Knowing What Kind of Author You Want to Be

Okay, so I've been exploring some new genres. Things I've always liked to include in my books, but that haven't been the entire book. It has been exciting and bit daunting. So I've found myself doing what I did when I first started writing YA speculative fiction: researching and reading.

I've spent a lot of time researching the genre I'm interested in writing. And I've purchased scads of books and I'm reading them. I'm taking notes of what I see every author doing, of what I like, what I don't, and what "rules" there seem to be in this genre.

I'm talking to people I know who write in this genre. And I'm realizing that there is a wide range of what goes into this genre.

As I finished a book over the weekend, I realized that I needed to decide where I would fall along the broad scope of what's acceptable for this genre.

This was very eye-opening for me, and it helped focus my outlines and goals as I'm preparing to write. I think I'll be able to feel more confident about penning words in this new arena, now that I know what kind of author I want to be inside the genre.

Have you ever done this? Really focused on what kind of author you want to be? How did you do it?