Week 5 - Genre

You have to take risks...

...every now and then, or the writing becomes predictable. I'm not good with risks, I'm usually happy to write what is expected of me or what I think will please people. But I discovered a few years ago that I actually suck at second guessing what people want and I write better when I just follow my instincts, so I'm better off writing what I want and hoping people enjoy it.
The specific 'risk' I am taking about with reference to The Werewolf of Priory Grange book, is the genre into which it falls. Actually, 'sub-genre' would probably be more accurate. All the books in the Universal Library series are horror/comedy and tonally similar, but I've decided that the sub-genre of horror into which they fit is free to change depending on what suits the story. The first book, The Mummy's Quest (available here) is an adventure story, but that didn't really work with what I had in mind for the new one, so I am taking the bold decision to change genre and hope that the people who enjoyed the first one will go with me. The Werewolf of Priory Grange has less action and is more based on the old gothic romance novels - the sort of books where heroines (often governesses) are trapped in old dark houses in the middle of a windswept moor, with creepy children, a cast of aging eccentrics and a handsome stable hand in tight trousers. Now that I'm five chapters in (had a good weekend, managing to knock 8,000 words) I'm really getting into this style of writing and, in deference to the conventions of the genre, I've decided to make a couple of the chapters diary entries written by the protagonist.

My only slight concern is the pacing. In The Mummy's Quest there was certainly a good deal of character establishment and scene setting in the early chapters, partly because, as I have said before, that's my favourite part of the writing process, but that stuff was happening alongside the horror plotline. The Mummy makes it's presence felt early on and we meet it relatively quickly - although it is kept largely in the shadows at this point. The Werewolf of Priory Grange has a much slower build, it's more of a mystery. Because we don't know who the werewolf is, a lot of time is spent getting to know the people it might prove to be, dropping hints, foreshadowing events, laying the odd red herring. Again, I like this style of writing - this is the sort of thing I would choose to read - no matter the genre, I think storytelling should start with character. But it does make me worry about whether or not people will stick with it. In the end, if readers like a character they will follow them and allow the mystery to slowly unfold because it is the character they are following.  I just have to trust that people will like my protagonist, and if they don't then none of the rest of it really matters.