Many authors naturally gravitate toward a particular subject matter or genre. Mystery writers may change up their formula but generally stick to mysteries. Literary fiction authors usually don’t go from producing heavy family dramas to comedic works. And sci-fi writers often make their bread and butter with multiple novels or series that center on one thing only: sci-fi.

In other words, once you read an author, you usually know what you’re going to get when you pick up any of their books. But as an author, your interests could lie in multiple genres. What if confining yourself to one or another subjects is just too constraining for your artistic spirit?

Rest assured that, while tricky, it is certainly possible to venture into multiple genres as a writer. For example, Stephen King may be primarily known for his horror canon, but he has very successfully branched out into fantasy and detective novels. Margaret Atwood is perhaps most famous for her searing dystopian novels, but she also found success writing historical fiction, sci-fi, and even poetry. The point is, it’s OK if your creative desires send you in different directions!

Read on for a few ways to knit together a career as a multi-genre writer—without losing the different threads along the way.

1. Take an introspective deep dive
Perhaps the most important thing to do to write multiple genres is get in touch with the parts of you that can produce such a varied body of work. If you want to write a historical fiction novel and a family comedy at the same time, you will have to be very in tune with the academic, amusing, optimistic, and assured parts of your personality. This will help you tap into the appropriate emotions when needed and reduce the amount of time you spend unwinding from one genre to prepare yourself for the other.

2. Brush up on your technical skills
While it’s a given that you need certain skills as a writer to produce a book that people want to read, it is important to be on top of that skillset when diving into more than one genre. That means practicing various technical aspects like dialogue, narrative voice, framing, and more.

Think about it as making sure you have a completely full toolbox at your disposal for when you sit down to begin writing, since each genre will require slightly different tools to make the story flow the way it should. Writing in different subject matters requires you to do more than the average writer, but you may also find unexpected connections that can play upon one another.

Building suspense for a horror novel may not look entirely unlike building sexual tension for a romance novel, for example. The technical skills to do both may prove similar but not exactly the same—which is why you need all the tools at your disposal.

3. Read, read, read
The great thing about being a writer is that a lot of times, the advice for being better is simply to read. Becoming a multi-genre writer is no exception. Think about the top genres that interest you most as a writer and make sure you read those subjects as you continue writing. Doing so will help you absorb (often unconsciously) the kinds of characters, language, and narrative style that separate the books you love from the ones that leave you unsatisfied. Jot down positives or negatives that stuck out to you, and use that information to improve your own draft.

4. Get organized
To the chagrin of my readers who tend to fly by the seat of their pants, writing in multiple genres means that keeping tabs on different processes is kind of a must. This means crafting separate writing plans for each book, ideally with suggested timelines, outlines, notes on technical aspects, and more.

While some writers are perfectly capable of writing one genre in the morning and a different one in the afternoon, I tend to lean toward dedicating an entire writing session to one or the other. Just like when you’re writing chapters from different character perspectives, dealing with one genre at a time can result in more productivity overall. Of course, if you can seamlessly switch back and forth within the same day, go for it!

5. Never stop learning
Writing is a continuous skill, one that you will hopefully never stop learning about—no matter how many years you’ve been at it. When writing in multiple genres, it is particularly important to stay up to date on the latest industry trends and genre hybrids. (It’s wild to think that romantasy wasn’t even a popular term a few years ago, isn’t it?)

This can also mean branching out and trying new writing techniques, if only to see whether one of them can be used to enhance what you have already been doing. Research can be more important in certain genres (like historical fiction) than others (romance, for instance), but it is truly a vital part of being an author regardless of the subjects in which you specialize.

Andrea Moran lives outside of Nashville with her husband and two kids. She’s a professional copywriter and editor who loves all things books. Find her on LinkedIn.