The Undiscovered Country

Jumping Genres

Science Fiction is a sub-type of adventure. As such, science fiction stories need to have a certain voice and style of writing. Depending on how "hard" the science fiction is, there's a lot of technical details when describing -- for instance -- space ships or robots. Since science fiction is also action-based, it must be action-driven. The writing needs to be snappy, and direct, and not stop to "smell the roses" as much as you would find in more literary works.

Although fantasy is lumped in with science fiction and other "speculative" genres (a term I never liked, because at its essence, all fiction is speculative), it's not always about the action. Readers of fantasy care as much about the world the writer creates as the characters themselves. Therefore, the writer must "stop the action" to describe the world, using a lot more description to immerse the reader in that fantastical world.

This difference is why so many writers don't jump from one genre to another. It requires a different voice and different writing style.

But I gave fantasy a shot. Now that I've maybe one more chapter left (at just shy of 120k words), I didn't notice until a few chapters ago that my writing style was different from my science fiction works.

Description has never been my strong suit. To me, getting the story out -- the action -- takes precedence over the sights and smells. It slows me down. My greatest fear is that I will bore the reader with too much detail, so I tend to go the opposite extreme and add too little. Usually with my second draft, I add more detail, but always fearful I'm adding too much or not enough. It's annoyingly stressful.

Until now.

Literally without conscious thought, as I wrote this fantasy, I added a lot more detail, more sights, sounds, smells and physical sensations that -- I hope -- the reader can also see, smell and figuratively touch the world I created.

The voice I used with the fantasy is different from my science fiction. And it pleases me, because I didn't even think it was possible. The best part is adding all that detail didn't bore me, because I knew -- however subconscious at the time -- that's what fantasy readers want and expect.

That's what it all boils down to: What does the reader expect, and how best can I satisfy said reader?

Now whether or not I truly succeeded isn't up to me. I am, after all, an expert at deluding myself. Once I write one or two more drafts of the thing (which will take at least six months), I'll send it out to agents to see if my fantasy is indeed satisfactory.