Arthur Conan Doyle felt the same way about Sherlock Holmes. And one of the thematic points Stephen King makes in Misery is that you have to grow where you're planted. Paul Sheldon's gift is for writing bodice-ripper gothics, and he can't change that, no matter how often he makes the I R SRS WRITER face.
Re: I love Heyer's Regency and 18th-century novels so much