Blue Topic: Genre?

[ladyseishou]

With story idea (or two) in hand, we next consider genre, Nano Writer. Wikipedia defines genre as: a term for fictional works (novels, short stories) written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.

NaNoWriMo hosts an entire subforum of "lounges" for genre writers yet the idea of genre fiction is rejected by many writers as being too restrictive and formulaic.



So Nano Writer, the question this week:
Aristotle, says Robert McKee in his insightful text, Story, “gave us the first genres.” He explains:

A story, [Aristotle] noted, could end on either a positive or a negative charge. Then each of these two types could be either a Simple design (ending flat with no turning point or surprise) or a Complex design (climaxing around a major reversal in the protagonist’s life). The result is his four basic genres: Simple Tragic, Simple Fortunate, Complex Tragic, Complex Fortunate.

Over the centuries, however, the lucidity of Aristotle was lost as genre systems became more and more blurred... Genres are not static or rigid, but evolving and flexible, yet firm and stable enough to be identified and worked with..."

Many are familiar with the basic genre categories recognized by NaNoWriMo:

• Speculative fiction that includes works of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror
  
• Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense fiction
  
• Adventure and Historical fiction
  
• Romance fiction and Chick Lit
  
• Literary and Mainstream fiction
  
• Erotica
  
• Religious, Spiritual and New Age works
  
• Satire, Humor and works of Parody
  
• Young Adult novels
  

Interesting enough, looking at genre types identified by many Nano Writers (both as genre they had written in the past or would like to try in the future), preference is heavily given to speculative work as seen in the chart below:

Nano Writers' Genre Interests



source: nano_writers community intro posts 5/22/09


Whatever the writer's preference, McKee advises that “each writer’s homework is first to identify his genre, then research its governing practices… [as] each genre imposes conventions on story design… conventional events such as boy-meets-girl in the Love Story [or] conventional roles such as the criminal in a Crime Story.” These Genre Conventions consist of “specific settings, roles, events, and values” that addresses reader expectations and at the same time, inspires creativity as the writer strives “to keep convention but avoid cliché.

Later we'll look at what genre can do for you and a mini challenge!

Bibliography

McKee, Robert. Story substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting. New York: ReganBooks, 1997.

Comments

[syderia]

I would like to say that if you don't know precisely what genre you're writing in, it's not necessarily a big deal, genre is mostly a useful way for bookstores and libraries to know where to put your book.

I've seen a lot of writers who seem to want to define the genre before writing : is it fantasy (what sort of fantasy ?), is it SF, is it romance ? Knowing the probable genre can help, but at some point, you'll need to write the book, its genre be damned.

[lassarina]

More of a purple writer, but dropping into the blue thread because it's interesting.

I have tried multiple genres. I always end up cycling back to spec fic - my romances develop paranormal themes, my historicals have ghosts, my vague and fruitless attempts at postmodernism end up translating character archetypes into fantasy and critiquing from there. That's just how I roll, and it's how I prefer what I read. I get enough of the reality grind in my day to day life; fiction is where I go to dream big dreams that don't fit in the modern world, whether it's my dream or another writer's.

I actually was completely turned off the writing program at my university because they refused genre fiction completely; the only thing you could write was modern realism (which is itself a genre but whatever, guys, you can keep your hypocrisy over there.)

Then again, I like subverting genre; I like taking something that's "oh God another of THOSE stories" and breaking it over my knee and rearranging the parts into a interesting new configuration. So maybe I'm not, strictly speaking, a genre writer. XD

[everchangingmuse]

The creative writing department at my college only wanted "literary fiction," whatever that meant to them. I think what the professors wanted was akin to modern realism, but I didn't stick around past the introduction course to find out. It really annoyed me that people in class would be taken to task for writing stories with werewolves, or setting a story in the Old West. I always figured that an introduction course should let us test out several different genres as well as types of creative writing (poetry v. prose).

[lassarina]

Do tell, did you by chance attend Northwestern U? It sounds so familiar. -_-;

See, that was my thought on an intro course also. But what do I know? Nothing, clearly.

[everchangingmuse]

No, I went to a women's college in the south. It's disturbing to think this could be a trend in creative writing departments.

We're foolish together, it seems.

[lassarina]

I think the explanation for ours was that it was run by a poet. Mary Kinzie, to be exact. If you've ever read her A Poet's Guide to Poetry, you'll probably understand the root of the problem. If you haven't, well. Pretentious doesn't begin to describe it.

