Written by Emily Harstone July 17th, 2013

Writing Prompt: Genre Twist

There are writers who always write horror, those who always write romance, and those that jump around a lot from sci-fi to literature and mystery all in the space of one week.

But even for those flexible writers there are genres they avoid. I do not like to read or watch horror, so the idea of writing it is beyond me. However this writing prompt is all about getting outside of your comfort zone and trying things you normally would not try.

Think of your least favorite genre, the kind of movie your significant other would drag you to, or the type of book a friend might force you to read. Any genre that makes you uncomfortable will work.

Now your challenge is to write a flash fiction piece (up to 1000 words) or a poem in that genre. You can honor the conventions of that genre or you can ignore them. Or you can just put a twist a time honored convention. Perhaps the cowboys in your Western will ride on unicorns.

In any event have fun with this prompt. It is sure to get you out of any writing rut and thinking about new things.

 

We Send You Publishers Seeking Submissions.

Sign up for our free e-magazine and we will send you reviews of publishers seeking short stories, poetry, essays, and books.

Subscribe now and we'll send you a free copy of our book Submit, Publish, Repeat

A Quick Start Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing

Writing for children and young adults is very different than writing for adults. Audience expectations are different. Picture books, for example, have completely different sub-genres than adult books. Whereas adult books have genres like science fiction and fantasy, picture books have sub-genres like fairy tale, alphabet, and bedtime books. There is a whole body of…

Verso: Accepting Proposals

Verso is the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world. They publish 100 books a year, and have editors based in Brooklyn, London, and Paris. They participate in all of the major book fairs. The majority what they publish is is nonfiction, and they are not open to unsolicited submissions of fiction of…

Quills & Quartos Publishing: Accepting Submissions

Quills & Quartos Publishing was founded in 2019. They started with a very specific vision, to focus on publishing the best Austenesque romance fiction. This is of course a niche market within a niche market, so if this is not the right fit for your work, please don’t submit or read further. However if you…

University Press of Mississippi: Accepting Submissions

The University Press of Mississippi was founded in 1970. They are currently the largest and only nonprofit publisher in the state. They are supported by Mississippi’s eight state-run universities. They publish work on a variety of subjects and are open to submissions in all nonfiction categories. They are not interested in fiction or poetry submissions….