Do you think some kinds of fiction are intrinsically harder to write than others?

[D.C.]

And is it subjective? I'm primarily a contemporary romance writer, and I've dabbled with more literary short stories. The process is a little different, but I wouldn't say one is harder than the other.

Now, I've written a few historicals, and I always feel like they are more work. I have a historical short story with a mystery element cooking, and it has been kicking my butt. I'm not really stuck, but it seems like a lot more work than a story should normally be. Some of it's the need for research, of course, and some of it just seems to be trying to make my brain do unaccustomed things. Does anyone have similar experiences?

[Cindy]

I do historical writing, not fiction, but still. Elements of fiction that are historical still need to be somewhat accurate. That's a bit of research.

Plots of a mystery I find to be more difficult. You have to leave clues both real and red herrings yet still not give away the villain too soon. Since you are combining both I image you need lots of notes!

[Brenda]

Oh sure. Depends upon what your basic strengths are. You can tell that Tom Clancy was really comfortable with military cold-war stuff, and so that part came easy.
The trick is to find a project that is just hard enough. Difficult enough so that you really do have to bone up on Roman villas or the medical treatments in 1837, but with enough of the stuff you are quite good at to make it go.

[Arabella]

The more control you have over your writing skills, the easier it is to write whatever you want. But I agree with comments above...write what you like makes it easier for things to flow...I am pretty sure I'd be no good at Tom Clancy' s kind of writing....

[Brenda]

And would it not be profoundly depressing, to see that Regency romance written by Tom Clancy?

[D.C.]

Brenda wrote: "And would it not be profoundly depressing, to see that Regency romance written by Tom Clancy?"

Who knows? He might have had hidden talents. I think I could do some kinds of cold war stuff, but military hardware is NOT one of my strengths.

[Brenda]

When I think about what I would not write about .. I can do historical stuff, yes, SF and F, the core of my power. But I won't do football. No team sports. So then the challenge would be to write one, yes? Perhaps by combining it with one of my mightier angles. Suppose I make up a team sport and a SFnal culture to play it...

[Aleks]

I write fiction books before and I think it depends on the genre of fiction book you are writing and I also believe that if you love what you are doing, you won't find it hard to finish the work you have started. But if you are just writing that book because you are required to, then that's an entirely different story.

[D.C.]

Brenda wrote: "When I think about what I would not write about .. I can do historical stuff, yes, SF and F, the core of my power. But I won't do football. No team sports. So then the challenge would be to write o..."

That could be interesting!

As for what one loves, I like reading both mysteries and historicals. My trouble isn't dislike, but just trying to make my brain fall into that pattern.

[Abigail]

Mystery and suspense scare me.

[Leigh]

I think a lot of it depends on the genres you're most familiar with. Granted, some genres are more difficult to pull off without getting flowery or too verbose (I read and write a decent amount of of literary prose, and there's a fine line between brilliance and trash). I think I'm pretty adept at speculative fiction, but I've tried numerous times to write a murder mystery, and I just can't pull it off.

[Brenda]

Exactly, You write what you read. If you want to write romance novels the first thing you need to do is to read a whole bunch of them.

[D.C.]

Brenda wrote: "Exactly, You write what you read. If you want to write romance novels the first thing you need to do is to read a whole bunch of them."

I do, I do, although I'm not a huge consumer of contemporaries, and I read plenty of other genres, including mysteries. I have wondered if I'm more comfortable with writing romances because they are more character than plot driven, and that plays into my strengths as a writer.

[Laurel]

I just published my first book -- a mystery -- and it went through a lot of drafts! It can be difficult to give enough hints to the solution so the reader isn't cheated, yet not make it too easy. It was hard to judge because I already knew whodunit! Two of my beta-readers guessed who did it, but not why -- which was something -- so I made more changes in the hope of making it tougher. It hasn't been out in the world long enough for me to know if I succeeded.

I love reading historical mysteries, but I know I'd never be able to handle both those elements.

[Martyn]

Cindy wrote: "Plots of a mystery I find to be more difficult. You have to leave clues both real and red herrings yet still not give away the villain too soon. Since you are combining both I image you need lots of notes!"

I was amused and flattered when I read this in a review:

But he’s also a fine plotsmith, creating interlocking components that never get out of place so that every unexpected twist in the plot seems, once revealed, to have been perfectly logical. This is a harder trick to pull off then it seems, and is the heart of a good thriller.

