So for maybe about a year now I’ve been slowly building up on ideas for a story I want to write, but there’s a couple of things I’m uncomfortable with. While I can understand that knowing about a genre can be good, I’m a little scared that I’ll be too heavilly influenced with ideas and it’ll be harder to create this world as my own. Which ultimately is what I want, I want to come up with as much as I possibly can without being influenced by outside ideas, that way I know in my self that my ideas are mine and weren’t directly copied from anyone, even if they do turn out to be similar.
So my question to you is this. Do you think it’s a good idea to research a genre during a planning stage and maybe even pick up a couple of novels? Or would it be better to get all my ideas down and have the basic constructs of my story before I move on to other people’s work? To be honest, I don’t read much nor have I studied literature, but I do I have some idea on what I’m doing during this stage (planning wise) and have enough pasion for this (imaginative) world to start taking this further.
If you actually want to sell this novel then you must research the genres. Publishers are very difficult people to please. They have very set ideas about what’s good and what’s not. Reading other work doesnt mean you have to copy it. You must have an idea of the conventions of those genres though - even if you end up breaking them. Readers expect certain things. They will approach your novel with their own preconceived ideas, based on the genre. You ned to understand where the reader is coming from in order to be able to communicate with them.
I hope you take my word for this, if you are serious about writing a novel. A novel can take years to write. Do everything now to make sure youre ready to begin - DO NOT get half way through the novel and realise youve been doing the wrong thing. I did that, after 18 months of solid work. Trust me, I was far from happy!
Reading anything you can get your hands on is just as important as writing as much as you can. I wouldn’t limit reading things to a specific genre. The more things influence you the better.
At this point in time any type of story you want to tell has already been told in some shape / size / form. This is why it’s important to get around and absorb whatever you can. The things you like about stories are most likely the things others will like about stories. On the flip side, the things you hate about stories are most likely the things other people will hate too. All things you should consider when writing your own stuff.
Whatever influences you, it will take practice but you have to try to make it your own. Dragon Ball’s Goku was influenced by Jackie Chan. No one thinks of Jackie Chan when they read / watch Dragon Ball Z. Akira Toriyama took some aspects of his personality and went from there.