Genre question

[omahaironman]

Maybe this is the least of what my concens should be, but I'm having genre issues with a story I'm writing. I've got the whole story arc planned out. I have chapter outlines. I have character bios. Even have the first hundred pages of manuscript typed out. But I can't nail down a definitve genre to market it as. (If "market" isn't, at this point, a presumptuous label.) Calling it a hitman/gumshoe/paranormal/revenge story is kind of a hard sell, I would think.

If anyone wants to hear enough of a synopsis to help me nail down a genre, it'd be much appreciated.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Pretty much any paranormal element makes it count as paranormal, I think.

[omahaironman]

That was my first thought. My only real hesitancy in dubbing it paranormal is that while I'm certain I want more than one story for the charaters (well, some of them, at any rate), I'm not so sure that I want them to deal with that type of thing every story. It's not a perfect analogy, but imagine an Elvis Cole novel where just once, instead of a kidnapping he has to deal with some voodoo curse placed on him by a former antagonist. You want to keep reading about Elvis Cole, just not in some Scooby-Doo freak of the week kind of situation.

I guess that's really my main concern. It's not set in a Dresdenverse kind of world. It's pretty much "our" world, that just happened to have something from the spooky side come for a visit and wreak a little havok. 

[LizW65]

Just from your brief descriptions, it sounds as though "Urban Fantasy" should cover it.

[omahaironman]

Posted by: LizW65
« on: Today at 06:16:05 AM »


Just from your brief descriptions, it sounds as though "Urban Fantasy" should cover it.

Not a bad choice. What I keep (possibly overly) worrying about, is that future stories with the characters might have little to nothing to do with the paranormal. Am I making much ado about nothing, do you think?

[Quantus]

Well, in general Id agree with Neuro that anything that has paranormal elements is usually considered Fantasy (Urban or otherwise).  But there are times that is not always the case.  The Dexter novels for example get increasingly paranormal (demonic possession) while still being generally maintained as straight horror.  But then, horror seems to trump other descriptions.  But there are a ton of books that have some low-key paranormal elements, like minor ghost appearances or subtle curses, that can maintain their other genre descriptions, it really depends on how specific you want to be in classifying your story. 

But some genre's are easier to trump than others, which I think is mostly about how alienating the subject can be to those not interested in it.  Readers not interested in the paranormal will be put off if they get too blind-sighted by a story centered around fairies and troll, but maybe not as much if its just above average bad-luck after a supposed Curse.  Stories that get overly descriptive with the gore or sex will usually be stuck in with the Horror and/or Romance sections regardless of other factors.  In general I'd say that it goes:   Mystery < Sci-fi/Fantasy < Horror < Smut.   

[LizW65]

Well, the Discworld series is set in a fantasy-based universe, but many of the later books in particular have little or no actual magic in them.

[Quantus]

Guy Gavriel Kay has written several stories that are generally called Historical Fiction, despite being set in worlds with two moons, the occasional ghost of forest god, etc.  Its less of a central element, and more of a tool to more easily let go you you preconceptions and get you in the mindset of older societies that believed in more literal supernatural forces.

[The Corvidian]

Take a look at F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novels. They strated out as dective novels and now they have alot of paranormal in them.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Take a look at F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novels. They strated out as dective novels and now they have alot of paranormal in them.

The first one is The Tomb, which is full of inhuman monsters, so I think they've been solidly paranormal since the beginning; Legacies looks like it's not a paranormal plot but later information shows that the McGuffin there was paranormal-ish in origin.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Well, in general Id agree with Neuro that anything that has paranormal elements is usually considered Fantasy (Urban or otherwise).  But there are times that is not always the case.  The Dexter novels for example get increasingly paranormal (demonic possession) while still being generally maintained as straight horror.

Paranormal elements show up in the third one of those and then never reappear in any subsequent one, sfaicr.

[Galvatron]

I have found a few books, David Wellignton comes to mind, that use parnanormal elements such as zombie/werewolves/vampires but the books are classifed as horror.

Not sure if that matters but I wanted to add it

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I have found a few books, David Wellignton comes to mind, that use parnanormal elements such as zombie/werewolves/vampires but the books are classifed as horror.

I'm inclined to think horror's an odd-one-out where genre boundaries are concerned, and probably worth thinking of as being at right angles to everything else; most genres are defined by setting and furniture, horror is defined by emotional tone.  Though I suppose you could make the same argument for romance.

[OZ]

I think that you or your agent could decide after the fact which genre would be the best market for the books. The only thing that I would caution is the genre swapping does not lose your audience. I loved Dan Wells "I am not a Serial Killer"  books but if you read the Amazon reviews there is a significant number of poor reviews that refer to "the plot twist" as ruining the books for them. To minimize spoilers let me just say that the plot twist was just a bit supernatural and many readers were offended. On the other hand if readers are buying your books for the supernatural bits they may not like it if they are missing. If it's a light touch it probably won't make much difference but if one book is Harry Dresden and the next is Harry Bosch you may lose readers. Of course if you can write like Michael Connolly or Jim Butcher you probably don't have much to worry about. I like John Connolly's horror/mystery novels that do quite a good job of balancing between natural and supernatural. For the most part you are never quite sure whether something supernatural is going on or if the main character is just crazy and seeing things that aren't really there.

[Quantus]

I'm inclined to think horror's an odd-one-out where genre boundaries are concerned, and probably worth thinking of as being at right angles to everything else; most genres are defined by setting and furniture, horror is defined by emotional tone.  Though I suppose you could make the same argument for romance.

Good point.  You dont really see that old Ghost flick in the Sci Fi section, for example.