Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Genre Question

This is topic Genre Question in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by JamieFord (Member # 3112) on :

Okay, riddle me this Batman.

What if your work is not written comfortably within a standard genre? (Mystery, thriller, romance, sci-fi, yada, yada…) Good thing? Bad thing?

I was thinking about popular books like Sideways and The Dogs of Babel––books that don’t quite fit neatly inside traditional genres. There’s are dozens of others that come to mind. Do you think these were harder to get published?

Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :

I think that the quality of a story is much more important than any "genre" considerations.

Genre's are only important to book store managers. Authors shouldn't concern themselves with them.

Posted by JamieFord (Member # 3112) on :

You may be right.

I guess my concern is more in regard to agents.

A friend that just signed a two-book deal was advising me on the importance of sending work to specific agents that represent your genre. To which I had to ask myself "what the heck is my genre?"

Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :

Ah... OK.

I think that this is a simple rule of thumb (but by no means set in stone):

If you have space ships its science fiction.

If you have magic its fantasy.

If you have swords its fantasy.

If you don't have any of the above, its regular fiction.

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

Sorry rcorporon, can't agree with you. There is tons of material that doesn't fit the standard spaceship/magic definition, that is definitely not mainstream.

Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :

Genre is an illusion. All that matters is the quality of your story.

Basically, if it doesn't take place in the world as we know it (present or history) it's gonna end up on the Sci-Fi shelf.

Maybe the Horror shelf. But many booksellers lump those into Sci-Fi.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

There is a ton of stuff that gets agented by "mainstream" agents which is way outside of the mainstream.

I write science fiction. I also read science fiction.

That's simply the way I think. For me, the logical implications of the logically possible are the framework of a story. It doesn't matter if I've got swords and magic (or a complete lack of either, along with spaceships), I'm still thinking from that perspective.

Now, this may mean that I don't like some stories that are outside of the science fiction genre. More usually, it means that I don't like stories that are supposed to be inside the genre.

If your work has aspects that will clearly mark it as being outside of a given agent's/publisher's/editor's interests, then don't sent it there.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I suppose one could do this, but one also risks "falling between the stools" for being too much of several different things, and being rejected for it by confused editors.

On the other hand, there indeed *are* plenty of works that do this and get away with it. "Lord of the Rings," for example, strikes me as good science fiction in its building up of a complete world...and a good suspense novel (will they or won't they get to Mount Doom and destroy the ring?)...and a meditation of the nature of good and evil, and the folly of despair...and many other things as well.

So write as you think best and worry about what it is when you're finished. (I'm working on a short story right now and can't decide if it's mainstream or a ghost story.)

Posted by Zodiaxe (Member # 3106) on :

Speaking from limited personal experience, a good agent should be able to push whatever you got to offer, if they are interested.

Peace,
Scott