Help with genre needed

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DLXMama

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I have a novel of about 400 Word pages (around 85,000 words) that is about a young couple who has moved into a house with an evil force. The story is told from the young woman's pov. She is the only one who has contact with the "ghost" and feels she might be imagining the events she has experienced (cold patches, sounds, etc.).

It is a ghost story that also flashes back 100 years (to explain the situation) and the story gets into the young woman's mind. It's not a gory novel -- it's mostly psychological.

I'm wondering what genre/subgenre this might fall into. Is it horror?

Any assistance would be appreciated.
 

Appalachian Writer

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Genre is a difficult thing to pin down. From the brief description, you can certainly tack on the word "paranormal." If it's especially psychological and character driven, it might be literary. If there's more romance, i.e. the ghost's history and the marriage, maybe it's a paranormal romance. I know I'm not much help, but you see, you're not the only one who has trouble with genre.
 

JeanneTGC

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I'm with Appy (;)) -- genre can be difficult to pin down.

Our Romance forum actually has a great list of genres: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18954

Yes, they're for romance, but they apply across other genres, too. Remember, many agents who agent romance also agent other genre, commercial, and even literary fiction.

By Aunt Cathy's definitions, you'd be in Light Paranormal. HOWEVER, as Appy says, it's your overall plotting, and your subplotting, that will help determine category.

Is it horror? Do horrific, scary things happen, either externally or internally? Is it romance? Is there a romantic subplot? These kinds of questions help you determine genre.

Good luck!
 

Gillhoughly

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These used to be called "Gothics" in the 60s. Things changed when The Exorcist came along, creating horror by turning ghost stories into a more graphic genre.

Paranormals usually have a romantic relationship mixed with supernatural happenings or characters.

Urban fantasy has that, but with more ass-kicking involved and the heroine is running the show. Usually she has supernatural powers and can kick ass in fetish heels and leather pants--if one can believe the covers.

They used to call 'em all ghost stories. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is an example of that type of book--and a danged good one. 30 years after reading it I can recall some lines that scare the heck out of me even now.

Other examples in the ghost story genre are Turn of the Screw by Henry James and Hell House by Richard Matheson. Both are classics I read before The Exorcist came along and stirred things up.

Yikes. I found one of the Hill House quotes. It's creeped me out. Again. I gotta try to sleep, yanno!

Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

icon9.gif
Guess I'm in for a night of infomercials with all the lights on. That passage just GETS to me!
 
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Captain Howdy

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Sounds like a good old fashioned Gothic ghost story to me! I'm also in agreement that, based on your brief synospis, it would currently probably best market to publishers of paranormal romance, BUT that is also going to depend on the "romance" meter. Barbara Michaels (who writes under multiple pen names) successful published a number of ghost stories with a very light romantic element: Ammie, Come Home, Be Buried in the Rain, Here I Stay. Her works usually involve a subplot from the past going back a hundred years or so, a "free the restless spirit" kind of thing. Julian's House by Judith Hawkes is a terrific ghost story published in the late 80s, not too strong on romance (if I remember correctly), but with a decidedly contemporary element of sexual tension. Then you have Anne Rice, most of whose works can be considered "gothic" and "romance" and "paranormal" though they don't follow either of those genres formulas. John Saul has had a long career of writing ghost stories. I read one of his books every ten years or so. I don't care for them based on style and substance, but people buy them and eat them up.

Ultimately, I guess it's going to be up to you to decide what you want to call it when you submit your query, and be prepared to change the "genre" for different publishing houses. Just as an example, Bantam may like it but may not be after "paranormal romance" and will react better to a manuscript called a "comtemporary ghost story" whereas Kensington's "romance" editor would readily read something "paranormal" but might see the "ghost story" label and pass it off to their "horror" editor who reads a few pages and realizes it's not "horror" and back it comes. Also, you might want to be prepared if an editor comes back and says the story is great, but can you slant it more toward ______ (romance/horror/psychological thriller) which would require some major rewrites but hey - a sale is a sale!

That said (it's early, I'm rambling, but my point is near) I'm having the same issues with my own work in progress. I have been writing for a year and a half, and was initially writing for my own entertainment, but now after about 30,000 words I am considering such things as genre markets to try to tailor it toward marketability. My original concept was very much in the gothic tradition (young couple inherits old house) but it morphed into what I can only call a "Southern Gothic Family Psychodrama." (I got rid of the couple). Unfortunately, that path has led me far afield from the supernatural. I may no longer be writing the book I thought I was writing. Only time will tell. At the moment I wouldn't even be able to market it as a "supernatural thriller".

