Blog Chain: How It All Began

Blog Chain time again, and I have the honor of starting the chain! It’s my very first time too. So, on the theme of firsts, I’d like to know: How did you come to write your YA genre (e.g. contemp, fantasy, etc.)? AND (yep, it’s a 2 parter), if you weren’t writing that, what genre would you be interested in exploring?

Part 1:

If you’ve been reading this blog (or even if you glanced at the Book page on my site), you know I write contemporary literature. For me, it wasn’t an exploration of one genre as opposed to another. As a kid, those were my favorite books, and any time I wrote stories–even as early as elementary school–they were realistic fiction. Once in a while, I’d throw a fairy in there, but the setting was still completely the world as we know it. The more I read, the more I thought I wanted to write about “issues” teens encountered. When I was going through a difficult time, those books showed me I wasn’t alone (or that there were teens who had it far worse). I couldn’t relate to fantasy or sci-fi–unless they were set in contemp worlds–and they frustrated me rather than helped me escape. To be honest, writing another genre just never occurred to me. (Or maybe I was too scared to try. :-))

Part 2:

This is tough. I really don’t know what else I would write. Historical fiction, probably, but nothing before the 1960s. The MG I’m working on is actually historical fiction but it’s set in a time period I know a lot about. It’s still contemp, though, so I don’t know if this counts. It’s not like it’s historical fiction with a paranormal element or even a time machine. Speaking of, originally that’s what I was going to do with the MG–start in present, then send the MC back in time. Then, a writer friend of mine and my agent pointed out that if the time machine was only there to transport the kid back in time, why put it in at all? So I took it out (wasn’t that tough of a decision after I realized there were a bunch of time travel issues I would have to address, and did I need more work? Nope.). It’s been really fun writing this book, and both historical fiction and MG were not books I would have thought I would write when I began my writing journey, but they came so naturally. And that must be a sign. 🙂

To read more stories of beginnings, check out Sarah’s super post.