Though I'm not sure how common this is. It may be just a thing all short story writers experience when they try to break into writing novels.
Specifically, does anyone else have a time sticking with a genre?
By this I mean, it wouldn't be a medical thriller or crime fiction or what genre have you. As each character has an entirely different profession. The focus being on the family who might have a doctor, a crime scene detective, and an English teacher.
In my YA, it was a boarding school student turned cyborg surviving near death turned drug addict, a mother searching for her son behind the scenes, a drug dealer who distributes pain meds, among other character types in a world where what is real and not real blends in a new reality.
Rather the genre label would largely miss the point, which wouldn't necessarily be saving the patient before a bomb explodes, or catching a rogue AI terrorist. The point being how families are effected by turmoil in each individuals lives.
If I were to stick to short stories, I experience much less of this.
Do you actually write all these stories to which you allude?
Only the YA one, with the boarding school student turned cyborg surviving near death turned drug addict. But it is approached in a family focused (not to be confused with family friendly) way. Meaning that while I have characters in the dystopian genre, the focus is on the family dynamic.
The latter was an example of the concept.
A better example is my current story collection, where although it utilizes the same themes, it set in different eras between when 'magic'--or the mystery--is thriving, when magic is beginning to decline and die, and then the rebirth of magic in subtler more dangerous ways. But focuses on character from the same cultural lineage throughout time.
The exception being Jenna's Gift, and Beamer The Shape.
