Genre-fear

CJMatthewson · Aug 13, 2018

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post this in, but it seems the best fit, as it's a basic question that doesn't specifically pertain to writing but the mindset of a writer.

Have any of you ever felt any kind of shame or embarrassment at writing a particular genre? For example, I've always written YA, mostly fantasy and urban fantasy but recently completed a 15k romance I intended to publish via KDP. The thing is...I feel a certain sense of shame. I shouldn't, as its the first story of this length I've actually managed to complete, and I've had good reviews by beta readers, but because it's always been drilled into my head that romance is lesser, somehow, or perhaps not high calibre enough, I've got a mental lock on actually putting it out there next to my name.

This isn't an attempt by myself to shame romance, far from it. I grew up in the fan fiction generation of fluffy romance stories and I've since enjoyed so many romance novels (recently the works of Lucy Lennox on Kindle have enthralled me).

I'm just wondering if any of you feel a certain way about any genre you yourselves have written for, be it fantasy, YA or horror? I'm curious as to what behaviours or views we've all had drummed into us during our literary lives, and how you've moved on from them?

Ari Meermans · Aug 13, 2018

Nope. I try to write the story that's asking to be written. I've written romance shorts, contemporary western shorts, horror, fairy tales, early 20th-century small town slice-of-life shorts, etc. We humans are complex critters, each of us holding an abundance of stories jostling to be written. Someone else's opinion shouldn't enter into it. Now, I often do experience a pang of embarrassment (or shame) when I believe the quality of my writing isn't up to snuff, that the story deserved better.

How did I move on from other peoples behaviours and views wrt literature—what I read and what I write? Pretty much the same way I grew out of caring about people's opinions of other aspects of my life—my life and my tastes are mine and nobody else's.

What you write is the essential you. No one else gets to determine or define who you are.

amergina · Aug 13, 2018

Shove that shame into a box.

Romance is the most read, highest grossing, most money-making genre. Romance readers are well-read, articulate, literary, and voracious. They read outside the genre.

But yeah, SFF is also derided. All genres are. Heck, even literary fiction is derided.

Write and read what you want, and hold your head up high! (And make articulate cases as to why your favorite genre is stellar and great!)

Ari Meermans · Aug 13, 2018

amergina said:
Shove that shame into a box.

Romance is the most read, highest grossing, most money-making genre. Romance readers are well-read, articulate, literary, and voracious. They read outside the genre.

But yeah, SFF is also derided. All genres are. Heck, even literary fiction is derided.

Write and read what you want, and hold your head up high! (And make articulate cases as to why your favorite genre is stellar and great!)

^ Yes, this.

rosegold · Aug 13, 2018

I think I get frustrated more than anything. People constantly ask me what genre my book is, and when they find out it's upper MG, they tend to think I'm wasting my time.

Scythian · Aug 13, 2018

A good MG book can have a subtle positive influence on its readers for decades to come, much more so than all the "adult stuff" around them.
But that's neither here nor there. The point is, IMO, to learn to transcend peer pressure, and to write not in order to impress X or Z, but to end up with a book that will enterntain people who don't know you.
That's the test of a book; not whether Jimmy from work liked it, but whether a bunch of strangers liked it on its own merit.

indianroads · Aug 13, 2018

Never run from fear, instead move toward it.

RolandWrites · Aug 14, 2018

Yes, mine isn't fear so much as frustration. I write sci-fi (among other things), but I get frustrated at myself for not being as good at it as I want to be, which leads to anxiety that I'm literally just not good enough, which logically just means I need to keep doing it to get practice. So not fear, just frustration and anxiety stemming from frustration.

And from my own experience, the only way to move past those feelings are to keep pushing through them and just get better and eventually you'll come out the other side. The "Just Keep Swimming" approach might not actually work for everyone, but that's what works for me.

CJMatthewson · Aug 14, 2018

Thanks, all the advice so far has been sound, and this in particular resonated with me:

Romance is the most read, highest grossing, most money-making genre. Romance readers are well-read, articulate, literary, and voracious. They read outside the genre.

