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It could be a good thing, if it means that you bring a fresh take and new ideas to a well-traveled genre. It's often NOT a good thing to write in a genre that you don't know very well, just becaus...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T10:38:35Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41568 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Chris Sunami
·
2019-12-08T10:38:35Z (over 4 years ago)
**It could be a good thing, if it means that you bring a fresh take and new ideas to a well-traveled genre.** It's often NOT a good thing to write in a genre that you don't know very well, just because you're (ironically) more likely to use old cliches and worn-out tropes, because of not being aware how common they are. But that doesn't sound like your issue. All the books you mention have been endlessly imitated. There may continue to be a market for bad Tolkien imitations, but that doesn't mean you need to be a part of it. There's always an audience for a fresh new take on a shopworn genre, especially one that addresses some of the most egregious failings of the old battlehorses. One of my favorite finds as a fantasy-devouring kid was a YA "Sword-and-Sorcery" novel whose hero was a single mom trying to escape her past by running an inn in an out-of-the-way town (_[Caught In Crystal](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/169880.Caught_in_Crystal)_). That was a lot more interesting to me than reading about some Conan clone.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-01-24T15:48:50Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 1