Why Sci-fi and Fantasy?

I've been writing since I can remember. I loved it when we had firemen come to our primary school and talk to us about how to keep safe from a fire at night because our task afterwards was to write a fictional story about this. It remains in my possession today, and even now, it seems well written for a ten-year-old.

There is a plethora selection of styles, tones and genres to choose from when writing a story - whether it's a simple single-page one, like my fire story, or a mighty two-hundred-thousand word epic novel. And it's possible to write as a multi-genre author, however, I am not skilled enough to do this and chose to write in one that I could be as creative as possible without certain restrictions that might come within the genre requirements. For example, the research that is involved in writing a novel is immense and to weave historical facts into fiction is a skill that I don't possess and whilst I enjoy reading this, I'd prefer to research unit tactics during wartime and medieval battle plans and how to lay siege to a castle, rather than court politics or clothing.

The sci-fi and fantasy genre enables me to blend reality with advanced technology and mythological creatures together in a way that would seem borderline psychopathic in a crime or thriller story. The eclectic mix of elements of my chosen genre enables me to be as creative and strange as I like without actually creating a mix of topics that appear odd.

For me, the creative part of writing is writing something that I'd like to pick off the shelf and read.

Creativity should flow and be something that you enjoy and embrace, even when you're having to reread the same sentence for the millionth time.

And this is what you should do to, when you write - write something that you are interested in, that you enjoy being part of, that you want to be embraced by. If you're not sure yet which genre you prefer, think about what movies or tv you already watch? What games do you play? Once you decide which of these you lean towards...that's the genre to aim for either in the type of book to read or story to write.