I tend to write two (maybe three) genre’s of story: science-fiction, mystery and other (whatever you call sweet little story thoughts like Purple Crush).
That’s the wonderful, and terrifying thing, about entering writing contests, particularly ones you’ve paid money for. This week I am writing a 2500 word Political Satire for the NYC Midnight competition.
I can’t think of another circumstance under which I would write one. And that’s great, and also stress-inducing.
I fully believe that one of the ways to become a better writer is to write something you’ve never written before. I also tend to be a believer that stretch genres or topics are good for the contest participant as they have no excuse, or opportunity, to phone it in and rely on their existing skills.
That being said *aaaiigh*!
My political satire background consists mainly of Doonesbury, Bloom County, The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live (and Parks and Recreation I guess). I am having to do a lot of research, a lot of brain storming, and a lot of just damn thinking to make this story happen.
And I’m loving it of course.
I complain, but I bring these kinds of things on myself. Or I could blame Jo “The Happy Logophile” Eberhardt, who linked to this contest on Facebook and is participating as well. Yeah, that’s a better idea, I’ll blame Jo 😉
Here’s the bit where I sound all schmaltzy and cliché but I really mean this:
- Authors should not be afraid of any genre.
- The best way to learn a genre is to read, and then write it.
- You never know what ideas you might have.
Okay, enough gushing, gotta get back to work.
Good luck to everyone participating. I’m hoping to at least get past the first heat but we’ll just have to see. I’ll share these stories with all of you whenever that’s appropriate.
[BTW] : Ben Trube, Writer 
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I think this is possible the first time that I’ve ever been proud of something being all my fault. 🙂