The word used here, 'plotsmith', would indicate that my plot is carefully arranged, with clues strewn deliberately and carefully through the story, but my way of writing is much more organic.

So I have the antagonist pose a problem for my protagonist, where he counts on a certain spectrum of reactions (like most readers do), while my protagonist, a freelance assassin, has a different way of looking at situations and her approach to finding the appropriate (for her) solution is often radically different from what the antagonist would expect, but it makes perfect sense when looking through her eyes.

It's the same with some favourite scenes with readers. A reader mentioned that one of her favourite scenes was where the protagonist is gearing up in full assassin battle dress and, just before she leaves her apartment, she blows her pet a kiss. That's not something I planned for emotional effect or something, it's just something I saw in my mind's eyes when I wrote the scene, so I included blowing the kiss, never knowing what reaction people would have to something so 'insignificant'.

I wanted my assassin to have a pet, but nothing ordinary like a cat or a dog. I mused about a lizard, but decided on a macaw. I've been a caretaker of parrots in an upscale pet shop, so her macaw is an amalgam of those pets I cared for. One of them was crazy about skating on tiny rollerskates, another would keep asking 'Are you good?" and he wouldn't stop until you said, 'Yes, I'm good'. Another imitated the barking of a dog whenever you came close to his stand.

So I created Kourou, a macaw who barks like a dog when someone opens the door, loves skating but is accident prone and skates into the furniture, and will ask 'Happy?' until you reply with 'Happy!'. And he's a huge hit with readers, some reviewers even claim he's their favourite character. Again, not something I planned to happen.

So it's immensely gratifying if readers give you feedback like that, how they enjoy the little things that you didn't think anyone would notice or enjoy as much as you do. That's one of the most beautiful things there is, to me, that I can touch a stranger's mind and create fictional characters that become 'real' to them.

[Al "Tank"]

D.C. wrote: "Now, I've written a few historicals, and I always feel like they are more work. ..."

I agree. I wrote a short story for a SF anthology called Time Twist and it took me more time to research the period and specifically FDR's family, than it took to actually write it.

Easiest: Stories about the future. You can make it up and all you need to do is be consistent.

[Scott]

I suppose there are genres wherein you can simply invent a story and write it, but I don't find that kind of writing appealing. Nor do I like a story that relies on fanciful use of language to try to gain validity.

I can attest to historical fiction demanding serious research. My first two are the result of fifteen years of research.

Anything that deals with technology is going to take some knowledge of the topic. Even dealing with a foreign setting requires research and probably travel. Even if you write crime stories you have to understand the legal system.

I guess what I'm saying is if it doesn't require some effort and a deep understanding of the topic, it's fluff.

[Stanley]

I've written a fantasy story that is completely written in rhyming couplets. I guess to some that would be a hard fantasy story to write. It's called Curse of the First Bite. Look it up on amazon.com it has the look inside option where you can preview the story...

[Tyler]

I would imagine that hard scifi, where world-building is required, would be the hardest to competently, believably pull off.

[Al "Tank"]

Tyler wrote: "I would imagine that hard scifi, where world-building is required, would be the hardest to competently, believably pull off."

The advantage is that you can extrapolate whatever you wish and no history student is going to catch some error in facts and pummel you over the head with it. Yes, believability can be difficult, but I still have less trouble writing in the future than the past. Harry Turtledove is a history teacher and best-selling writer of alternate history books. In spite of all the research he does, he still gets "gotcha" mail from people who've spotted some small error in his stories.

[D.C.]

Scott wrote: "I suppose there are genres wherein you can simply invent a story and write it, but I don't find that kind of writing appealing. Nor do I like a story that relies on fanciful use of language to try..."

Nothing wrong with fluff! Seriously, though, there are plenty of things that don't require much research and do require effort. Fantasy, for example, where the universe can be thought up out of whole cloth, BUT it must be consistent and detailed, and shouldn't be derivative. Or most non-historical romance, where you need to pay attention and avoid howlers and inconsistencies, but most of it really can come straight out of your head.

By the way, today after dutifully composing three or four hundred words of Regency-era blackmail, I gave in to the temptation and started the contemporary I have banging around (and I have a couple of others in various stages of completion I could be working on too) and got three thousand words done before my wrist started to hurt.