Oh for the love of snack foods...

I am seriously needing something to snack on while writing today and I just realized I also seriously need to go to grocery store.

I miss the days of being able to write what we were out of on the white board at my parents' house and having it miraculously show up in the pantry a day or two later. It doesn't work like that at my house for some reason. ;)

Today we are talking style - as in, what style of writing do you naturally have?

I've critiqued quite a few manuscripts and one thing I can always tell - and the reader can always tell - is when you are trying to write in a style that isn't your natural voice. Is that wrong? Not necessarily.

When I first started out trying to become a writer, I wrote mystery/suspense. I thought that's what I wanted to write for the rest of forever. Then, while working on edits to the first suspense novel I wrote, I started writing the beginning of Miss Match - just for fun. Soon, Miss Match took over and the rest is pretty much history. I loved that I could write it exactly like I talked. I loved that I could pretend I was sitting in a coffee shop talking with my dearest friend and have that be exactly how the book sounded.

So while I got a few positive reviews for my suspense, I discovered that I really loved writing contemporary fiction. I've thought about going back to suspense someday, but right now I'm having too much fun writing in first person. ;)

What is your natural leaning? Do you tend more toward a contemporary, first-person style? Third person historical? Mystery and suspense? Sci-fi? And would you ever dabble in anything outside of your comfort zone?

I'm off to go make some popcorn. ;)