You Are What You Write

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

We all know the expression, "you are what you eat." Makes sense. Consume a ton of junk food and you'll look different than if you eat all healthy food, for instance. Yet, what about the genres we 'consume' for entertainment? How deeply are we defined by those genres if we choose to write in them?

My wife is a Romance author. She enjoys days off, relaxing with a glass of wine and a fire in the fireplace. She daydreams about time on the beach with the man of her dreams (yeah, that's me), basking in the sunlight. She'd be content to lounge and just chill if she had the time. 

Me, not so much. I am a workaholic. Yesterday was an example of a day I felt like I did nothing at all. My wife correctly pointed out that in addition to spending the day raising a baby and a toddler, I also did four loads of laundry, baked two apple tarts, prepared two meals, stacked a third of a cord of firewood, raked three bags worth of leaves, and worked on my newest novel. My life is an unending series of small tasks, with this feeling like I'm moving toward a bigger goal. Why? Because I write Fantasy. How many long, arduous quests are filled with small accomplishment after small accomplishment, always moving toward that distant destination? The quest never really ends, even if you reach the goal, there's another destination over the horizon, another task to complete. This might seem tedious, but from the fantasy mindset, every task is a new opportunity for wonder and discovery. I felt great pride at those tarts. My son wanted to help stack wood - how cool was that? And so on...

This is just how we are, and we are quite happy. Still, it does make me wonder. What does your preferred genre say  about you? I've recently moved from writing adult to writing kidlit. Is that because I'm now full-time at home with two kids? Am I growing younger at heart? What would a horror fan/writer be like? Or a sci-fi writer? Do you think you are what you write​?