As well as attracting multiple plot bunnies, I seem to attract real bunnies too. This is Nessarose, a black and white harlequin lionhead. I now have three rabbits in my ownership. She is three years old and a bit of a princess. I was given her yesterday by somebody I know who didn’t want her anymore and now it is my job to get her up to full health. Ordinarily, I own dwarf lops and that’s the breed of rabbit I have the most experience with by far. My other two girls are three year old blue dwarf lops and utterly charming.
I have never owned a lionhead before and there are certain aspects of their breed that provide different challenges to looking after dwarf lops. This is something that I will obviously have to learn in order to provide Nessarose with the best possible care. That is something which she not only deserves, but has the utter right to have.
This is related to writing, bear with me. It also provides me with the opportunity to share my darling new girl with you!
But the reason this is related to writing is this: I’m experienced as a writer. I know certain genres, I know certain characters, I know how to tell a story. But this doesn’t mean that I know how to do absolutely everything – who does? With rabbits, I know how to look after dwarf lops. A lot of that care is transferable to looking after my new ‘lil lionhead. But there’s new things to learn. There’s always new things to learn.
Trying a new genre is exactly the same thing. There’s a lot to do to work out how to write a new genre. Research, reading the genre, trial and error and finding out what works for you personally. Like with rabbits, everyone is different and will have their own interpretation of a genre. Every person and rabbit is different; Nessarose and I have to find out what works for us. Thus far, it seems to me, that climbing on my shoulder when carried is one of our ‘things’. Trying new things in writing (and rabbit ownership!) is half of the fun. You never know, you could find yourself fully converted to the new genre.
But with writing, even after all that, you can find that it just doesn’t work for you. But you’ve put the time and effort until trying and that’s the main thing. There’s always new genres out there to try out.
And this is where that analogy ends: Nessarose has her forever home now. I have had her for approximately 18 hours, but already I know that I wouldn’t give her up for anything.
Yeah, this blog post and analogy is also partially an excuse to show off Nessarose. But hey, sometimes you just have to!
Tracie Writes 