Writing outside of your comfort zone

Writing stories for competitions is a good way to stretch your writing muscles. I know that many people only ever write within their chosen genre and that's fine. I actually think that you become a better writer by stretching your self a bit.

The problem for me is that it's hard. I have just finished a Diaspora type story for a competition and quite quickly ran into trouble. The problem was the ending. I rarely read stories with sad or gloomy endings and I now find that I can't write them either. I had to settle for an ambiguous ending.

This has destroyed two illusions about myself. I was certain that I could write anything, after all, I have an imagination and I have spent half of my life daydreaming. I was hoping that that counted for something. But no, It seemed that my hands will not type absolute gloom.

A promise of Sun or Rain?

The second thing was even worse, I have always thought of my self as a bit of a closet depressive, and maybe that's actually true. But to make myself feel better, I tell myself that I have dark hidden depths. But it seems that when I'm put to the test I am a bit shallow and sentimental.

I guess I am what I am and I will have to work with that.

I will let you know how I get on with the competition though and whether it was a complete disaster.