How'd Your Genre Find You?

[SusanR]

The thread on predicting novel trends got me thinking about how our subjects/genre find us. Sure, we're influenced by our reading as young folks. But I read sci-fi as voraciously as anybody in my early teens, and I'm most strongly drawn to historical fiction. Which is very odd, considering I hated history in high school, and never took a college-level course.

In fact, researching local history for my WIP, I've filed away the seeds of my next novel, simply because I discovered that in 1815, there were ten physicians in the city of Albany, NY. And one of them was female.

So, to the extent that you have a genre, how did it pick you?

SusanR

[willietheshakes]

So, to the extent that you have a genre, how did it pick you?


Last. Just like any other schoolyard bully.

[Lyra Jean]

Well I grew up with science fiction and I like it. So that is what I like to write. I like historical fiction but I'm thinking I'll use that for non-fiction purposes. Now if I can just sit down and write.

[aruna]

The universal themes are love and death. Take those, weave a great, unforgettable story around them, put all your heart and all your passion into it: an original story with an ageless theme.

Love will never go out of fashion. Death will always shock and awe. Everything else is a trend.

[Jamesaritchie]

My genres didn't find me, I found them. I write what I love to read. Always have, always will. I think it's the only way to go.

[Jamesaritchie]

Love will never go out of fashion. Death will always shock and awe. Everything else is a trend.

Except for taxes. I suspect taxes will still be around after love and death are long gone.

[Monet]

I like to read many types of novels. So I took my two favorites, mystery and romance. I write both types. Mystery in YA and 'Adult' Romance (comtemporary, historical, time travel and paranormal) However, I believe that I have more focus in the romance genre.

I just finished my second YA and have decided to stick with the romance for the time being, unless my publisher puts another book deal in my contract.

[Nateskate]

I took a fantasy lit course in Jr High. I also enjoyed comic books and mythologies

Fantasy- Strangly, I like fairy tales and myths more than standard Fantasy, and for me to enjoy a fantasy, they have to have elements of both.

Poetry- Catharsis. I think every child of dysfunction wants to be a rock star. I wrote songs which were poems to music. I find that Poetry is a way to say something profound with far less words than a magazine article or book.

I have a few other Genre's in me, so I'll save those for later.

[maestrowork]

I tell my stories the way I want to tell them -- or better, the way my characters want to tell them. Then I figure out the genres... most fit into the mainstream/literary genre anyway. My current WIP has some supernatural and historical elements, but I still consider it mainstream/literary. But I don't write to any genre's conventions.


ETA: as a child, I read mostly mystery, action (James Bond stuff) and YA classics (Tom Sawyer, etc.) I liked mystery because I liked solving puzzles, action/adventure because I was easily bored, and YA because they were fun to read and I could identify with the protagonists.

[clintl]

When I was in high school, taking a Modern American Literature course, we had to write an research paper each quarter that required reading at least two additional books that either had a common theme or were by the same author. My teacher also taught a science fiction course, so I asked her if I could read science fiction for my two papers. She suggested Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed and Isaac Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy. I was hooked from then on. I rarely have ideas for fiction that don't have some kind of science fiction or fantasy element.

[Jaycinth]

Genres. Sometimes they hunt in packs.

Mine lay in wait for me then traveled across the darkest abyss of intergalatic space and began stalking me. When I was at my most impressionable they sprang!

Only my muse keeps them from overcoming my weak defenses.
And they need to be fed. . .

[The Scribbler]

Except for taxes. I suspect taxes will still be around after love and death are long gone.

along with cockroaches


I have been a fan of the fantasy genre all my life, and as a Criminal Justice major in college I got hooked on psychological crime dramas so I just combined the two.

[zornhau]

As a child, I devoured sword and sorcery, but in the form of myth and legend, e.g. I read Malory when I was 11.

I discovered Space Opera first, through reading the booklist recommended by the roleplaying game of that name. I got through all the EE 'Doc' Smiths in the library then, on whim, read the Clark Ashton Smith compilation on the same shelf. The rest is history.

[Kiva Wolfe]

Horror films and those of Alfred Hitchcock influenced me greatly as a child, just as much as classic stories involving adventure, buried treasure, double-crosses, and murder. I am also a fan of true crime books. It's no wonder I write suspense-adventure.

[Jamesaritchie]

along with cockroaches


I have been a fan of the fantasy genre all my life, and as a Criminal Justice major in college I got hooked on psychological crime dramas so I just combined the two.

Howe about a new horror novel. "The Tax Man Vs. the Cockroaches."