Anyway, good luck with your MS. If you post it for reading let me/us know. I'd take a crack at it.
 

DLXMama

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Thanks to all.

When I describe my novel to friends I say it's basically a ghost story that takes place in the present day, and as the hauntings continue and seem to threaten Trish (main character) and her unborn child, she researches her house (through visits to the library, as well as by talking to a 90 year-old neighbor). She eventually learns of the murder that occurred long ago of a young nurse. A former resident of her house was a doctor who had an affair with this young nurse and got her pregnant. He poisoned her and the only person who ever knew of this murder was his servant, who happened to be the old woman's mother.

So, I don't think it's actually paranormal romance -- I just can't pin it down, although I like the idea of just calling it a contemporary ghost story! It has a some historical elements as well.

I need to keep plugging away at my query...
 

donroc

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Mine can be described as horror, suspense, and thriller. It's difficult sometimes, but we must play the genre game because that's the way bookstore shelve our novels and agents try to sell them.
 

louisgodwin

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It is a ghost story that also flashes back 100 years (to explain the situation) and the story gets into the young woman's mind. It's not a gory novel -- it's mostly psychological.

Supernatural suspense.

Try defining a character driven werewolf saga, with the werewolves being the main characters.

If it's meant to scare the reader, then I'd say it's Horror. If it's more intellectual and focuses more on story than gore, then I'd call it Dark Fantasy.
 

Karen Duvall

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She eventually learns of the murder that occurred long ago of a young nurse. A former resident of her house was a doctor who had an affair with this young nurse and got her pregnant. He poisoned her and the only person who ever knew of this murder was his servant, who happened to be the old woman's mother.

Wow, this is so weird, but I saw this exact same scenario on one of those ghost-hunter shows. Only the nurse was a black woman and the doctor was white, which is why he poisoned her. Truth can be as strange as fiction some times.

I think this could be horror, or depending on how it's written, literary horror. Especially if it's suspenseful and there are lots of heart-pounding moments. Good luck with it!
 

Captain Howdy

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Just curious, do publishing houses have reading editors for all the different subgenres? I mean, isn't it pretty much Romance, Mystery, Horror, SciFi/Fantasy, Western? So if you write a paranormal romance you send it to the Romance Eds, if you have a British country village mystery and a FBI agent tracking psychotic killer through Nashville you send them both to the Mystery ED, if you have a werewolf epic where the werewolves are the good guys wouldn't that go to the Fantasy Eds but if you have a werewolf set in a southern gothic mansion wouldn't that go to the Horror Ed? I know most of our stories are not that simple to pigeonhole. I'm just asking from a "marketing the manuscript" standpoint.

Comments?
 

Phaeal

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Novel and Short Story Writers Market has two categories, horror and paranormal/occult/supernatural, which often don't appear together in a publisher or agent's list of what he'll accept. Which I find interesting. :p

I expect the difference is indeed in the reader's reaction to the material: fear or a delicious tingling of the unknown.
 

Captain Howdy

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Novel and Short Story Writers Market has two categories, horror and paranormal/occult/supernatural, which often don't appear together in a publisher or agent's list of what he'll accept. Which I find interesting. :p

I expect the difference is indeed in the reader's reaction to the material: fear or a delicious tingling of the unknown.

well now that's interesting...
 

RobertlewisIR

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To be perfectly honest, I don't believe in genre anyway. The works that are most easily pigeonholed into a neat genre label are usually the works that are little more than a stale rehashing of every cliche that already infests the genre. As far as I'm concerned, genre's are marketing tools, so bookstore buyers know what shelf to put a novel on, and readers can TRY to look in the section that most closely matches their own preferences. Myself? I never spend less than an hour in a bookstore, because I always shop through the non-fiction sections that interest me (which includes many), and then wander through the entire fiction section (with the possible exception of romance, because the books that are generally shelved there are never the sort of romance I'd be the slightest bit interested in).

All that said, I still can't help you too much with your story. Horror doesn't have to be gory. Perish the thought. Psychological horror is frequently some of the best. However, just because it's a suspenseful tale with a ghost doesn't NECESSARILY make it horror, although that's the first genre that comes to mind when most people hear such a description. The real question is: is it scary (or supposed to be)? If the answer is yes, then it's horror. If the answer is no, then I might call it a supernatural thriller.
 
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