But yeah, SFF is also derided. All genres are. Heck, even literary fiction is derided.

I think commerciality is almost looked down upon by a lot of literary critics (believe me, sourcing books for university this year was sometimes hard just because my lecturers have an affinity for books which never made it past one printing), and in writing fiction that exists to sell I have to get past that little internal voice telling me it's not worth as much.

I think I get frustrated more than anything. People constantly ask me what genre my book is, and when they find out it's upper MG, they tend to think I'm wasting my time.

I read voraciously as a child, more so than I do now. MG fiction guided and influenced my life (and still does to this day) more than anything else.

Harlequin · Aug 14, 2018

No, I don't feel shame. Every genre has its detractors--but also its admirers.

DanielSTJ · Aug 14, 2018

No shame. Never.

BethS · Aug 14, 2018

ConnorTheAuthor said:
I'm just wondering if any of you feel a certain way about any genre you yourselves have written for, be it fantasy, YA or horror? I'm curious as to what behaviours or views we've all had drummed into us during our literary lives, and how you've moved on from them?

When people find out I write and then ask what I write, "fantasy" gets some odd looks and tactfully noncommittal responses. Either they don't know what it is, exactly, or they do know and think it's weird or something they wouldn't like.

And yet fantasy, like sf, is one of those genres that can be anything: a mystery, a romance, a thriller. Literary. All of those.

I mostly try not to let non-writing people find out I write at all.

nickj47 · Aug 14, 2018

Yes, my writing is a well-guarded secret.

rosegold · Aug 14, 2018

ConnorTheAuthor said:
I read voraciously as a child, more so than I do now. MG fiction guided and influenced my life (and still does to this day) more than anything else.

Oh, I agree completely. My childhood favorites have had such a lasting impact on me, which is why I can't take the comments too seriously. I wanted to create something that was just as meaningful to me, and I did, and I'm happy with that.

rainbowsheeps · Aug 14, 2018

I'd agree with everyone else. The stigma against genres is pretty unfortunate, but all genres receive these stigmas (though maybe not necessarily in equal measure). At the end of the day, it's best to write what you feel truly passionate about - whatever boxes that fits in, if any.

I'm going through some similar concerns. I gravitate mostly towards literary fiction but I'm currently writing a story with a 19 year old protagonist, which might be a hard sell, since that age might be common for YA. I know my style isn't really typical for YA, though, and is mostly geared towards an older audience - so it's a fear I have that I'll write a story that is what I'm passionate about, etc., but that many agents would have issues with who the audience would be, etc.

I'm generally not a big fan of genre labels on anything - books, music, films - but they do serve as handy shortcuts sometimes when a lot of different works follow the same conventions. But humans have a tendency, once we have a box, to fit things into that box consistently, even when sometimes maybe the thing we're trying to store is different enough that it could appear in multiple boxes at once, or none at all. It's like the spork. Whoever invented the spork must have wanted to watch the world burn. Where do you put a spork in your silverware tray, you know?

Elle. · Aug 15, 2018

rainbowsheeps said:
I'd agree with everyone else. The stigma against genres is pretty unfortunate, but all genres receive these stigmas (though maybe not necessarily in equal measure). At the end of the day, it's best to write what you feel truly passionate about - whatever boxes that fits in, if any.

I'm going through some similar concerns. I gravitate mostly towards literary fiction but I'm currently writing a story with a 19 year old protagonist, which might be a hard sell, since that age might be common for YA. I know my style isn't really typical for YA, though, and is mostly geared towards an older audience - so it's a fear I have that I'll write a story that is what I'm passionate about, etc., but that many agents would have issues with who the audience would be, etc.

I'm generally not a big fan of genre labels on anything - books, music, films - but they do serve as handy shortcuts sometimes when a lot of different works follow the same conventions. But humans have a tendency, once we have a box, to fit things into that box consistently, even when sometimes maybe the thing we're trying to store is different enough that it could appear in multiple boxes at once, or none at all. It's like the spork. Whoever invented the spork must have wanted to watch the world burn. Where do you put a spork in your silverware tray, you know?

