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Joined: 6/8/2013
Posts: 25
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I seem to have a problem with writing novels that don't always fit easily into one specific genre. For example, when I write a historical romance, there's usually some kind of paranormal aspect involved. Does it then become a paranormal romance. One of my novels is giving me a particular problem. It's a story about a vampire, but it focuses more on how he is trying to live his life than what he is, so I feel it's more of a family saga than a horror novel. How do you decide where to place these cross genre novels?
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I understand your ordeal. I had the same issue with classifying a story on here. It had people injecting needles in their head to hallucinate storyworlds in order to become players in their favorite stories, but besides the needles and iPhones with telepathic abilities, it was not very sci-fi at all. I finally classified it as Comic Fantasy, because I felt it had more of those elements. I'm not an expert on this, so this is just my logic working here.
I think that a story can be classified within several genres, and sometimes, it is necessary to do so. When squishing it into one genre, it just might be in the 'eye of the beholder' as far as where it truly fits.
I use this list from Writer's Digest to classify my stories. It lists tons of sub-genres that might help you out. I'd go with whatever genre represents and encapsulates your story best. Having a vampire, it most likely will be paranormal. It can be paranormal historical romance, right? Just like it can be YA paranormal romance.
http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-all-articles/qp7-migration-fiction/genredefinitions
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Joined: 6/8/2013
Posts: 25
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Toni,
Thanks for the website. It helped a lot, though I'm still not sure I've decided on the right genre. I guess because it is a vampire, it should be fantasy, but is there such a thing as a fantasy family saga? Or maybe a paranormal thriller?
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 44
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I love finding books that straddle genres, such as Kristen Callihan's Darkest London series. It's paranormal. It's historical. It's steampunk. It's romance. And it's fantastic.
The key, when writing, is to lay down the story you want. Unless you're writing for something with guidelines, such as category romance, analyzing genre can limit your vision or frustrate you. Genre definition exists to sell and shelve books, so it only needs to be considered when the story is ready to submit (either to agents or editors). Generally, when you have an interstitial work, it's focus will come out when you're distilling the essential focus of the story while writing your query and synopsis.
I think that's the time to really think about genre. And it's fine to have a story that doesn't fit within the narrowest definition of a genre. You can have a paranormal mystery or a historical women's fiction.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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Maybe it would help if you kept in mind that the purpose of the site is to help you get work ready to be published, and generally, bookstores - even online retailers - will only place your novel in one genre. So your job then is to try to determine the genre that is the one the reader and eventual book buyer is most likely to discover your book once it's published.
Good luck! --edited by Colleen Lindsay on 6/28/2013, 7:23 AM--
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