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Writing in Multiple Genres

Writing in multiple genres requires researching and understanding the pacing of that new area you, as a writer, have decided to explore. As with all things, the foundation is good characterization—emotion is the engine that makes your characters come alive, makes readers go along with them for the ride, and will make readers cheer and root for your hero/heroine and despise the “bad guys.” But you have to also understand what those readers expect from a particular genre.

Each genre has certain key elements. For example, in romance, the readers want the hero and heroine to come together as soon as possible, the obstacles the couple must overcome has to be substantial and plausible… and in the end, that couple has to have formed an unbreakable bond of true love. Violate that expectation, and your readers will be more than disappointed, they’ll be angry. In women’s fiction, people want the issues to be more “real to life.” They want that heroine to face the daily challenges and issues that they (perhaps) have faced… they want it real, the emotions and solutions to problems to be within their grasp—whether or not there’s a “happy ending,” they want to identify with a story of substance. Add in an improbably wrinkle, and your readers will be disappointed (and you will hear about it in feedback that is straight with no chaser.) In horror, your readers have signed up to have the “bejeebers” scared out of them. How you weave the tale and add the element of fear is optional, but if they don’t cringe, you haven’t done your job.

Bottom line is, it comes down to a matter of respect. Each of us as writers has a certain “bent” to our work. If our leanings are in a particular genre, that will play out in the work in a different genre. However, as a writer, it is important to find your niche within the new genre you’ve embraced.

Here’s a real example: I cut my teeth in the romance genre, and I personally like things to tie up neat in the end, the good guys to win, and the characters who are good to triumph. That is my personal philosophical bent. But does that mean I can’t write women’s fiction or horror? No. What it means is, knowing I have these proclivities, I have to carefully craft my stories within the framework of both my belief system and the new genre.

So, knowing that about myself, while also being aware of the parameters of the genres I work in, I made sure that my women’s fiction had all the angst, drama, human emotions and issues any ordinary soul would face—but created reality based solutions to allow them to triumph in the end.

“Soul Food: For Better For Worse,” (Simon and Schuster/Pocketbooks, under my pen name, Leslie E. Banks) is classified as a “pink novel,” women’s fiction, as is the sequel, “Soul Food: Through Thick and Thin.” In the first novel, the hero was once incarcerated, is now married, and wants to start his own business. The problem is that, as an ex-con, he can’t easily (if at all), get bank financing—even though he’s paid his debt to society. His wife, who has all the tangible assets, has to decide to throw everything she’s worked for behind her man’s dream, or not. This is gritty, real, and the solution comes from people growing in trust and awareness… no magic wand is waved, no one hits the lottery. In the second book, there is a wife who is struggling to find her own space and voice within a busy household. She’s being taken for granted and her family creates all sorts of barriers to her goal to become a writer. THAT is real, her kitchen and household schedule are mysteriously familiar (smile.) Yet she does manage to work it out in the end—though some significant marital battles.

In the abovementioned examples, romance had a part in the story, but was not the dominant theme. However, the happy-in-the-end element that one can find in all romances was used as a story conclusion device in the Soul Food series.

Now, keeping my personal bent in the direction of happily-ever-after was real tricky within the horror genre. How do you make it all work out in the end in a vampire tale? Ha! First, I began with the basics of good horror (traditional, old fashioned tales of bump in the night.) The essential elements are good versus evil. There must be a nemesis. There must be “an innocent” – could be a hero/heroine and there are always victims. The more victims, and the stealthier the nemesis, the scarier… and the more one holds onto one’s seat for the ride, rooting for the underdog to just make it past the terror. There’s always a bit of mystery thrown into the pot—a period when the unaware are trying to figure out just what’s out there killing people.

With all those elements, one can craft a story that has the tension lines needed for the requisite horror, but there’s also the opportunity to allow your hero/heroine narrowly escape. Hmmm… that’s also an element in the romance genre.

In strict horror, a relationship isn’t important. In strict horror, there need not be a romantic element. But there’s no rule against it either. Therefore, if you make the relationship between a man and a woman an “us against the darkness” type thing, yes, there is romance, but your readers will be rooting for the characters hoping neither get killed… and if you want to really kick it up a terror notch, make one of the people in the love relationship the actual nemesis. What to do, what to do! That way you have created a double helix of tension required for a strong horror: 1. The good against evil aspect, and 2. The worst nemesis character (and scariest) – the one sleeping in the bed next to the good person.

The “close to home” and “within one’s inner circle” element of danger has been used time and time again in ALL the classics from Alfred Hitchcock’s, “Psycho,” to crazy greats like “Night of the Living Dead,” and “Alien.” What scared you was the fact that the danger was walking around near the innocent person—while you screamed at the screen, “Noooo! He’s one of them!”

In the vampire genre (a sub-genre of horror), rent the classic “Dracula,” – the Frank Langella version. The scariest part of that is, the vampire is invited in as a houseguest, mixes and mingles around the intended victim family, and never really shows his fangs until toward the end of the flick. You, as a viewer know he’s the bad guy, but the people in the film, don’t. So you find yourself hollering, “Oh my God!”

But, again, this sub-genre of work also crosses into the romance space—oddly and ironically. Within the pathos of the evil entity is also what any veteran romance writer knows is the quintessential “alpha male,” that tall, dark, handsome, loner hunk, who is sexy as all get out and who is powerful, wealthy and a bit irreverent. In the classic vampire tales, Dracula is Always jonesing for some woman, who ultimately leads to his demise (alas.) That’s where the romance frays. But up to that point, she is madly in love with this misunderstood entity, and he promises to sweep her away and give her eternal life to live as his bride with all the riches of his empire, forever, and together they are fighting all the people trying to break up their union (albeit for good reason, in this case)… twisted, but could be construed as romantic (skip the fangs.) See the connection?

Ultimately, whatever your bent is as a writer, lean on your writing skills and strengths. If you write great suspense, find the allied genres that have those elements so you can use your expertise in it. When I moved from romance to women’s fiction and wound up in the vampire genre doing The Vampire Huntress Legends, folks thought I had lost my mind (smile.) They thought it was such a leap—but was it? I knew I could write strong, erotic love scenes; that was a perfect fit for the vampire tales. I had already been tried and proven with big casts of characters (in the Soul Food books and Rivers of the Soul/Still Waters Run Deep—Genesis Press), and was fairly adept in doing “reality, and suspense (romantic suspense), a necessary skill in the horror genre to keep people on the edge of their seats. What I was unsure of was my ability to do gore… and I personally don’t like gratuitous violence. I had to brace myself and just describe what would really happen to a body if eaten (yuck), but I maintained my focus of not doing it gratuitously so… if the violence didn’t move the story, I didn’t do blood-letting in the scene—which is standard good writing basics, any ole way.

Overall, crossing genres isn’t a matter of totally disregarding what skills you’ve built to date. Rather think of it as a new blend, using the same spices, building upon your core foundation, and just cooking up the story in a different way. Instead of frying that chicken, bake it, or broil it… but chicken is still chicken. If your characters are believable, if your plot is tight, and your descriptions are visual, folks will suspend disbelief and go along for the ride. Try it, savor it, and get creative!

NOTE: For a full list of L.A. Banks’ work under multiple pseudonyms, go to www.vampire-huntress.com -- click on “author” and scroll down to the hotlink entitled, “Author’s Published Works,” or go to, www.LeslieEsdaileBanks.com