Wattpad Block Party - Summer Edition III (August 2017)

Hepburnettes Presents: THE ART OF GENRE HOPPING

(Huge thanks to @KellyAnneBlount for the wonderful opportunity to participate in this round's Wattpad Block Party!)

Darlings, I'm going to show you my version of Narnia today.

Believe me, once you slither in, you'll never want to get out.

=> THE ART OF GENRE HOPPING

What is genre hopping?

Well, it's pretty much my way of saying 'experimenting with genres'. If you've been my reader for long enough, then you'll know that I've genre-hopped from teen-fiction to chicklit to mystery to short story to action to humour to romance to fanfiction to werewolf to vampire. Now that's one hell of a mouthful and I'm not suggesting that you genre hop every which way. But you get the gist, right?

Why should I genre hop?

It's not so much something that you should do, honestly. It's something that you can do. See, the best thing about being an aspiring author on Wattpad is that you can write pretty much anything you want. Unlike published authors, you're not streamlined into a specific genre and there are far fewer expectations of you to write under said genre. So what do you have to lose by exploring something new? (Actually, you could lose something, but more on that later.)

The bottomline is that if you want to improve and broaden your horizons, sometimes, experimenting with a new genre could be very helpful. You might find that you're far more adept at writing fantasy than romance, or your mindset far more suitable for chicklit than teen fiction. Wattpad is your oyster so go wild.

So the question that many of my fellow authors ask me is:

How should I genre hop?

I've broken it down into five steps that should be easy enough for you to follow. But do bear in mind that this is all based on my personal experience through years of genre hopping. Feel free to experiment however you want until you find something that suits you best.

Step #1: Get an itch you can't scratch.

Have you ever browsed through a genre on Wattpad only to find the same plotlines repeating over and over and over again?

Take werewolf, for instance. Sometime ago, I was scrolling through page after page of werewolf novels. I admit - I'm the kind of obnoxious reader who has these very specific tropes that she wants to read about. I want a female protagonist who isn't going to jump away from her hot Alpha but jump on him. I want an Alpha who isn't cocky or arrogant but still confident and capable of leading a pack. I want the couple not to spend, like, three-quarters of the book yelling and resisting and throwing stuff at each other. And, most of all, I want decent writing and a happy ending.

Is that too much to ask?

Well, kind of. Don't get me wrong. It's not that there aren't any original or unique books under the werewolf genre. There are plenty. But they just don't appear on the What's Hot list or the Featured list. They're not appearing under the proper tags either. Although, I agree, typing in 'girl wants to ride hot Alpha' under tags isn't so effective. But the point is, sometimes, you want to read something that's just not available.

That's your itch that you can't scratch. (I mean, apart from the riding an Alpha itch that you can't scratch.)

Step #2: Scratch it.

There are times when you'll feel this way about genres you've not yet explored.

Do you know why Draconian happened? Because I wanted a dystopian version of Harry Potter from a Slytherin perspective. I wanted Voldemort to be as proficient in Legilimency as he was supposed to be and read Harry's mind to know that he wasn't the owner of the Elder wand. I wanted a Death-Eater Draco to head a super cool secret group during the war. I wanted Hermione to break out of her Gryffindor circle and forge friendships with Slytherins. I wanted to focus on the best of the Gryffindors and the best of the Slytherins (oh, and Luna Lovegood, of course) and write about them winning the war together.