Genres and novels

Ms Hollands · Aug 23, 2008

I've never paid much attention to novel genres and I'm wondering which genre my novel fits into. Women's writing/romance seems wrong because although the main character is a woman and two romances, (as do a few of her friends in the novel), there are definitely no phrases such as 'he placed his hard manliness against her moistened panties' or anything remotely similar. The romance in my novel is purely to help the plot along and I don't dwell on it at all.

It's basically about a girl who finds a new life elsewhere in the world to escape guilt and a past she wants to forget, only to discover that her present situation is one packed with more challenges than she was hoping, and her struggle with facing the past to deal with them.

So, what sort of genre should I be classifying it as?*

*I hate classifying anything, but finding an agent means I kind of need to.

Shweta · Aug 23, 2008

I'd guess that it depends on the challenges.

Does someone get murdered? Are there vampires in the attic? Do the aliens next door keep their music on too loud? Can she just not tell which of her boyfriends to keep? Is it hard for her to really fit into a place where nobody's ever known the guilt of running over a squirrel?

Er.
You know what I mean, right? What's the guilt, what's the challenge, what sort of emotional ride are you giving the reader?

Ms Hollands · Aug 23, 2008

Good point, shweta. I'll elaborate.

She's a typical girl in a typical relationship until one day that relationship ends (he did something which upset her) and she reacts by cutting all ties with the ex which, for various reasons, makes her feel guilty about a by-product of cutting all ties (no vampires, no murders, nothing to link the story to a particular genre for fantasy, mystery etc.). Part of the cutting all ties thing is moving to a new place. Through no fault of her own, she ends up seeing her previous situation from the opposite perspective and then has to figure out how she will handle the situation, and whether moving again is escaping her emotions and her past or a good idea.

Does that help clarify?

Anyway, I'm off to bed now as it's late here and I have lots to do in the morning. So, thanks in advance for any advice between now and then. :O)

Chris Grey · Aug 23, 2008

It's a novel. Romance, scifi, fantasy, etc, are all really just subgenres of that.

Or you could just replace her car with a rocket ship and call it scifi.

Shweta · Aug 23, 2008

Sounds like you're looking at mainstream/womens' fiction, then, April.

Or literary fiction, depending on how it's handled I guess.

qwerty · Aug 24, 2008

Good morning "tulip", I tend to write novels that don't seem to fit any specific genre, and I just call them women's fiction on the cover page for submission. One of mine was referred to as Rom Com by an editor, but, although it's humorous, I wouldn't say it was a romance.

In Britain, anything about women below the age of 39 seems to be labelled Chick Lit, which annoys some published authors I know who hate their work being called that.

I don't know my genre from my gender, and I honestly don't think it matters.

willietheshakes · Aug 24, 2008

Regardless of genre, I don't think you can go wrong with the phrase "moistened panties".

Priene · Aug 24, 2008

April Hollands said:
'he placed his hard manliness against her moistened panties'

That's not a phrase I often come across at this time on a Sunday morning.

But I'd call it mainstream when querying. Sounds like that would cover it.

JJ Cooper · Aug 24, 2008

Try http://www.agentquery.com/genre_descriptions.aspx.

See which one best fits your work.

JJ

Ms Hollands · Aug 24, 2008

According to that link, I've got a 'women's fiction' novel on the go. Thanks for the link. JJ, and thanks everyone else for the input.

...maybe I'll include moistened panties somewhere just to see if the (future) editor notices :e2bouncey

Mr Flibble · Aug 24, 2008

Although I love the moistened panties phrase, you don't need any fluid exchange for it to be romance. All 'romance genre' means is that without the romance you wouldn't have a story, and generally there is a Happy Ever After.

Says an idiot who thought she was writing a fantasy adventure - and found that actually it was a romance. Who knew?

Ms Hollands · Aug 24, 2008

Hehehe. There's nothing even close to moistened panties in this story, unless I'm applying it to a male character who could say it in jest because that's just what he's like. My heroine gets exactly one walk up the stairs to a bedroom and one kiss and a whooooooole lotta grief.

willietheshakes · Aug 24, 2008

IdiotsRUs said:
Although I love the moistened panties phrase, you don't need any fluid exchange for it to be romance.