[My-Immortal]

Or a sci-fi book where the cockroaches ARE the tax-man and they tax anything to do with love and death....

I tend to write dark fantasy, fantasy noir perhaps, or crime fantasy. I came into that by reading a lot of fantasy, mystery/crime fiction and horror growing up and thought I'd try combining the elements I enjoyed most from each.

Take care all --

[cwilliard]

My great-grandmother came from Palermo, Sicily and my great-grandfather came from Naples, Italy. They settled in Brooklyn in the Twenties. That's were my family stayed for decades. My grandmother, my mother and uncle lived all over Brooklyn. My Grandmother even dated a famous New York gangster, "Crazy" Joe Gallo. She then got married to an Irish man who owned a bar in Brooklyn. A lot of wiseguys would go to the bar including crime boss Carlo Gambino. It would be my mother that would tell me about the neighborhood guys, mostly with distain.

I decided to write about the Mafia becuase even though they are terrible people there is a part of most of us that looks at such men with a certain sense of admiration. Bonanno Family soldier Lefty Ruggierio said it best; "As a wiseguy you can lie, cheat, steal, and kill people legitimately. Who wouldn't want to be a gangster?"

I also found that it is a genre that not matter what happens to the characters the readers are generally happy. If the gangster goes free then he beat the system. If he gets caught then good, he's a criminal. If he dies then that was the life he chose, he knew the risks.

Really, it just seemed like a genre to write about. People have always loved gangster books and movies; if anyone knows an agent looking for a good Mafia story let me know.

[Linda Adams]

Sort of like Billy in Family Circus when he promises to come straight home and wanders everywhere. Some of it is influenced by the time when less was available. I like action-adventure, particularly with women-characters. I started out reading mysteries, but mysteries tend to be more intellectual, so I eventually was bored by them. No action. I went to science fiction, but that tended to be very male-oriented and focused a lot on the science, not on the action. I did find some "general fiction" in the form of Clive Cussler, which were great--but not enough of them. On to fantasy, which was more women-oriented. I tried writing some fantasy, but never really got the hang of the genre. I later figured out that it was at least, in part, because I really hate world building. I finally identified what genre I had always been headed for, even when I was writing in high school--thriller. And that, unfortunately, was pure luck that I even identified the genre since it's often classified as mystery or general fiction.

[Coco82]

My current WIP is a story about characters in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I came to this due to my fondness for such movies. I'm working on a history novel too, I'm such a histry nerd lol.

[Silverhand]

I have asked myself how the heck I ended up a fantasy writer so many times that it amazes even me.

I know in truth it is because I compete at every level in my life. I played 3 college sports....to win. I play video games to....win. I took college courses I didnt even like, because it would help me succeed at things I couldnt win at.

Then, one day, I decided to take a stupid celtic mythology class. Maybe I did suck, maybe I can't write, or maybe the teacher was a male-jock-hating machine, I don't know. Whatever it was, she asked that we write our own mythology.

Now, at this point in my life I had not even read a book, and furthermore HATED to write. Thus, when I recieved my very first F I shouldn't have been surprised. Yet....it pissed me off so much that I felt compelled to confront her. She told me "This is the worst piece of shO&^% I have ever read. I wish I could grade it lower!"

In my mind I kept telling myself that I was part of the Honor Society at my small college, and that she was wrong, but I couldnt break away from the thought pattern that it was a direct insult to me. Finally, it drove me to pick up any book I could get my hand on, to write until my eyes were sore, and finally, to get back at that Bizzah.

After I won my first three writing contests in Southern Oregon, I made sure to send her anything as a basic F off. To this date she gets any award I win as an insult back at her. It prolly doesnt work, but it sure make ME feel good. :)

Anyways, for my first novel, I was told by my mother-in-law that #1) I was going to Hell because I wasn't a Christian. #2) That there is no way in heck I could ever write a novel, I just didn't have that kind of longevity.

Both comments made me so mad that I sat down one day, titled a document, and in three months, wrote a 500 page manuscript.

Weird I know, but I am nothing, if not driven to extremes by people's comments.

[pepperlandgirl]

I just hope my genre finds me soon. Right now, I'm writing mainly romance, but it doesn't "feel" right. Like when you buy a new pair of shoes that fit and look nice, but you just break the buggers in.

I'm becoming more intriqued by westerns by the day. I've always loved "the old west" and recently rediscovered that love with some Italian Westerns (Mainly "Once Upon the Time in the West" and "The Great Silence"). Will the western be the proper fit? I'm not sure.

[emeraldcite]

I'm actually fending off genres; they all want me. ;)

[aruna]

Except for taxes. I suspect taxes will still be around after love and death are long gone.

