Range.

Last week, while playing some music in the car, a friend asked me who I was listening to. I told them it was a Jimi Hendrix album, and they seemed surprised because it wasn't the raucous noise they'd expected from Hendrix.

I suspect this merely showed that my friend had never really listened to much Hendrix. But I also realised at that moment that like Hendrix, a writer needs to have range. It's important to have your own voice, but it's equally important to use that voice in different ways to keep your readers on their toes.

I've recently tried experimenting in my writing. Not only on 'subject', but in genre and style too. Not all these experiments have worked, but I've been rather pleased by some of the results. Some will be rewritten, some have been subbed out, at least one has already sold.

I consider myself to be a Sci-Fi writer, but when I look back over my writing I can already see a number of horror stories and a few urban fantasy pieces. And, having recently re-read some of them I can usually see where they originated and the influences contained there-in.

Jimi Hendrix only released three studio albums in his lifetime, but  his development and experimentation is clearly obvious to anyone who takes the time to listen to those works with a critical ear. When he died he had plans to move into new areas, recording with Miles Davis for example, and no one really knows where he would have gone had he survived.

Develop, experiment and have a range.  Those are my goals in writing.