What genre do you write?
I struggle to define what I'm writing. It takes place in a zombie apocalypse, but I wouldn't say its about zombies. Its about people, relationships, and hardship. Its a road trip, a tragedy and a comedy. It just happens to have zombies as a hardship to endure. How to I pick a buzzword to describe a whole story that isn't really about the thing you would define it by?
@DanIsWriting I agree with @singlemaltgirl; defining it as dystopian fiction seems to be your best bet. It sounds fascinating and I would be eager to read it!
@Laura_47 @singlemaltgirl Thank you! Progress is slow, but its a constant source of excitement for me when I get to dive into that world.
@singlemaltgirl That sounds about right. I wish there was a little more to narrow down the genre though. It would put my book right along side world war z, the road, and the stand, which while similar, are all very different kinds of stories.
Its a little like saying Blade runner, time cop and Star Trek are all sci-fi.
@DanIsWriting well wwz & the road are both considered dystopian fiction. the stand is horror. so it may be about right.
there is a vast spectrum w/in those genres for sure. i'm sure there are ways to narrow them down further & make them more niche. but i think dystopian would work for your purposes.
@DanIsWriting Hmm...I'm focusing on horror.
Do you know your authorital voice yet? Once you find your voice in your writing, you'll be able to nail your genre.
@awrene Hmmm, I'm not sure. Do you have any examples?
@DanIsWriting hmmm….when you write is your writing close? Or far? For example my voice is close narrative proximity with a linguistics tone.
Here’s a link to read a little bit more.
https://nybookeditors.com/2017/06/find-writers-voice/
But your voice is distinct to you as an author
@awrene thanks for this, I'm going to have to think about it. Writing is something that just happens, for me. I've never considered that beyond the content of the writing, that my writing itself could be analyzed. Maybe I never found my writing itself very important, only the story I'm telling. This will require a deep dive, I think.
@DanIsWriting let me know what you come up with! I’d love to hear it
@awrene I still have no idea. 😂
I think my perspective is far, as I write about groups of characters, and then focus on one or two and jump from character to character
My tone is dark. I like to lead character unwittingly to tragedy
And I write informally, ignoring the desire for smart language and choosing simple if not profane ways to describe things.
There is so much information out there about this, but so little that anyone agrees on. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!!!
@DanIsWriting LOL. That's a super solid start. And yeah, there is a lot of stuff out there regarding authorial voice. But now that you have an idea, don't let it drive you crazy. Just keep that little nugget at the forefront. And as you explore your writing more, your voice will evolve.
Also, leading characters into tragedy is amazing. I'm a huge supporter of kill 'em all off.
@awrene Me too! One of the best parts of having multiple characters is that I can kill them off at any moment. In general, I lose interest in stories when I realize the MC has plot armor. I want my characters to be naked and vulnerable. I want the reader to be wary of becoming too attached for fear that I will rip their heart out... and then I trick them into doing it anyway, then I betray everyone, especially the reader.
I should just call the book "Everyone dies, except the bad guy"
Two genres for me @DanIsWriting and they're as different as you can get: SciFi/Fantasy & political
@SLWeippert Thats quite a combo. Sal Stein called that "double mumbo-jumbo", asking your reader to suspend their disbelief too far. Space vampires, werewolfs on the moon, robot wizards.
Star Wars had space wizards though, and that clearly worked.
Do you find it difficult to convince your audience your world is a reasonable suspension of disbelief?
@DanIsWriting I've found that you can get away with *anything* as long as you can justify it.
Which includes consistency, so maybe not so easy? All I know is if you give the reader a "Why" they'll come along with you on the nonsense.
@SLWeippert so the rainbow leading to the pot of gold is actually a cloud of nanobots made by the secret society of cyborg ninja werewolves who are the behind the real conspiracy surrounding Elon Musks purchase of twitter?
Of course... George Bush is a time traveling Leprechaun. It all makes sense now!
@DanIsWriting I write whatever genre takes my fancy, but mostly fantasy & sci-fi.
I’d argue that the best zombie stories,well, any stories, are the ones where the characters are front and centre. The worlds we write are there for characters to explore.
That’s just me, though. 😉
@JanGoesWriting You're absolutely right though. I think thats the secret sauce to writers like Stephen King. Its not the content really, but the investment into the lives of the charaters that make is stories compelling, and his monsters frightening.
@DanIsWriting I think most artists struggle to define their art because that need to create comes from such an indescribable and complex place within. The closest we might come is to examine the intent. Idk. But some things are too much like breathing and trying to classify each exhale.
@bettertobend thats a good way to put it. Its better to think simply and avoid complex lables. Now to make my brain agree. 😆
@DanIsWriting and if you figure it out then please tell me how 😝
I don't think you should worry about it while you are in the creation process. However, researching the different rules of each genre can help you decide which techniques you might employ in your revisions, and which readership you want to attract. That's what publishers want to know most once they find stories they like.
Genres tend to blend more than they did twenty+ years ago, but adhering to some basic genre principles will help you market your book to agents/readers.
@DanIsWriting Hi Dan, I write poetry, mostly narrative horror poetry.
@Cadence I like the sound of that. I'm ashamed to admit, that when I read poetry (limited selections of course) I don't always understand what they're trying to convey. I tend to avoid it because of this, despite knowing that writing poetry would help me become a better writer.
@DanIsWriting some poetry is hard to understand, not that there is ever a wrong interpretation. However most of mine is pretty straightforward, I just like to tell stories with rhythm and rhyme.
@DanIsWriting I began to realize that I had a problem when I talked to a couple of cover designers about possible covers for my first book series.
They both kept saying "it has to fit in a genre". The problem is that the books do not fit into a genre.
I decided to not worry about genre for now, and let the chips fall where they may.
It might be a Steely Dan sort of situation. They eventually decided that they would let their songs pass as pop songs.
@rupertramsgate I understand completely. I'm sure if I sent my manuscript to a publisher I would have denial after denial with nothing but suggestions on how to make it more publishable, or how unsellable zombies are or some shit. I dislike the boxes we have to make our art fit into, I wish I would just say "Its for people who like it. Its not for people who don't like it."
@DanIsWriting sounds like dystopian fiction to me. just about every apocalypse story is about peeps, their relationships, their struggle to survive, cope, & rebuild. dystopian fiction can be tragedy, can incl comedy, etc. but ultimately, the zombies, or catastrophic disaster, or whatever, is just the plot device to talk about the human condition & humans dealing w/ adversity. universal themes. if that makes sense?