[everchangingmuse]

Ours was run by a fiction author, John Gregory Brown. His wife, Carrie, was my intro professor, and she's a fiction writer as well. I haven't read the book you mention, but pretentious...yeah. It ran in our department too.

[lassarina]

I maintain that I learned more about writing, and how to recognize when I'm doing it wrong, from three months in fandom than I did from four years in university.

[everchangingmuse]

I hear you on that.

[tegels]

Mostly I'm into the historical fiction genre. I tend to read it, with very occasional forays into sf, and even then they have to be historically based (i.e. Ash a secret history by Mary Gentle; impeccable on the material culture, for example).

But the story I've been working on the past few years comes dangerously close to sf territory. Certain aspects might be rejected out of hand by historical fiction hardliners (of which there are legion). I'd be naive if I didn't acknowledge that. But then again, I am writing in an era (5th-6th century AD) where documented historical events are few and far between, and even those are disputed. So the era lends itself to a bit of sf :-)

Some authors do manage to straddle hf/sf, and it's a case of 'hunt the author' when it comes to finding them on the shelf. But if you know the author well, you know where they are likely to be found in the bookshop. But safe to say, if you find them in sf, it's an indication that the story is going to be told in a way that doesn't really fit into the hf 'style' somewhere along the line. Could be the history is twisted, or the author is known for sf anyway, and so on.

If you're writing for pleasure, don't sweat the genre. Caution: when writing hf, if you subsequently sell your book without researching the history properly (nay, to the nth degree), my goodness will hf readers/writers pick you up on it!

[dragonjournal]

Most of my writing treads that line between sci-fi and fantasy. It's a very thin line, and having dragons in space usually means that you have to take both into account. Then again, I have another story that is firmly entrenched in the 'urban fantasy' side of the scale.

I think trying to pigeon hole a genre is really, really hard. Near future things, can end up being contemporary, or sci-fi. I think you should tell a story, and worry about genre later.

[facet]

I never bother to place a genre until I have a substantial amount of plot planned. Genre sort of happens on it's own. Fantasy turns into romance and sci-fi into fantasy with just a few scenes and a plot twist added. The lines are wide and blurry so I don't bother trying to write between them.

[shiromirai]

I would say I am inclined to be a genre writer, more often than not. I think, reading some of the comments here and from other discussions, that for many writers, being classified into a genre seems to imply that there's an automatic title of 'cliche' or 'unoriginal' because to write solely within one genre is very restrictive (not to mention that there's probably some looming influences from great authors in that genre).

But I think I do classify myself as a fantasy writer even though my writing tends to have strong themes about feminism, racial and sexual discrimination, the usage of technology to improve lives but ruin the environment in the long run, etc. etc. There's also graphic sex and/or death scenes (which could be erotica or horror) and there's typically something about human genetical engineering or such (which is sci-fi).

And yet all this can still come under the title of fantasy because the main crux of my story is hinged on aspects that resonates with me for this genre - the new world, the adventure, the magic - which may show up in other genres but is most prevalent in fantasy. Does this make my writing derivative from other authors of this genre? Probably. Does this make me unoriginal? I don't believe so - you'd be hard pressed to find stories of homicidal pregnant women or phoenix-turning-ship-burning-assassins who raise a child to become a thief and take over the world. XD

And now I'll get off my soap-box in hopes that actually made sense.....>.>;;

[manyworlds]

Just about everything I write is speculative fiction of one variety or another. Sometimes it's science fiction, sometimes fantasy, sometimes horror. A lot of the time, the horror creeps into the SF/F stuff, no matter what I do.

I've occasionally considered venturing into something completely different, like romance, just to see if I can, but most of what interests me fits firmly on the speculative fiction side of things.

The thing is, I prefer to think of genre as descriptive, rather than prescriptive. I like fiction that takes genre conventions and turns them on their heads. I like weird stuff that's hard to classify. I like things that fit into more than one genre. What happens if you put a wizard in the middle of a technologically advanced spacefaring culture? If you set a murder mystery in a magical realm, is it a mystery novel? A fantasy novel? Something else entirely?

Easy answers are for the weak. ^_^

[ellarien]

All my writing is firmly in the specfic camp. To be more specific, it's mostly SF of extremely low rigor -- lots of fanciful hyperspace travel. I sometimes have ideas in more fantasy-flavored settings, but it's been a long time since any of those came to anything. Fantasy and SF are about 90% of what I read these days, too.