 What's shaking writers welcome back to another video my name is cam welcome back to another pretty chill unscripted just chat video about writing I'm still hard at work on my episodic fantasy series but in the meantime I thought I would have a bit of a bit of a fun chat about genres just writing genres the genres that I would love to write or have loved not necessarily genres that I love and hate reading I'm sure it goes without saying that writing in different genres is an extremely insanely different experience a lot more than you would think if you haven't tried it before I've written in quite a few genres I haven't even published or anything like that and it's just been wildly different it's been a completely different experience not just in how it makes you feel but in how you have to approach it almost from the ground floor in the ways that you outline it the ways you even just brainstorm for it the preparation obviously the writing itself there's a whole just there's a whole storm of variables that come into effect when you're writing different genres that can greatly impact how you feel about that experience but I'm getting ahead of myself let's start with the genres that I love writing obviously I'm going to start with fantasy because that's the one I'm writing right now and I think arguably it has always been my favorite to write there is no other genre that I've written within that has let me feel as creative as I do when I'm writing fantasy especially with the story I'm writing now it's the first time I've created a completely fictional world and it's just been fun like fun is just the word I would use unfortunately as passionate as we can get about writing and as much as we can love it sometimes it's just not fun a lot of the time it's not fun even if you think you're creating something that you are really proud of but when it comes to fantasy almost every part of it is fun coming up with world cultures monsters is one of the funnest things about it I think deciding what your characters are going to be like because you can make them so wacky you can have them just completely batshit crazy to be honest they don't need to exist in a real world that makes complete sense you make the rules so you can really just go wild with it deciding on the magic you want to use how it's going to work is it soft or hard magic fantasy fantasy more than most other genres will result in a much longer story so it can be a lot more work hasn't really been an issue for me so far because again I'm writing shorter episodic fantasy I don't want you to confuse me saying it's fun with me saying it's easy moving on horror horror is one of the genres that can be fun to write if you if you get a bit wacky with it you know but I guess it depends because the thing with horror is that there are a lot of sub genres of horror and it can go in a lot of different ways you could be writing a straight up campfire slash a monster creature cryptid whatever or you could be writing a more psychological kind of horror and I'll say right now writing psychological horror was very rarely fun I don't think I ever had fun doing it and I'm not saying that as a negative so much I think that's something that just comes with it it shouldn't really be fun I guess I wrote a psychological horror book and because I wanted to approach it as truthfully as I could even though that character was living out something that I've never lived out I wasn't going like full Jared leto method actor or anything like that but I was kind of letting myself get into a very dark kind of mindset and although it I personally think it worked really well for the writing and for the story it wasn't fun you know but horror can be fun especially and this is the biggest plus with horror this is the main reason I love writing horror is because I think it is the best genre for writing short stories and I love writing short stories I think horror short stories are where you can get as creative as you want because it's such a short commitment from the reader that they don't really need to suspend their you can just get super wacky with it this one might surprise you because I've never put out a story in this genre and I don't know if I ever would but I think one day I would like to once I am a much better writer because I feel like I would need to be its contemporary so not necessarily romance more so just a story about a real life kind of experience maybe like you can describe it as a drama although it could be very light and comedic in tone I'm even struggling to describe what I'm trying to talk about here but I would love to write a contemporary that is just probably short and not too serious just about someone having a very real life experience that a lot of people can relate with one of my favorite books contemporary called Waiting for Doggo and it's there is a little bit of romance in there but the most plot light kind of book I think I've ever read and yet it's still one of my favorites just because it's so comforting basically Waiting for Doggo is just about this guy who breaks up with his girlfriend or whatever and she leaves behind this ugly little rabid dog that doesn't like anyone and he hates the dog and the story is basically about him going through a real career kind of downfall while trying to care for this just vicious little animal and as the story goes on him and the animal actually end up forming a real bond and growing attached and it's just the sweetest sweetest thing in the world and I would like to write something like that one day something that has such a simple not boring but just like kind of vanilla relatable plot that people can just read and put down and move on with you know anyway. Comics and graphic novels are something I've always wanted wanted to get into I've always thought about it and I have actually a lot of ideas that I think would be great comics and graphic novels but unfortunately the undetainable part of it is how insanely expensive it would be to have an illustrator to work with on those and I'm not saying illustrators are unnecessarily expensive I think they should be expensive for what they're providing you I should clarify if I did I think it wouldn't be like superhero comics or anything like that I think I would prefer to write something that's more like a dark drama kind of comic or graphic novel series not necessarily like fantastical or anything like that just kind of like a dark realistic drama I think that would be cool. Children's I would love to write a children's book one day and in fact I plan to although you'll probably never hear about it because I don't want to write one for the sake of publishing it and making money or anything like that I want to write one because I had two nieces that I adore and I want to give them something kind of timeless and I'm like you know I'm a writer so maybe maybe writing a little book for them would be the best bet again this involves an illustrator but the beauty of children's books is that there's like I know 20 pages or something like that so you can get away with spending a lot less as far as coming up with an idea goes I would probably just try to personalize it as much as I can to them those are the