Types of Westerns

Thanks for the clarification Cav-seems I know now where to put that Novel of the West-better pick up a western-one or two of the above and read read read-maybe I will try Lonesome Dove to get a clear picture-thanks Dave

Just asking -- because it's a dumb question, and I'm good at asking those -- where does the "Spaghetti Western" type story with its antihero protag fit, or is this a category of its own? I mean the novels, not just the films.

-Derek

Cav, this helped a lot, thanks.

Question about Historial Westerns, in case you or anyone else knows -- how high is the percentage of real people versus created characters in a Historical Western?

I'm asking because I want to have all the options possible when I go out to agents, and while I feel my book falls into Novel of the West, it could fit into Historical Western as well, depending.

Hmmm, okay.

I use quite a number of real people as supporting characters (and one day if someone wants to hear misery, remind me to tell you about my "little" timeline problem that caused a full rewrite), ensuring that they are or could be where I say they are at the time.

So, it sounds like I could market as either Novel of the Old West or Historical Western, depending on what the agent wanted?

Oooh, that's a really helpful comparison, Cav. Thanks much.

Have to go ponder now...marketing's a touchy thing, after all...

Cav Guy said:

That you could, Jeanne. I guess a great deal of it depends on how you personally view your novel. To me a novel of the West is a novel that happens to use the West as its setting. The historical Western focuses more on the setting itself and possibly wouldn't work at all if the West was taken away from the storyline. One example Braun used for the Historical Western is A.B. Guthrie, if that's any help.

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Interesting.

So, novels about the Civil War, such as the campaigns in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona would be westerns? Or historical novels?

Where as the same novels set on the east coast wouldn't be westerns, but historical fiction?

-Bill

West

Cav Guy said:

I think Lonesome Dove fit into novel of the West because McMurty didn't heavily ground it in a specific period. Braun also floats here, because he defines the novel of the West as being more literary than the typical oater.
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I think McMurtry fit Lonesome Dove into a very specific time period, but he did it by events, rather than by placing dates in the novel. For me, it's a novel of the west, rather than a traditional western, because I don't think it really does fit the mythology of the west. As nearly as I can tell, darned near every last bit of action that takes place in Lonesome Dove actually happened in the real west. They didn't happen to the same people of course, but McMurtry's character stand in for real people and real events.

Even when Call hauls Gus's body that long way back to Texas, it's real history. It didn't happen to Call and Gus, but it did happen to two real, historical figures.

McMurtry took real events, portrayed them in a realistic manner, almost exactly as they really happened, gave us real characters almost identical to their historic counterparts, and built a novel around them. The traditional western almost never does this.

This was a novel that could have been written about any time period, with only the events themselves changing. I think this is why so many readers who do not usually buy westerns bought this novel, and why it won a Pulitzer.

Almost one month to the day since this thread has been active. Let me ask this - ever consider westerns with Christian slant? I see no westerns on the Christian novel bookshelves, and just have a feeling that there might be a niche market there. Now, before y'all leave me lookin up a tree, understand that I know that the language and life of the 1820-1890 cowboy was less than pure, thus making a Christian western almost an oxymoron.

dub

I have a whole series of stories in that sub genre, I think I may package them and see if a publisher will share my thoughts. My agent looks down her nose at westerns, so I might to a better job of selling it in the CBA.

Any more thoughts would be appreciated.

I wrote a Christian/Western story called The Devil's Caravan. It's available on Amazon. Amazon Shorts published it so there is a demand for it. The villains are Satan and his demons. An Angel appears in the story. It's about a cowboy who blasphemies the Holy Spirit in the Wild West. My advice would be to pursue it.

Thanks, I am going to take this to the next step. My entire manuscript is set along a little creek in southwestern Kansas (near Liberal) - a ton of research for a little story.

Considering how important religion was in the time period, and also considering the very healthy Christian market today, I would also chime in with a "go for it".