Do you bounce around between fiction and non-fiction, poetry and plays, you get the point. Do you think writers are drawn to a certain genres almost genetically. For me it was poetry from age 15-25. A solid decade of line breaks and metaphors. I never dreamed of writing anything else. And when I went to grad school, it was nearly frowned upon to cross the aisle. Like you were a dilettante. I think anything is possible when parsnip marries potato.
Are you faithful or genre-promiscuous?
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Betsy Lerner 
“Are you faithful or genre-promiscuous?”
Mostly I’m a fictionaut, though I have had several long-term affairs with the Muse of verse.
I’m not creative enough to be genre-promiscuous
I suffered from genre promiscuity for a decade. Fiction left me feeling empty, as if the time during exploration was a waste. Now I am faithful to non. Non is my partner. I love non.
As of late, I’ve been behavin’. For the past decade I’ve been writing and reading southern fiction. I used to be big into historical fiction (and do still like it – I cheated on southern fiction recently and read FLIGHT OF THE SPARROW.) There was a time I read horror – Stephen King, V.C. Andrews, Peter Straub (only because he co-wrote with Stephen King), others I can’t remember.
I found my soul mate though in southern fiction. Give me the works of Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, James Still, Cormac McCarthy, Clyde Edgerton, Wiley Cash, Dorothy Allison, Jesmyn Ward…and I swoon.
Maybe it is genetics. IDK.
Promiscuous, which had been a bit of a problem for my “brand.” And now I’m working on a murder mystery which is utterly slutty of me. If I publish it, though, it will be under a pseudonym so no one will know.
Fiction, though I cut my teeth on medical writing and the occasional essay. I always got in trouble for making stuff up, so I jumped ship onto the fiction barge. Sometimes I cheat with the essay but honestly, they’re mostly fictional essays. Just can’t help myself
Faithful to fiction because we’re such opposites, although I’ve been tempted by non-fiction and the allure of poetry on occasion. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
A fictional lover, a non-fiction mistress- the classic big-head little-head crisis. They have met, and seem to like each other.
I’m an emotional cheater. Although I live with creative nonfiction, my heart will always belong to poetry.
So I don’t have characters dancing around in my head. I tell other people’s lives. I once was a poet. Maybe it’s still there, if I dig deep enough. And, no, I don’t fool around.
I prefer to think of it as eclectic. 🙂
One from column A; two from column B. And, I’ll take the appetizer of the day, and the à la carte of the month. 🤓
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faithful to short stories now. Even my “novel” is just a cycle of short stories.
“Are you faithful or genre-promiscuous?”
What sort of question is that? After all we’ve been through! I can’t believe you’d imagine I could be anything but … seriously, what are you even asking me?
Well of course I’m faithful. To fiction, I mean. Now, the thing about fiction is, it’s all make-believe, right? Lies, if you will — though I find that a cruel, unjust way of putting it. Let’s just say, when I lie to you, it’s for your own good. What is fiction, after all, if not the Pursuit of Greater Truth? So how could I ever be accused of being unfaithful? Sure, a smidgeon of our true lives and selves might sneak into the story here and there, a sort of Non-Fiction, I suppose some might call it. But I never meant to hurt you. That seductive bitch means nothing to me. Honest.
As for genre, I’m on a quest for Greater Truth, as previously touched upon. (Do you, too, my little Mystery, need to be touched upon? I can fit you in somewhere between Historical Romance and Urban Fantasy, and you know it’d be a True Crime to deny yourself such a pleasure). You surely don’t expect a writer like me to confine himself to only one genre? We’d only both end up unhappy. Everything I do is for us. For you. Why, when you look at all sides of this, I do these things for YOUR happiness, yes? Yes, I knew you’d see it my way. Oh, by the way, something’s come up, I may be home late tonight, if at all. No need to worry, it’s just a work thing…