trying to figure out my genre...

tiny · Jul 14, 2011

I've been floundering the last several months - okay, more like years - when it comes to my fiction writing. I've had so many false starts, some of them witnessed here, but recently I figured out a way to stay organized enough to work on polishing up my current WIP.

So in celebration, I'm attempting to figure out the genre because I may actually need to know in the near future. Here's the premise of the book.

Combat medic, Warren Jacobs was there when Sergeant DeHaven died in the field. Five years later, he can still feel the blood on his hands and his mind refuses to allow him to deal with horrors he witnessed. He performs triage nightly in his sleep, watches the streets outside his apartment for the enemy, and hears the mortars even when he’s awake. Warren brought the war and the men he lost home with him.

Sergeant DeHaven doesn’t believe he’s dead. He also doesn’t yet realize he has a choice to make; hang on to Warren, unconsciously blaming him for not making it home to his wife and baby, or move on to the next life and the next war.

Warren’s attempts to reintegrate into civilian life after being medically discharged are failing and he’s fading into his memories as he follows DeHaven through a nightmarish purgatory. Both men will face the jungles of Vietnam, stand with the waning allied forces in Bastogne, and walk beside the sentinel who guards the tomb of the Unknowns. But Dehaven will sit with Satan and smoke a cigarette with a janitorial angel before his choice is made. Hopefully it will be before Warren’s tenuous hold on reality is severed completely.

Does this seem to fit into Interstitial?

Dang, I think this may have fit better in a different area. Sorry.

cloistervoices · Jul 14, 2011

Don't worry, floundering is part of the process. It sounds as if you have a handle on organization so relax and enjoy the ride.

I really, REALLY like the concept for your work in fiction. It's different enough from all the other PTSD stories to make it stand out.

Also, readers who might not ever willingly pick up a book with some of your spirituality ideas, could very likely be drawn in by your unique take on military service.

Please PM me if you'd like to talk further about this and share some writing back and forth with me.

tiny · Jul 15, 2011

But does it fit here? Or is it suspense? Horror? Half the book is essentially following my husband's struggle with PTSD. Creepy fantastical memoir?

Cranky · Jul 15, 2011

I don't know, tiny. Seems to be mostly paranormal to me, though admittedly it's a very unique spin on the genre. That's my take, for what it's worth.

tiny · Jul 15, 2011

I thought paranormal, but DeHaven never really leaves the train station he wakes up in after he dies in the field and he doesn't actually show up in Warren's chapters. Basically while DeHaven is trying to figure out where he is and what he's going to do, he has a medic who shows up when he needs help. That medic is Warren.

It's kind of the living haunting the dead. My mom called it a war story, but couldn't read more than 50 pages. I don't think it's a war story but it is military.

Thanks you, guys, for the help. It's making me examine it a little closer which I didn't think was possible.

J.W. · Jul 15, 2011

Sounds like paranormal/horror. But a genre depends on how the story is told as well as its subject matter. Are you trying to frighten people with this story?

If it doesn't fit into one genre and you don't consider it literature, it could be categorized as Mainstream.

Cheers & best of luck!

tiny · Jul 15, 2011

I wasn't trying to frighten... my goal was to make people understand how distressing, strange, and awful living with PTSD is without it being a manual about living with PTSD. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

DeaK · Jul 15, 2011

My impression is that it could be mainstream/contemporary. If I were you, I'd get betas who were into one or the other (like contemporary/horror/paranormal), and see what they say, respectively.

Maybe it could be determined just by the right people looking at your synopsis and a sample of your writing style.

Dawnstorm · Jul 15, 2011

tiny said:
But does it fit here? Or is it suspense? Horror? Half the book is essentially following my husband's struggle with PTSD. Creepy fantastical memoir?

"Interstitial" is not a genre; it's a movement. Things don't "fit" here, the way they fit into genres. You don't have to satisfy any formal criteria to play here. Although if you fulfill the formal criteria for somewhere else, you could play there, too, but we're pretty inclusive and happy to have you, since your story sounds like a good read.

The "interstitial" advice is not to worry too much about genre and just finish it. There are plenty of people who worry about what it is, and - if you like - we can teach you how to roll your eyes at them in style. Although there are some of us who love genre, and play around with the expectations.

The main point about this place is that genre is not a set of restrictions imposed on a story, and neither does it say anything substantial about a story.

However, the logo on the cover of your book will herd reader expectations. Thus, once your book is done, you put it where the expectations don't run against your book. And if there is no such place you make up a new term, and claim your book is the next great thing. (Then people will take the term, but by the term you're famous for that new "genre", you're no longer interested in the term, as you write something else, anyway.)

Marketingwise, I'd probably find your book under mainstream, which is where nearly everything tends to end up anyway.

tiny · Jul 15, 2011

Thanks, everyone. This has been more helpful than you know.

AllyWoof · Oct 19, 2011

I finally tossed the idea I have been "working" on since I was in high school. My new book is sort of a biography of my childhod years, but I am hoping to give it a humorous twist. Anyonehave any ideas for introducing humor into what appears like a really serious story?

trying to figure out my genre...

tiny

riding the sun

cloistervoices

Pedaling around paradise on a bike

tiny

riding the sun

Cranky

tiny

riding the sun

J.W.

tiny

riding the sun

DeaK

Dawnstorm

punny user title, here

tiny

riding the sun

AllyWoof

Becoming a Serious Writer!