Genre Debate

[Oubliette]

Before I get going, I apologize that when I type informally (in other words, in first person and trying to relay my thoughts and feelings as naturally as possible) I am hard to track.  As you saw earlier, I insert little tangents or side-thoughts in parentheses.  Some find it annoying.  However, it's just true to how I think and how I communicate (literally, I might interrupt a sentence I am actually speaking out loud, with my mouth, with a new sentence to add in some horribly lame comment that I find amusing or helpful at the time.  Seriously.  I do it.  Believe me) and I'm afraid you'll just have to take me with a grain of salt.  Or perhaps a spoonful of sugar. Well I suppose if enough people complain, I can be courteous and make the effort to change to appease people to keep things smooth (and legible).  I am also long-winded.

Alright, I shall begin.

One of my blindsights is my inability to aptly categorize things.  It simply is not how I work, unless it is something as blatant as dividing something by first letter or colour or something visually obvious.  But when it comes to genre, whether it be music, fiction, or pictures, I get stuck.

I was reading another thread (is it improper etiquette to reference other forums by other posters?  I am not terribly forum savvy and don't want to go and do something that 'isn't done') where someone was struggling with the definition of what genre their story falls under.  I felt that person's pain as I feel the same way about some of my projects. However I did not want to hijack that thread, and started my own.

I write mainly fantasy to keep things simply for myself.  Fantasy will always be fantasy in my mind.  Throw in a made-up world, magic, and strange humanoid races, and BAM, you know what it is.  However there is the odd time I write something I'm unsure of.

However, a horror novel can have a fantasy setting, but what makes it horror is the plot direction and the general feel of suspense and helplessness. But as far as marketing it, do you advertise it as fantasy or horror? Then there is historical events spun with a fantastical twist, such as using magic to explain away some historical event or phenomenon.  Would that be fantasy?  Or would it be historical?  I wonder how many people struggle with this.  How many of you have these ambiguous or mixed story ideas that could just as easily be one genre or the other, and how do you finally decide upon the genre you choose for it?  Do you systematically eliminate genres by removing elements of other possibilities and seeing if the story can still stand on its own?  Do you decide upon a genre by what demographic you write for or think is marketable?  Do you play eeny-meeny-miny-mo?  Or do you let your publisher/agent decide?

As for me, I don't have an answer to the above.  As I previously stated, I stick to fantasy.  I have one story that gives me genre grief, but I figure it's also fantasy.  It's got a modern setting, and is set here on earth, but has the key presence of supernatural (if I say vampires, will you roll your eyes and think "not another one?")  beings (seriously, there's this teenage girl, and this really hot vampire dude… you, like, totally have never seen anything like it!)  Since said beings do not exist, and they are not aliens that reached here on a technology above our own, then it's fantasy.  Although vampires being aliens might be fun, though I'm sure it has already been done. In fact, probably more than once. Ahem. What makes it hard to define is that I probably could remove the vampires and replace them with some other threat (maybe drug atticts/dealers? That's what vampires are… drug dealers - suck the life out of you then make you a slave to addiction) then what would it be?  But you can't help me with that because I am not supplying a synopsis.

Anyway, what have your experiences been with defining something you wrote that could go either way?

[ldyofshadows]

Paranormal might be the word you're looking for.  Vampires (or other non-human species) are rather lumped into the 'paranormal' type genre.  There's a whole sub-genre of it in the Romance category.  S'how I'm marketing (or will be) my WIP, as a paranormal romance, alternate reality type Earth where not only do such creatures exist, they've come out of the closet and gotten protection under the law with the other minorities during the Civil Rights era. ;)

[Lizzerbear]

OMG, I'm a lover of parentheses, too! I was just writing a blog post about it actually. With far too many parenthetical asides.  But I digress. I agree that paranormal would be a good way to characterize what you've described. 

And, ldyofshadows, that sounds like a fabulous premise! 

[Magic_Seeker]

If you are worried about what an agent thinks, start by querying agents that cover many of your genres - say fantasy and horror and paranormal.  Then let the agent decide what your genre is. 

I've read that they are quite happy to catagorize you as they see fit, no matter what you think you write. 

[Aiala]

I've read that they are quite happy to catagorize you as they see fit, no matter what you think you write.

