worry about agents if you do get to the point of finding you've got two novels in an equally submittable shape. I suspect that you'll find, if you listen to the little writerly voice which guides you, that one does actually write itself faster and then need to be put in a drawer for a while, or wait till you can do some research, or whatever, and what started out as a parallel process becomes a sequential one.

Emma

Excellent stuff, thanks Emma!
Maybe, also, I haven't found my genre yet. I wonder if this is because I read very widely across a broad spectrum of authors and subjects and find the inspiration through them. Although as I have said, the thriller I am plotting out has some of my own real life experience and background, so that really is a case of writing what I know and might be the better of the two, with the fantasy novel, I am very aware of Discworld novels, for example, so make a conscious effort not to mimic. Again that means there is added freedom to the thriller which might, itself, make it read better.
Thanks to your replies I can move on with both and not feel I am not doing justice to one or the other.
Thanks again for your views.

Maybe, also, I haven't found my genre yet

.

I think it is valuable to try out different genres, because until you do never really know where your writing talents lie. It's also good to read widely so there is cross pollination of ideas. The risk, if writers don't stretch their reading and writing muscles, is they end up writing a pale copy of some favorite author or other (eg, DanBrown-lite).

they end up writing a pale copy of some favorite author or other (eg, DanBrown-lite).

Uuurgh ... if such a thing exists, I never, ever want to come across it ...!

I actually have no idea what genre I'm currently writing in, I've made up my mind just to get on with my newest offering and puzzle it out later.

I once critted a synopsis for a thriller which was so bad I called it DanBrown-lite. Unfortunately the writer took it as a compliment.

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If oy still don't know wghat genre it is by the end of the first draft, then write the synopsis and see what that is telling you. It's easier to change in the editing stage, than when you're coming up to the submission stage.

If you still don't know what genre it is by the end of the first draft, then write the synopsis and see what that is telling you. It's easier to change in the editing stage, than when you're coming up to the submission stage.

Apologies for the small threadjack - re the above, would there be any point attempting a synopsis before completing the novel?

Sorry if this is a really stupid question, I just wondered if it might focus my mind better. Plus, I've only ever written one synopsis, and that was really hard, so I think the practice would do me no harm at all.

I had to write one recently for a novel I'd only written about a third of, and it was very revealing - having to put it into consecutive prose made me realise where things really didn't connect up properly.

Emma

Sorry if this is a thread-jack but I have found EmmaD's comment very intersting (And I can;t work out how to do quotes!!)

I have found that if I write a synopsis of what I have done it tends to inform what it is I want to achieve...ie when I get a bit stuck or go WAY too far into detail (I am on 150,000 words and still going!!!) I stand back and plot it out from what I have already written. Is that wrong? I know where I want this story to go but so much is happening before I get there LOL My characters are ruining my book!!!

Not a stupid question at all Astrea, and something I've started doing for the last couple of wips. I like to do one as early as possible because then I have an overview of the story (which is what a synopsis is, basically) and not bogged down in all the detail (because that detail isn't written yet). Often I'll write a sentence or two outlining what I want in each chapter and use them to compile the synopsis.
Leaving it until I'd completed the mss often meant I couldn't see the wood for the trees and they ended up as little more than a series of chapter summaries.
And you can always tweek/change the synopsis as you continue writing the novel.


- NaomiM

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If you're 150K in, Deadly, it's worth checking if you're repeating scenarios, and try to cut out that repetition. Make each chapter justify it's place in the novel; that it's actually moving the plot along, and they're not simply being used to introduce new characters or slot in backstory or scene setting.

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And show those characters who's boss!