And, for the record, you don't need any romance for there to be fluid exchange.

Hold on, what are we talking about again?

qwerty · Aug 24, 2008

I reckon romance = a snog or two leading to unspecified following activities left to the readers' imagination. Whereas erotica encompasses swollen members, moistness and whatever else the writer wants to graphically indulge in.

Cato · Aug 24, 2008

Genre isn't really important; just let your story unfold the way it needs to and throw a label on it later. For instance, my novel started out as Sci-fi, but then morphed into low-fantasy, so I let it. I like it the way it is right now--it allows for so much more imagination.

IceCreamEmpress · Aug 24, 2008

A novel fits into the "romance" category if the central narrative arc in the story is the romance.

[rant]Dismissing romance with "hard manliness" tags is kind of silly and sexist, in my opinion. Sure, there is crap writing in some romances. There is crap writing in some Westerns, and some spy thrillers, and some science fiction. But for some reason, people mock romance in a particularly dismissive way.[/rant]

So it seems like your novel is about a character and what she does and what happens to her. Because she is a person, some of what she does is romantic and/or sexual. But that's not the central narrative arc of your story, it sounds like.

So, yeah. It's mainstream fiction, commercial fiction, literary fiction, or women's fiction. Unless she's doing all of this on a terraformed planet orbiting Alpha Centaurii in the 30th century, in which case it's science fiction or speculative fiction.

Cato · Aug 24, 2008

IceCreamEmpress said:
A novel fits into the "romance" category if the central narrative arc in the story is the romance.

.

To a certain extent. A romance story set in 2560 AD is going to fall under the sci-fi section whether you like it or not. Just a romance between elves in the Dark Ages will be a fantasy novel.

Chasing the Horizon · Aug 24, 2008

qwerty said:
I reckon romance = a snog or two leading to unspecified following activities left to the readers' imagination. Whereas erotica encompasses swollen members, moistness and whatever else the writer wants to graphically indulge in.

Um, no. Some romance might not have fully described sex, but now-a-days most does. 'Swollen manhoods' and 'moistness' abound in romance lines like Harlequin Historicals (I'm not making fun of trashy romance books, I love them. They're fun. But I'm not going to lie and say they're high literature.) Erotica would have more sex scenes and often uses harsher language like 'cock' and 'pussy'.

Ms Hollands · Aug 25, 2008

Hope To The Horizon said:
Um, no. Some romance might not have fully described sex, but now-a-days most does. 'Swollen manhoods' and 'moistness' abound in romance lines like Harlequin Historicals (I'm not making fun of trashy romance books, I love them. They're fun. But I'm not going to lie and say they're high literature.) Erotica would have more sex scenes and often uses harsher language like 'cock' and 'pussy'.

this is EXACTLY what I was getting at with the words I used, so I hope I haven't offended you IceCreamPrincess - it was completely tongue-in-cheek! And yes, ICP, you're completely spot on with the how the story flows!

Ms Hollands · Aug 25, 2008

Cato said:
Genre isn't really important; just let your story unfold the way it needs to and throw a label on it later. For instance, my novel started out as Sci-fi, but then morphed into low-fantasy, so I let it. I like it the way it is right now--it allows for so much more imagination.

Ahem

April at the very start of this thread: said:
So, what sort of genre should I be classifying it as?*

*I hate classifying anything, but finding an agent means I kind of need to.

I've written all but the last few chapters: I have written the book I wanted to write :O)

Phaeal · Aug 25, 2008

The Victorians felt that bananas in their natural form were too obscene for presentation at the table. Victorian bananas were therefore peeled and cut into nice bland little disks. I think the Victorian pornographers also used "manhood" a lot.

In contemporary lit, I want intact bananas and penises, please.

Crazed Mom · Aug 26, 2008

Dazed and confused.

Cato said:
To a certain extent. A romance story set in 2560 AD is going to fall under the sci-fi section whether you like it or not. Just a romance between elves in the Dark Ages will be a fantasy novel.

Pardon me for jumping in randomly, but, taken a step further, this would mean my novel, set in the aftermath of Camelot, would be classified as fantasy, even though the primary elements are romantic?

Color me confused...

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