I've been feeling so confused about the conflicting advice: "write what sells" or "write your passion". One writer advised me, don't write what you need to, write what the editor needs. “Professional writers query before writing the piece otherwise the chances are slim you'll find your way to publication."   Should I be thinking up ideas for articles and querying editors, or do I write what's on my heart and hope to find an editor who wants it?  I've published several pieces over the years (poems, essays, interviews, articles) so you'd think I'd know the answer. Remember that old Kentucky Fried Chicken motto, "Do one thing and do it right"? It plays in my mind, and I worry that if I don't choose one genre, I'll never get it right. I know many writers write in a variety of genres, but I'm not sure I can do that. I need to figure out where I belong as a writer (or maybe I'm not really a writer and that's why I can't figure it out). Am I a poet, essayist, picture book writer? I want to write in the genres I love to read, but I also want to build a writing career. So how do I decide on a genre? I've tried many times to give up and just write in my journal, but like the cars of a train, I need to connect to others. Thank you for listening. I hope I didn't whine too much. I am looking forward to your post on this topic. I have a feeling there are others like me trying to find their path.

Dear Linda –

Such good questions. My advice is to write your passion and see if you can sell it. (If you don’t write what you need to write, why write? Believe me, there are a million easier ways to earn money!)  Since you’re not doing fried chicken, I say try all the genres that you love. Writing in one genre can help you write in another –if you write poems your prose can get deeper and less linear. Writing poetry is also a good workout for writing children’s books. Personal essays can lengthen and lead into memoir, and often you can find personal essays within your own memoir. And why not also write articles about subjects that interest you?  A lot of writers have found success by discovering the one genre that works for them and sticking with it; but many others have published non-fiction and fiction, poems, essays and children’s books. I’ve written and published in every genre except short stories. (Too hard to write!)

We make our writing path the same way a path is made by walking. Starting out and taking it step by step.  Maybe something has happened recently to you that you want to write about. Let’s say you try writing it as a personal essay – and you know that it’s the right subject for Newsweek’s “My Turn” column, or the op-ed page of your local paper or a magazine you love  – so you find the writer’s guidelines for wherever you’re going to send it, and write it the length asked for and send it off. And whether published or not, you look at the essay and you realize it’s also the subject of a poem, or the first chapter of a memoir, or even the core idea for a novel. Why limit yourself to one genre, especially in the beginning?

The fact is that we basically have one story – our own life. It’s our material. And the more we write about it, the more we discover about ourselves and how we connect to the world. And we must write it no matter what. 

Thank you for your questions and let us know how it goes for you. And the rest of you – do you stick to one genre or write in them all? Let us know under Comments.