How to Write in Different Genres

Emiko Jean and Yulin Kuang share tips and strategies for how they successfully write in different genres and mediums.

- JENNIFER CHEN

As a journalist and the author of two young adult novels, I’m always curious about how writers start in a new genre. The journalist in me follows my curiosities because there’s often a good story to uncover. When two books came across my desk to review, I thought the authors would be perfect to ask about switching genres. First, I spoke with Emiko Jean, whose debut adult thriller The Return of Ellie Black garnered a rave review from the master himself, Stephen King, but who started out in the YA space. I also chatted with TV writer and screenwriter Yulin Kuang, who penned her debut romance novel How to End a Love Story, to understand how a writer can make jumping genres seem seamless.

For Jean, the idea for The Return of Ellie Black initially began as a young adult novel intended to be a follow-up to her debut YA psychological thriller novel, We’ll Never Be Apart. “It got passed on by my editor at the time, which was devastating. I thought I had written this really wonderful book, and she said it was not for the young adult market.” That stinging rejection turned into inspiration when Jean’s literary agent suggested she write the story as an adult thriller instead. Jean put aside the original manuscript for a few years to work on other projects, but when she returned to tackle a big revision on Ellie Black, she added a female detective point of view, which she says, “cracked open the whole story for me.” Adding Detective Chelsey Calhoun into the story took about a year and a half of work, and then Jean added Ellie Black’s parents’ points of view as well.