Over the last year of running this blog, I have been lucky enough to field questions from my readers (hi, thank you, gross) and I really love doing it. I know I tend to be more comfortable answering things one on one but I also know that I get repeat questions and sometimes it’s just damn interesting! So, for the month of December I’m going to tackle one (maybe two) questions from you every single day. Most posts will be public. Some I may lock up for Patrons only. If you want to ask a question yourself, feel free to leave a comment below or find me on the Discord channel!
Our question today is: What is your favorite genre to act in? to read? to write?
To act in…
For a long time, I’ve enjoyed kind of bouncing back and forth between comedy and drama. I would do something dramatic, then flip to comedy. Back and forth. Comedy is easier to shoot on a budget, so that took over my life for a few years and I have a good sense of timing. So again, easier. But it’s so much more fun to dive into a rich fantasy world than it is to play another 20something actor struggling to make it in her apartment in LA in today’s webseries du jour.
Actually, right now, I am dyyyying to play someone bad. The antagonist. I think there’s SO much more room for a deep character and for play in “the bad guy” — and we so often only see women in one or two types of roles. Give me someone tricky and deep and maybe a little insane and DEFINITELY Up To Something.
Basically: things that are different. I know me. I love me! I’m great. I want to play someone else.
If you know me at all, you know I devour books. Of all kinds. I was a history major so I have a soft spot for nonfiction, especially history, and I think the key takeaway for nonfiction work is that I learn something. I like to hope I never stop learning, so that exploration is important to me! I really enjoy well crafted mysteries because I think they’re one of the hardest genres to write well (and shout out to one of my patrons, Kate W., because I know she knows this so well). I’m not genre-picky though; if it’s well written and engaging, I’m open to it. I do have one mandate and it is: where are the women. If there are no women, I. Do not. Care.
To write, I have to admit that I find comedy far, far, faaar easier than drama. Whenever I sit down to write something dramatic, it feels masturbatory and eye-roll-y. If I plop that drama into a “genre” piece (scifi/fantasy, for example, with The Long Dig — which has a release date in 2020!) I tend to have an easier time of it. I’m honestly not sure why; maybe the distance of worlds helps me get over something. I really love world building, so genres that let me do that are always beloved.
I think I believe that in general, people live more in comedy than in drama. We don’t WANT our worlds to feel hard. We want to find a way through bad things without feeling so bad.
But that’s not to say I enjoy writing comedy more. I just find it easier. I did recently write a short horror that was INCREDIBLY fun — again, genre! I like atmosphere a lot.