Mary O'Gara

My guest today is Sally J. Walker, who is Editorial “Director of The Fiction Works and Script Supervisor of Misty Mountain Productions.  Sally’s own writing include two novels,  a Western, DESERT TIME and a mainstream literary, LETTING GO OF SACRED THINGS.  She is also president of the Nebraska Writers Guild.

Like many other people I treasure, Sally came into my life by serendipity.  A friend said, “There’s this writing workshop…” and I said, “Writing?  Why not?”  There were two workshops, both taught by Sally in a single week end.   I still have the notes twenty years later (and still use them) and now Sally is teaching a for Writers Online .Classes in August.  Her workshop will be on Cross-Genre writing, and here’s a little of what Sally has to say about the power of Cross-Genre work.

“Cross-Genre Knowledge is Empowering”

By Sally J. Walker

Most writers create stories similar to their reading tastes or live up to that adage “Write what you like to read!”  Some writers consciously write to a specific market, as in “Write to your reader expectations.”  But what happens when your style of storytelling COULD pull in more readers from other genres with their own set of expectations?

Well, that requires an understanding of the expectations of the scope of and details of those other genres.  Incorporating those expectation elements can result in “Cross-Genre Appeal” and that is precisely what my up-coming course at Writers Online Classes will be all about.

I have found a particular appeal, even a challenge to deliberately weaving in types of characters and plot structures from various OTHER genres than the main genre I am writing in.  The practice stimulates my creative process, my growth as a writer.  The possibilities are endless.

At this very moment I am writing a Christian western romance.  Each of those three genres dictate conventions, limits and specific elements I must work at everyday so that a reader favoring any one of the three genres will be satisfied.  I don’t want to be predictable nor boring.  I want my characters to be unique and my plot events to be convoluted yet logical to the sequences I create.  It is hard work to maintain a well-crafted literary flow as I do all that . . . but, WOW, is it gratifying when I am “in the zone” and story flows out of my mind and into my fingertips.

My awareness made me think of other stories I have created:  an action-adventure romantic mystery (When Eagles Scream, a screenplay), a contemporary western horror (Eyes of the Cat, another screenplay), a children’s Scottish fantasy (The Legend of the Golden Rose, a read-aloud picture book), an historical romantic suspense (Please Believe in Passion, a novel) then on and on through my portfolio.  As I objectively assessed each of the projects I have completed, I discovered  a subconscious effort to write cross-genre stories all along.

This AWARENESS empowered me as I revised each of my works readying them for marketing.  I identified where I could trim blatant elements to artistic subtlety and where I could enhance thin elements to meet the expectations of readers (and editors) in OTHER genres I could market to.

Subsequently, I encountered writers who did not understand other genre expectations but likewise wanted to write for a broader appeal that would increase their own chances of selling a project.  So, I took my notes of the various genres, studied them in depth to verify my own observations AND researched the dictates of genre experts to create a succinct series of lessons in “how to” do that very thing, deliberately write for cross-genre appeal.  for me, the study and practice has proven that adage “Knowledge is power.”

What a hoot to share with others in a succinct, time-saving manner and empower them!

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