Writers are a worrisome bunch. We can come up with many great story ideas and just as many weird things to worry about (beyond even imposter syndrome).

A common concern among writers these days is getting typecast, that in whichever genre you first publish, that’s the genre that you’ll be stuck in forever. Many, many writers have story ideas across a variety of genres and they want to be given the space to write them, by both publishers and readers.

It certainly wasn’t that way back in the “good old days.” Looking way back, H. G. Wells wrote time travel stories (The Time Machine), alien invasion stories (War of the Worlds), stories of horror (The island of Doctor Moreau), and even reached outside of the speculative fiction umbrella to write novels of socio-political commentary (Kipps and The History of Mr Polly).

Slightly further back, we have Jules Verne, who wrote what would today be considered hard sci-fi (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea), soft adventure (Around the World in 80 Days) and soft sic-fi/fantasy (Journey to the Center of the Earth).

Obviously the publishing world was much smaller then, and one could assume that successful writers had more control over their careers.

How about some currently active writers? Well, there’s John Scalzi, who is probably best known for his space opera series The Old Man’s War and The Last Emperox (along with a satire of Star Trek called Red Shirts). However, he also has a best selling medical thriller series, called Locked In.

Then there’s Mary Robinette Kowal, who made her name writing magical regency romances and then moved onto a revised history of space, The Lady Astronauts series.

If I can mention an author who is no longer with us, even as movies inspired by his works are still in the theatre, Michael Crichton certainly didn’t stick to one genre. He wrote medical thrillers (like The Andromeda Strain); a famous western (The Great Train Robbery) and that all too famous resurrected dinosaur book series, Jurassic Park.

Oh, and why did I call this Chitty Chitty Bond Bond? Yeah, well Ian Fleming not only gave us Bond, James Bond, he also created Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a much-loved children’s tale (which if oyu think about it, is about a English gentleman taking a highly unusual car to Europe to interfere in the politics, so maybe not a complete stretch.).