Genre

I have been thinking alot about different genres of writing. I personally write basically whatever I feel like writing. My very first MS was a historical romance, my second a fantasy romance and the one I am working on now is a paranormal romance. I have been dabbling with the idea of starting a new MS that would be Erotica. I would feel comfortable writing a Horror I think as well, but I am not positive about how I will feel writing erotica. All I know is that I have had the opening line for a new story for a long time. "Who needs a man, when you have a vibrator?" I cant really see a story with that as an opening line as anything BUT erotica LOL. When I started writing though I could barely write a sex scene without blushing let alone consider someone actually READING it, it has become alot easier to do without embarassment partially because of the many many sex scenes critique partners read and critique, you overcome that embarassment rather quickly when you are checking for purple prose and other inconsistencies.
Many writers only feel comfortable writing in one genre, and some (like me) would rather explore a lot of different ones in order to find a niche.
For those aspiring writers out there, my recommendation is try out a few different areas, see where your writing fits in, and most of all, READ a lot of different authors in a variety of genres, you may really enjoy reading one thing but your style of writing may fit better in a completely different area. Short stories might be easier to start out with for experimentation, they are certainly faster to complete than a full novel. Anyone have any thoughts on the whole genre subject??