genres I love or would love to write in let's move on to the ones I hate starting with mystery slash crime slash thriller so the thing is I do actually want to write a mystery book or a crime thriller whatever I want to write one but I hate writing in this genre because it is so insanely difficult a couple of years ago for a nano rimo I thought I would try my hand at writing a mystery basically about a group of kids it was kind of like a stranger things thing but said in the 70s about a group of kids that stumble across a serial killer kind of situation and trying to plot it out in a way that is not just entertaining but in a way that makes sense is so insanely difficult because you don't just set up a mystery right and then have it resolved that's that's not the way mystery works at least anymore you have to have red herrings false leads all this kind of stuff that will have the reader think they are figuring out what's happening and then you have to twist it in some way that's the really difficult part keeping in mind you still have to resolve the story in a way that makes the reader go ah because you can't just throw in an ending where they could have never seen it coming like it wasn't physically possible for them to figure it out because you never gave them the information to figure it out they need to have all of the clues there to figure it out while still leading them in a different direction it's just it's a whole it's a whole thing that's basically why I gave up on that story romance I don't really have any interest in writing a explicitly romance story I just don't I don't know what else to say this includes like you know erotica all that kind of stuff someone out there who's been watching this channel long enough is going to bring up the fact that I've technically written an erotica story before don't ask that was a goof I wouldn't I wouldn't seriously write a romance that I would want to attach my actual name to not because I hate the genre or anything like that or because I'm embarrassed by it or anything like that it's just it's just not my thing you know I just yeah most of the time I find it kind of boring sci-fi so I actually have an idea for a sci-fi book it's just an idea that came to me one day and I noted it down and everything but a huge part of me just isn't into sci-fi I was never really a Star Wars guy I don't know like it doesn't excite me thinking about like space battles and spaceships all that kind of stuff it just doesn't hit the sweet spot for me I think Doctor Who is about as close as I ever got I love Doctor Who nonfiction I the idea of writing a nonfiction kind of horrifies me that's kind of like the mystery thing I have a lot of respect for the people that do write it I just don't think I could ever do it because having to take true things and write it respectfully in a way that is entertaining sounds so stressful there is a lot of potential there to disrespect real people that have real stakes in what you're writing about and yeah not really for me as far as reading goes I do enjoy some nonfiction from time to time most of the nonfiction I've read is I have a bunch of books down there of like banned books I've read a lot of like banned books like Led Zeppelin guns and roses and all that kind of stuff YA again something else that I have technically written before I have done if you want to watch the video I'll leave a card up here but I did a whole video about an urban fantasy YA series I did write and publish two books in years and years ago when I was much younger and much more naive it's just something I've drifted away from I don't hate it or anything like that again I'm fine with it existing and I'll even enjoy a YA book from time to time but a lot of the stories I think about when it comes to YA I would rather just write with the freedom of adult being able to just completely take the seatbelt off and just go nuts with it and go in any direction without having to worry about like oh is this is this going to push it outside of the young adult market that kind of thing last but not least the one I hate and the one I actually have maybe I'll even throw some shade and say just disrespect for is self help or how to books until such a time that I am qualified enough to provide insight on something that people aren't already providing extensive and free insight on I don't think I have any place writing self help or how to's and I think a lot of the people who do write self help or how to's probably don't have a place to be doing that either in particular like finance how to books basically the pyramid scheme like how to's how to get rich kind of stuff look into it and the reason the person is rich to begin with is because they're selling how to get rich courses and books etc it's a chicken in the egg situation of bullshit and again I'm not getting into like B for drama or anything like that but it just seems to me like a lot of people will do something long enough and then assume that they are qualified enough to be an educator because if you're writing a self help or how to you are taking on the role of an educator and I think in that case you need to really ask yourself should I be an educator if your plan is to write a self help book about you know being your best self and you go ahead and fill it with vague platitudes like believe in yourself etc etc that people have already been saying for 150 years then just don't just don't don't do it just don't you're ripping people off that's all it is unless you have something unique to provide something new to provide then just don't I think more often than not it's people out for a buck in the worst cases it's people taking advantage of people that are in the worst situation to be doing this you know like people who are poor spending all their money on courses and books on how to make more money and getting plates of dog shit in return I want to get something really clear not all self help or how to's are bad there is a lot of really really good self help and how to's out there especially how to's I love writing craft books and courses assuming that they come from people who are qualified educators I can confidently say that I think I am a much better writer today than I was when I was younger and more naive because of these how to's and when it comes to self help there's a lot of self help stuff out there that has genuinely helped people with genuinely insightful and valuable information or advice and I think that's great and I even think it's fine that they charge people for it I'm just talking about the bullshit you know what I'm talking about I don't know why I'm spelling it out so clearly you're not babies you know what I'm talking about there is there's a lot of garbage out there and I don't think I would ever want to contribute to it that's all anyway there it is I kind of rambled on there that's what happens when I don't script my videos sorry about that but yeah let me know what you think let me know which genres you would love or hate to write in or would never write in thank you so much for watching especially for watching through the whole video I appreciate you good luck with the writing and I'll see you in the next one catch ya