As a writer, I'm most comfortable when there is a hero with shining sword in hand, facing off against some monster that threatens the peace of the land. That's an overly simplistic example, but fantasy is my comfort zone.
As a writer, I should be uncomfortable with the idea of getting comfortable. So should we all. When you get comfortable, you end up like my old couch- there's only one possible way to lie comfortably in that thing, because it's so old and worn down that that one groove, that one RUT, is the only place to be. Actors worry about getting type-cast; writers should fear typecasting themselves.
And so, I've taken a step back from the fantasy world I've been weaving for a decade to try something new. I'm writing a horror story.
Will it be any good? Will the anthology I'm going to submit it to like it? That's really not the point. The point is stepping out of bounds, moving away from the familiar old sentences and slinging some new ones out there. The point is to stretch. It might turn out to be absolute garbage. I might end up not even submitting it. I won't know until it's done, and that's the whole point.
Not knowing.
Not being comfortable.
Turning into a blind alley just for the pure sake of the strange.
Life's an adventure, friends. And so is writing.