Just as a side note, having a teenage protagonist doesn't automatically makes a book YA. There are plenty of adults books out there with a teenage protagonist, what makes it YA is the style and the themes/subject covered.

starrystorm · Aug 15, 2018

Maybe you just felt that the book wasn't "you." But it's probably not best to go changing it up. I did that once with a historical novel (while planning). It fell apart.

Just a random thought.

CalRazor · Aug 15, 2018

ConnorTheAuthor said:
Thanks, all the advice so far has been sound, and this in particular resonated with me:

I think commerciality is almost looked down upon by a lot of literary critics (believe me, sourcing books for university this year was sometimes hard just because my lecturers have an affinity for books which never made it past one printing), and in writing fiction that exists to sell I have to get past that little internal voice telling me it's not worth as much.

Look up Stephen King/Harold Bloom. Might make you feel better (or, uh, worse).

cstoned · Aug 15, 2018

I certainly do -- genre fiction is so hard to do right and so easy to do wrong, and for every Looking for Alaska there's a thousand Twilights (maybe not the perfect example given its success, but you get the point). But everyone else here is right: shame has no place in writing, and I often find myself using shame and fear of rejection as an excuse to never get started.

I'd just make sure you're focusing on the story first, and then the genre. If you have an idea for a beautiful love story that just happens to work best on a distant planet, by all means, dive in. But if you're caught up with wanting to write a science fiction story first and foremost, but have no actual story in mind, I think you're more likely to fall into the cliches and pitfalls of the genre.

lizmonster · Aug 15, 2018

cstoned said:
I certainly do -- genre fiction is so hard to do right and so easy to do wrong, and for every Looking for Alaska there's a thousand Twilights (maybe not the perfect example given its success, but you get the point).

I've never read Twilight. But Spouse read a review of it by a reader who said regardless of the criticisms, it did capture a particular sort of awkward-teenaged-girl reality. It certainly hasn't sold the way it's sold because of hate readers. Ditto 50 Shades of Gray, another favorite example of "bad" fiction. These books hit on something at a serendipitous time, and that's nothing anyone involved should be ashamed of.

As for genre fiction? All fiction is hard to do right and easy to do wrong.

You should write what you want, including genres you don't know. You want to write SF? Do it. Worry about cliches and pitfalls when you're revising. If writing it is feeding you, you're doing it right.

indianroads · Aug 15, 2018

lizmonster said:
I've never read Twilight. But Spouse read a review of it by a reader who said regardless of the criticisms, it did capture a particular sort of awkward-teenaged-girl reality. It certainly hasn't sold the way it's sold because of hate readers. Ditto 50 Shades of Gray, another favorite example of "bad" fiction. These books hit on something at a serendipitous time, and that's nothing anyone involved should be ashamed of.

As for genre fiction? All fiction is hard to do right and easy to do wrong.

You should write what you want, including genres you don't know. You want to write SF? Do it. Worry about cliches and pitfalls when you're revising. If writing it is feeding you, you're doing it right.

I love that.

BradCarsten · Aug 15, 2018

rosegold said:
I think I get frustrated more than anything. People constantly ask me what genre my book is, and when they find out it's upper MG, they tend to think I'm wasting my time.

J.K Rowling may disagree.

blacbird · Aug 16, 2018

ConnorTheAuthor said:
Have any of you ever felt any kind of shame or embarrassment at writing a particular genre? For example, I've always written YA, mostly fantasy and urban fantasy but recently completed a 15k romance I intended to publish via KDP. The thing is...I feel a certain sense of shame.

Good Lord, why? All manner of writers write all manner of things, and any trip to a bookstore will confirm this. If you don't want your real name attached to it, use a pseudonym. Many writers do this, too.

caw

Genre-fear

CJMatthewson

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter

rosegold

Scythian

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

RolandWrites

SFF Author, Neurodiverse

CJMatthewson

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!

DanielSTJ

The Wandering Bard

BethS

nickj47

rosegold

rainbowsheeps

Elle.

starrystorm

CalRazor

cstoned

lizmonster

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

BradCarsten

practical experience, FTW

blacbird