Well, love an ddeath wil never go - but why not start a new genre about TAXES?
I can imagine lorts of cross-genre writing: Í married a Taxman! (romance); The Taxman from Outer Space (SF); The Blood Night of the Taxman (Horror) and "Murder of a Taxman (crime)


Anmyway, to get back on topic, my genre I suppose is "general". I put normal but interesting people in situations that forces them to grow and to develop, and always there's a love story involved. Mostly, I have a historical background, in that background events play into the stpry events.

[stace001]

I love reading mystery and romance, but mystery is my first love. It made sense that I would choose to write those genres. My first novel was a romance, my second was a mystery, and my third is a mystery with a touch of romance thrown in.

[brokenfingers]

Hmmm, I guess I've always been addicted to the Hero's Journey. So while growing up, I gravitated towards spy thrillers, detective stories and fantasy.

So now I always write about one person's quest to overcome great odds, usually in pursuit of a higher goal (as opposed to a personal goal - like love or fame)

Current WIP: A fantastical (my own personal term)

On a sidenote: Hey cwilliard - I grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn! What part did you live in? Feel free to PM me if you wish.

[cwilliard]

I never lived in Brooklyn. My mom moved to Ohio about five years before I was born. I think that she lived in Bensonhurt. I know she lived in Red Hook and Bed-Sty.

[SusanR]

Anyways, for my first novel, I was told by my mother-in-law that #1) I was going to Hell because I wasn't a Christian. #2) That there is no way in heck I could ever write a novel, I just didn't have that kind of longevity.

Both comments made me so mad that I sat down one day, titled a document, and in three months, wrote a 500 page manuscript.

Weird I know, but I am nothing, if not driven to extremes by people's comments.

Wow. If I thought someone could disparage me to completion of my WIP, I'd be out on the street corners soliciting insults! What a great story!

SusanR

[The Gorn]

This is The Gorn. I first started to think seriously about writing when I was about sixteen. I had recently re-discovered the original Battlestar Galactica on the Sci-fi channel. I didn't like the way the series ended so I began to dream up an ending for it myself. Before I knew it I was writing my own short story loosely based on it. That story idea has since evovled into a different story all it's own. The only resemblance left in it to Battlestar is the bad guys are robots bent on conquering the galaxy. I am now in the process of writing my first book. That first idea is presently shelved but I will be going back to it later.

[loquax]

Two books influenced me - Henry James' The Turn of the Screw and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. It's the kind of genre where your're not sure if it's fantasy or not. You know what you're reading can never happen.... but there's no reason that it shouldn't. Pseudo-reality. That kind of stuff really appeals to me, and there's not enough of it out there.

[Sage]

I really liked fantasy when I was younger, & then as I got a little older, I ended up being more into sci-fi, though there was still lots of fantasy that I was interested in. When I started writing, it was based on an RPG (not D&D, but BESM, which is anime-based) that my friends & I were playing. As our characters were teen magical girls, the stories were a cross between fantasy & teenage angst. I evolved a couple of the characters that I adored from that world into another world, gave them kids & saw where that led me. This is how my epic :Smack: WIP came about. The world was a little more sci-fi than the original, but still had the magical elements, & then the MCs were thrown into a world that was even more based in magic than theirs, leaving behind the sci-fi altogether. Still has the teenage angst though ;)

[SeanDSchaffer]

When I was a child, I was influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson and several of his contemporaries. But for some reason, when I got to be in my teens, I got into dragons.

Everything with me for roughly ten years was nothing but dragons. Sure I enjoyed reading about history and stuff like that, but dragons were my favorite thing to read about. I read everything I could find about them.

And, as dragons are mostly considered a Fantasy subject, I decided to take on the Fantasy Genre as my main focus.

That's basically how the Fantasy Genre chose me. Had I not been introduced to the subject of dragons, I would probably be writing Indiana Jones-style stuff right now.

[banjo]

Don't we all write from our sources? Our loves, hates, fears , dreams, nightmares, interests, experience, research, hopes and wishes. If we write our stories, or in my case, often the story is writing itself with my mechanical assistance, don't we often discover the genre that the story has become?

I've writen in multiple fiction genres. For me it hasn't always been clear, into which category a story would ultimately fall, until the work was well underway. Say a romance that became erotica, or at least leaned more heavily in that direction than was originally foreseen.

[slobbit]

My genre didn't find me, it came with the characters. Since they're set in the past, and can do things people normally can't I guess that makes me fantasy. The only time I think about it much is when I have something to submit.