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.
[This article first appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.]
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.
After spending so much time adapting romance author Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation for the screen, Yulin Kuang wondered if she had any original ideas left in her. That’s when she decided to write How to End a Love Story. During the Q&A discussion for her book launch at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., Kuang talked about how she wrote the draft for How to End a Love Story every day from 5 am to 10 am, then switched to 10 am to 5 pm to work on the screenplay, then spent 5 pm to midnight back on her book.
A few months later, we met for coffee at Tepito Coffee attached to Vroman’s Bookstore and the first thing I asked was about that hyperdrive writing process. “I was on deadline for the screenplay. I was writing the book in secret, so nobody knew about it. The deadline for the novel, in my mind, was November. … my secret goal became finishing this draft, however sparse, by the end of November,” says Kuang. The screenwriter-turned-author admits that for book two, she has not kept up the same feverish pace. “I don’t think it was a sustainable writing schedule. It’s not something I would recommend.”
Even though Kuang had never written a book before, she cites writing fan fiction as a tween as a place that satisfied her love of books and adaptations. It allowed her to play with her visions for characters she had grown to love. “I remember being a fan fiction writer and looking at announcements for book adaptations. I was obsessed with movie adaptations and hoped that the creators didn’t ruin my childhood with their take.” Her childhood love of adaptations became a full-blown career. As a screenwriter, Kuang is also tapped to write and direct Beach Read, another Emily Henry book that is currently in development.
When I asked Kuang about the pressure of adapting two of Emily Henry’s books, which are adored by many readers, Kuang nods. “I am very aware of how beloved they are. At the same time, I have to set all of that aside because you can’t please everyone. You have to trust yourself and your own taste. And also surround yourself with people who are smart and good partners.”
Television writing and screenplays are certainly different mediums than fiction, and Kuang likens script writing to a team sport and novels to an individual competition. With her extensive experience in script writing, Kuang found herself gravitating toward the dialogue in fiction as something that came easier for her. Kuang says, “I accessed the part of me that would write fan fiction and the part of me that writes screenplays and just made them hold hands.” What feels familiar for Kuang is that book editors and movie producers have similar perspectives as “advocates for the audience or reader.”
Both Kuang and Jean had their books selected for the coveted Reese’s Book Club and have seen the enormous impact of that experience. When Jean’s editor emailed her the good news, her publisher decided to move up the publication date for Tokyo Ever After, Jean’s young adult novel about a Japanese American teen who discovers her father is the Crown Prince of Japan, and unexpectedly, she becomes a princess overnight, to match the May 2021 book club pick announcement. Jean, who mentions she was a midlist author before the announcement, said she was unprepared for the level of publicity that came with the news.
Having her debut novel chosen for Reese’s Book Club was a huge dream come true for Kuang, who shared that she loved Legally Blonde so much she transcribed the movie into her diary so she could read it back after returning the rental from Blockbuster Video. “I remember the night before they were going to announce it, they sent me an email to ask if I was ready. I downloaded a bunch of images from various Reese Witherspoon movies and TV shows and made little memes to post. I said, ‘OK, now I’m ready.’”
If you’re considering trying out a new medium or storytelling style, Kuang and Jean have some great suggestions to consider before drafting and during the creative process. Based on Jean and Kuang’s experiences, here are nine tips they suggest for succeeding in a new-to-you genre.
Figure out where your interests lie.
What began as a fascination for Jean turned into the inspiration for The Return of Ellie Black. “I’m very interested in true crime. I think a lot of women are interested in it because, most often, we’re the victims in these stories and can empathize with them. … I have been specifically interested in stories about kidnapped victims who have returned, like Elizabeth Smart. What draws me to those stories is that they are about survival and endurance of the human spirit.”
Read widely in that genre.
Before Kuang attempted to write romance novel, she started reading as many as she could back in 2016. She first read Private Arrangements, a historical romance by Sherry Thomas, which led her down a wormhole. “I read widely and eventually found my way to contemporaries. Reading widely in the genre helps you get a lay of the landscape. It will help you find your own little plot of land and tell the story you want to tell within that space.”
Interview experts and anonymous sources.
The Return of Ellie Black is a novel about a detective trying to solve how and why a missing girl has returned. For Jean, research is essential for every book she writes. For this adult thriller, Jean interviewed several detectives, a medical examiner, and a DNA analyst for a blood-specific question. She spoke with a few kidnapping survivors who asked to remain anonymous. “I asked one survivor if some of the parts with Ellie were too graphic. She said, ‘There’s an urge as a survivor to make the truth gentle for people.’” This information gave Jean permission to write Ellie’s scenes with authenticity. “The readers see Ellie as very raw, but also she’s very much in control of her own voice, which I thought was important.”
Use your experience as research.
With a hard deadline for a screenplay nipping at her heels, Kuang knew she had little time to conduct research for her novel, so instead, she pulled in her experiences she had from over a decade of working in film and television to create her main characters—who both end up in the writer’s room for the same TV show.
Study the genre.
After Jean signed with her literary agent, she went through many revisions before it was ready for submission to editors. “I had written that novel by the seat of my pants. After that, I decided to be more intentional by creating outlines, and studying how to tell a story.” Her undergraduate degrees were in science and her graduate degree involved teaching, so Jean didn’t have a background in writing. “I started to outline every book. I come up with all the scene beats beforehand. I take copious amounts of notes. Once I have all my chapters outlined, I start plugging in those notes—anything from dialogue to sentences to words I like the sound of. From there, I can usually draft a book in three months.”
Work with beta readers.
“If you look at the acknowledgments section of How to End a Love Story, every paragraph correlates to how many drafts I did,” says Kuang. She gave her first draft to her husband, a cinematographer, who she says has great storytelling instincts but also a light touch for feedback, which was ideal for her initial manuscript. Then, she sent it a high school friend, since the main characters had known each other in high school. From there, Kuang sent the manuscript to several friends. When she signed with an agent, she got her agent’s feedback. Lastly, she won a manuscript critique in an auction from Sarah MacLean, one of her all-time favorite romance novelists, who gave her incredible feedback.
Write as fast as you can.
After Jean got her first advance payment, she went to a writing conference in Los Angeles. She went to a panel and heard an editor say, “You can’t fix a blank page.” That one mantra has helped Jean commit to writing as much as she can, often up to 2,000 words a day. “I’m not a big believer in writer’s block. You have to write through it. I’ve carried that motto with me, and it helps galvanize me when I’m writing.”
Listen to interviews with respected authors in that genre.
Jean recommends two writing podcasts that helped her in her journey as a published author. She enjoys “The Publishing Rodeo” podcast, which features two hosts who had books published in the same year in the same genre, but had two different experiences. She also listens to “Deadline City” for her young adult novels. For penning her adult thriller, she read a lot of Lisa Jewell’s novels and studied how Jewell utilizes short chapters. “It’s important to study the techniques that are used, how authors are using sentences, and also the places where you’re holding your breath because the action is getting bigger.”
Prove yourself in one genre.
Before Jean attempted to sell her thriller, she focused on developing a fan base in the young adult space. “I purposely waited to write adult books until I had a couple young adult books under my belt. If you get an audience, maybe they’ll follow you. … When we pitched The Return of Ellie Black to editors, I was very clear about the origins of the book, and I had written in the thriller space before. I wanted to assure editors that my writing in these different genres wasn’t scattershot.”
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While it may appear like some writers are multi-hyphenates, they are building upon the skills they already have to pivot when an idea is better suited for a different genre. Jean and Kuang show that by staying curious, studying the craft, and being open are the basics for starting something new.
