My Favourite Genres
In case you're new here, every so often on a Wednesday, I write a weird post that I have no idea where it is going and it sometimes ends up as a massive digital ramble about something completely different than I meant it to be.
Today, I plucked an idea out of the air, and am going to talk about my favourite genres! (Buckle up, this is bound to be a long one!)
Now, because I am an awkward human being and cannot possibly have simple tastes, the genres I like depend on whether I'm watching a movie, reading a book, writing a story or writing a short story... I'll take it one at a time!
Books
I don't really care what I read, as long as it's good! I like thriller and mystery books, because the build up and tension can be really good if it's done well. I also, for the opposite reason, like romancey books, because of the lack of tension.
I like to say that I like reading horror, but I have actually never done so... I just say it for attention.
I've read quite a few dystopian, YA, science fiction type books, although I haven't read many in quite a while (the most recent were Ready Player One & Two). I remember, once, I read a book that was about a pandemic, and there was chaos, confusion, action – all the good stuff (this was about five years ago, I didn't even consider then that something like that might actually happen... it was a dystopian book...)
I went through a phase once where I decided I was uncultured and should read some 'classics'. Despite warnings, I decided I should read Jane Austin's Emma (I should've listened, it was so boring I didn't finish it). I also bought copies of Wuthering Heights and Frankinstein because they had pretty covers. I read Wuthering Heights, although it did take me a solid two weeks of reading to get through it, because I was very confused to begin with, and the writing style that seems to be popular in the classics is very descriptive, the kind of writing that is filled with a little too much world building and not quite enough exciting events. I didn't get through Frankinstein, although I still didn't understand it by the middle of the book, so maybe that's why.
I am also quite a big fan of action books, as well (basically, if you give me a book, I'm probably going to read it).
Movies
I am a little more picky when it comes to movies. This is where I start getting awkward.
My favourite movie genres are thrillers and horror. If you read my post 'My Relationship With Movies – prepare for a rant!' you might know about The Movie List. (I'm not explaining it, go and read the other post, click on the title above, I linked it.) You can tell what kind of movie phase I'm in by the most recent colour coding. For example, horror is orange, thriller is yellow. The colours mean nothing specific, those were just the highlighters I had to hand. Romance, however, is pink, and that was intentional.
I know a lot of people say this, but I am not scared by horror movies. I am not even making this up to look cool. If my friend wants to watch a horror movie, she has to do so when I'm there so she won't get as scared, since I won't get scared. Sure, sometimes I'll jump if I'm not expecting a jump scare, but generally I'll watch them in the middle of the night and appreciate the cinematography, the work that went into it, the acting, and the story. I know, I'm odd.
I love thrillers for the same reason – some of them have such incredibly intricate storylines that I find myself astonished that such a thing is possibly to think up.
I am not opposed to the occasional comedy, but it has to be a good comedy – for example, The Mexican. I went into that movie having no idea that it was a comedy, and only realised after about half an hour of being quite confused. I might rewatch this and do a review on it at some point. Another one would be Hot Fuzz – I find that although I am a comedy master, and you can't say anything around me without me cracking a joke in response, I can only watch comedy in moderation. Otherwise it seems over the top and silly (which is what it's meant to be, so I'm just annoyingly specific).
I do not like action movies. Correction, I like them, I just don't understand them. I have watched so many action movies, and had no idea what the actual story is about. I've started only watching them with my Dad, because he understands them perfectly, so he can explain what is happening as it happens.
I am also not the biggest fan of romance, even though I like reading it. It's so incredibly predictable (which is the reason I like romance books...) and I just find them boring.
Writing Novels
This makes it sound like I have written multiple full length novels, and have them just lying around in my computer. This is untrue. I have STARTED writing multiple full length novels, I have three on the go (although one has been abandoned because it's terrible) and have complete ideas for three more. These do not follow any particular theme, and every single one is in a different genre. I have young adult, historical fiction, science fiction, romance... my imagination is not contained within a genre box when it comes to writing novels.
HOWEVER! There are some things that I am better at writing than others. I can write romance for pages and pages, and it can be brilliant, but I can manage maybe 500 words of horror before I realise it's incredibly cliché and not at all scary. Sometimes I will be struck in the brain with a metaphor, which I will write down with glee, and other time I will stare at a blank page for hours before I give up and close the document.
Writing Short Stories
Now, this is something that I have done a lot! I don't have any published, but I have a total of three complete short stories, two half written, and a plethora of very short ones (these are on this blog). I plan, at some point, to maybe publish the three I have finished, and the other two if I ever finish them, but that's something that would happen when I get around to it, not following any particular time frame.
When I write potentially publishable short stories (these are about 10,000 words) they are generally quite harrowing, or warped. It's that, or they're sweet romances.
When I write short short stories (about 250-1000 words, these are all on this blog) they can be a range of genres. Somehow, they seem to always be creepy and weird, but I have some cute ones as well. With these, it really depends on what kind of mood I'm in when I write them as to what genre they end up being.
Conclusion
I think the format is really important to whether or not I like something. For example, I love thriller movies, but the first time I read a thriller book, I was kind of creeped out by the way it made me feel, getting inside the heads of the characters, instead of just watching them on a screen. It also depends on my mood. If I'm feeling sappy, I'll write/read romance and watch something sad (my movie habits are basically the opposite of my mood) but if I'm feeling bored, I'll want something fast paced and action-packed (although not actually action, unless my Dad is there!)
Okay, I think I'm done now! I warned you at the start that this was going to be a really long post (did I...? I can't remember. I probably did). If you got this far, wow. You have commitment.
If you didn't get this far, I can't say I blame you, but also, how are you reading this...
I'm not funny.
Bye!
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