What’s in a Genre?

I’m still finding my voice as a writer. I’m still searching for my niche, if I even have a niche. I like to challenge people and make them think outside their comfort zones. I want my readers to questions the everyday things they have come to take for granted. Ideologies that they live by; yet, never bothered to look at or question.

Maybe it’s because I don’t like boxes. I don’t like labels. I like reinventing myself. I do it every time I sit down to write. I slip into my character as if I’m shedding a personality and suddenly I’m this new person. I’m also a kinesthetic writer. I go out and learn to do the things my characters do. I think of it as research. People in my life sometimes think of it as insane.

My favorite thing to explore in writing is the psychological messiness that lives in every one of us. It’s the experiences that leave us scarred and bruised that also give us the most richness to our personalities. I like to play in that soup of conflicting emotions and search for meaning. I also tend to do horrid things to my characters as well.

I also like to write simple pieces that explore the everyday connections people make. The small things that bind us together, or scare us.

In my research, my type of storytelling could fall in several categories. I could be romance, Chick-Lit, Thriller/suspense, or even horror. I certainly have a yen for writing psychological thrillers, and I do like exploring relationships; but the thing that drives me the most, I want my reader to walk away with a strong emotion from my story.

There have been times I’ve written a flash fiction piece with the sole intention of giving my reader PTSD. I’ve also scared myself while writing a suspenseful flash fiction piece late at night. I want to poke at my little lizard brain and make it go AHHHHH!!!!

So what genre does this make me?