Oh, no doubt. They'd probably categorize Nabokov's Lolita as YA. 

~A~

[Oubliette]

Indeed, that does sound like a really neat idea.  Although... I do not recall quite where, but I remember reading a thread where someone suggested a twist like that, where paranormal beings (vampires mainly, because everyone is getting sick of the same old vampire stories (but they sell (hyah!  Parentheses inside parentheses)) and like to see new takes) were fighting for rights, or writing a story about a vampire lawyer (double blood sucker) that defends their rights or something.

...Not that I am saying you are unoriginal... it's just, uh.... um... I guess I'm wondering if you were the same person elsewhere.  But I honestly cannot recall where, or how long ago.  Unfortunately, unless I keep things in writing, my memory fogs things up.

Well thanks for all the advice thus far (you guys are so quick - but this isn't a small forum either) and I will take it. I like the part where I let the agent do the categorizing best. But still, I am interested to know how others relate (if at all) to the same sort of dilemma.

And no, it does not have romance as a sub genre.  I think.  I really can't be sure in this day and age what qualifies as romance, since bittersweet seems to be the flavour of the decade.  I'll say as far as romance there really isn't love between the two main characters.  There is only an unrequited attraction (I honestly could not say love).

And for some very strange reason I cannot understand as I am typing this, the scroll bar of my message box keeps shaking up and down. It is very distracting and i would even say mildly irritating.  Actually, quite irritating. I'll have to go see the support forum to see if anyone else has a similar issue.  

[Coldfeet]

Welcome!

It may have been my thread you came across, though there are certainly a few about genre confusion.  I haven't come to a satisfactory conclusion as to where my stuff fits.  I write to my own taste, which apparently is not yet a Barnes and Noble shelf category.

I'd love to write fantasy, if only because it feels like a relatively simple category to me.  Instead I write SF, but in a manner unlikely to appeal to the standard SF crowd.  I could squeeze in under paranormal, if it weren't a romance category.  Back to that writing to my own taste bit -- I deliberately chose atypical directions in the relationships, once unlikely to please a romance reader.

For now I've chosen simply to write, to query when the spirit moves me, and to assume that if I ever find an agent it will be by sheer blind luck. 

[Lizzerbear]

And for some very strange reason I cannot understand as I am typing this, the scroll bar of my message box keeps shaking up and down. It is very distracting and i would even say mildly irritating.  Actually, quite irritating. I'll have to go see the support forum to see if anyone else has a similar issue.  

I had the same problem for awhile. If you're using Internet Explorer, you can try turning on the Compatability View. On my computer, that's a button with an icon that looks like a torn piece of paper (I know, that sounds crazy) up by the address bar.

[Oubliette]

Thank you very much Lizzerbear, that saved me the trouble of making a new thread and re-explaining the situation.  It's really nice when people don't get mad if you go off topic and ask other questions, and just simply answer them and move on.  I continue to get more and more stunned by the people of this community.

And thank you, Coldfeet for your response as well.  Indeed it was your thread (The Sci-Fi versus Romance issue).

I guess the frustration is also you want to do something different or new within a genre, but in doing so sometimes you wonder if you don't stray into a different genre altogether.  Or you are like me, who likes a bit of everything in a story (some comedy, some suspense, some drama, and some fantastical/paranormal/sci-fi elements) to the point where it's hard to define as just one genre.  Not that I write that way, but there have been things I've enjoyed that were like that.

And this is a QT specific question; since paranormal isn't a listed genre (that I could see - but I am known to be blind and incompetent enough to rouse eye-rolling and face-desking) for filtering agents, what should I use instead to look for the agents with relevant interests?

[MaryL]

It is probably fantasy if it has paranormal elements and isn't romance.  Good luck with your queries!

[violet]

Straight from Nathan Bransford's blog:

First caveat: I'm not someone who really worries too much about genre distinctions in a query, and don't think you should lose sleep over whether your novel is a dark urban fantasy or paranormal romance.

Oubliette: sounds like you have fantasy to me...unless there's strong romance. Either way, don't stress. 

[Lizzerbear]

It is probably fantasy if it has paranormal elements and isn't romance. 

Agreed. Without the romance factor, I'd call it urban fantasy.