Well...

Life is about slots and putting people into slots. We resist, but in reality, we're very comfortable in those slots. We know what we've going to get, and you actually get paid pretty well to stay in those slots. Innovation is RARE, and those who innovate tend to pay a price. When it comes to the business of writing, I've always had a yin-yang relationship with being in a slot and my desire to innovate.

For example, there are books outside of the African American genre that I'd like to write, however since my success is in the African American market, it's damn near impossible to break out. I'd have to cultivate a whole new audience, hell, before that I'd have to convince my agent that it was worthwhile to do. So I'm going to be writing books in the African American genre for my writing career. Is that bad? Not really. I LOVE writing about Black people. But it is bad in another way, since I'm basically constrained.

I mentioned that because in my 434, Dave gave us the real about how you are looked at as a Hollywood writer. If you establish yourself as a comedy writer, then voila, you write comedy and not drama. You fit into a slot. Women writers are in a slot. Black writers are in a slot. Etc. Your artistic sensibilities want to rebel against being slotted, but your bank account welcomes it. What's funny is that I like writing because I tend to hate anything that resembles a conventional occupation. But the more writing you do, you realize that writing is just as conventional as anything else. And every writer is slotted, whether they like it or not.