Today’s going to be a mix of light and heavy items, of interactive and chalk-and-talk items. Genre’s a slippery topic, so we’re going to tackle it from various angles, taking it by surprise. Roughly,
- We’ll discuss Definitions and Classifications
- We’ll look at a few genres
- We’ll look at mixing genres in a practical way
- We’ll look in more detail at particular examples of genre-mixing
- We’ll predict the next trend
I’ll begin with a quote - "communication is impossible without the agreed codes of genre" ("A history of English literature", Fowler, 1989, p.216). Is genre really that important? We’re going to have to start by discussing what genre is, according to various people
Definitions
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[Discussion] First, shout out some genres (single ones; we’ll deal with mixes later) -
...Answers might be classified under -
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I’ve seen some magazine guidelines that say “No Genre Fiction”. What does that mean? It’s as if Literary Fiction and Genre Fiction were 2 different … genres. I can see how this distinction is possible to make between, say, Joyce’s Ulysses and Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, but much of the time such a distinction is hard to make – a well-written whodunnit – maybe The Name of the Rose – is literary too.
Here’s a second approach towards definitions - Wittgenstein wrote that before you start making definitions, you need to understand why you’re making them. Definitions of “Adult” depend on the context. So do definitions of “Woman” (Olympics, writing competitions, Miss World, etc). So let’s ask what’s the point of having genres? Who make the rules? Who benefits?
[Discussion]
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Even if you don’t want to be confined by genres, we live in a genred world so it’s worth being aware of trends.
A third option is to look at genre lists that various organisations produce
Cambridgeshire Libraries have icons - Thriller (Revolver),
Crime (Handcuff),
Science Fiction (Rocket),
Fantasy (castle),
Romance (House),
Horror (??),
SS (short stories), ...- Amazon has many, including -
- Romance – Romantic Comedy, Historical Romance, New Adult
- Historical
- Crime, Thrillers and Mystery – British Detectives, Thrillers, Mystery
- Science Fiction and Fantasy - Science Fiction, Fantasy
- Literally stories has - Crime/Thriller/Mystery, Fantasy, General Fiction, Historical, Horror, Humour, Romance, Science Fiction.
Some genres (like Crime/Thriller/Mystery above) get bundled together into single categories. "Lord of the Rings" is nothing like "2001 a space odyssey". But SF and Fantasy are often shelved together, as you can see from the shop sign in Stockholm.
Strangely however, you won’t find Ian McEwan or Kazuo Ishiguro on Fantasy/SF shelves because they're too literary. That's why authors sometimes use different names when writing in different genres – e.g. writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks.
Taxonomy
Can we do better than Amazon? Is there a hierarchy? What I mean is when you define what type of thing a Shetland Pony is, it’s in the genus Equus in the family Equidae in the class Mammalia, etc. Is there a similar taxonomy for literature? What’s at the root?
The trouble with this approach is that SF/Erotica and Erotica/SF are same. What we need is not really a tree, but a grid, with Column headings SF, Erotica, etc. and Row headings SF, Erotica, etc. So you can have a cell for the sexy astronauts. But suppose they’re gay? We really need a 3D spreadsheet. At least.
We could go on trying to define. People have tried to establish clearer uses of the word “genre”, restricting its meaning and using “mode”, “style” etc to describe other aspects of a text, but it’s never caught on. So I think we’re stuck with genre.
It’s all a bit of a mess. Definitions only take you so far, which is why people still look in the vegetable section for tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s also why agents like comps – comparison titles – books that are like yours in style, thus bypassing the definitions problem.
That said, although “genre” is fuzzy, I think it’s still useful. It helps me decide where to browse in bookshops. And many books fall clearly into some genre or other. Which is good news, otherwise we couldn’t discuss genre-bending.
Guess the Genre
OK, so let’s apply our genre-identification skills. I’ll just you the first sentence or two of a book (maybe the final sentence too), and you tell me the genre -
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That was a bit more than a game. It’s useful to know how to quickly make readers think that a text belongs to a particular genre, because then you can surprise them. For example, you can flick into fairy-tale mode when a character reminisces about an old romance.
Genres of famous books
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I’m going to give you book titles and you’re going to tell me the genre
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Making new genres, part I
Having noted earlier some different ways of using the word “genre” (not just subject matter), I’d better mention how genre in the the sense of length/style is fluid. There have been some recent developments
- free verse so free that it’s prose. Increasingly, poetry books contain undisguised prose
- Haibun
- Vikram Seth – The Golden Gate (590 sonnets)
- short story collection or novel? "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan , "Olive, Again" by Elizabeth Strout, etc.
- Novella-in-Flash – newest addition
Making new genres, part II
Basing on biology/evolution -
- mutation – change one feature
- arrested development - sketch. Flash? Neoteny. My “List of Characters” piece
- new habitat – put cowboys and indians in space
- chimera/blends – rare in biology except at a low level.
The most contrived blend I’ve heard about was when an editor make a list of bad gangs of people – pirates, etc – and a list of novels that were out of copyright – “War and Peace”, etc - and tried to find a combination that worked, keeping as much of the novel as possible. The result, written by Seth Grahame-Smith and published in 2009, was “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”. One critic said that it was 85% Austen, 15% Grahame-Smith and 100% terrible, but it sold well and was made into a film.
It seems quite easy to spawn new sub-genres. Magic Realism, Historical whodunnit, Rom-Com, Dark Comedy, “rural psychedelia” (Tom Cox). Faction. No sooner did “Gothic” establish itself than we got “American Gothic”, “Seaside Gothic”, etc. In 2019 Northern Gothic (Liverpool, etc) was trendy. The same splitting up happened to Gay fiction. Since Harry Potter Magic has been mixed with ever more things – e.g.“Rivers of London” – magic + whodunnit, etc).
The rule seems to be that a new mix (e.g. “Zombie comedy”) is hard to sell. If you go to an agent saying your book is unique, you won’t have a chance. You may have to wait for a break-through novel before pitching your work in a new genre.
- Hermit crab
Exercise - Write down some standard formats for texts (recipe, shopping list, horoscope, etc).
List some standard plots.
A “Hermit crab” text is when content slips into the shell of another form. E.g. GCSE Science Experiment to Test the Durability of a Chemical Bond between Romeo and Juliet (Hannah Wood)
Try some combinations. Sketch the plot.
An example of genre-mixing – Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall
How do you avoid a mash-up becoming mush? I think it’s sensible to mix no more than 2 genres, and maybe it’s better to have one of the genres dominating. "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" mixes 2 genres though it's much more comedy than SF - Adams would do anything for a laugh. In other works the balance is more delicate. Stuart Turton said that the test readers of his “Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” thought that there was too much sci-fi so to satisfy reader expectations he added in some conventional whodunnit structure. He reckons the final version is 80% mystery and 20% sci-fi.
Literary writers have similar issues dealing with readers’ expectations. As an example I'll look at Sarah Hall's "Mrs Fox" which won the 2013 National Short Story Award and has been frequently reprinted. We're introduced to a working childless couple at the end of a day - meal, bed and sex. A day or so later the wife, in the course of half a page, turns into a fox. He deals with the practical consequences. She leaves. Later he regularly goes to see the partnerless fox with cubs in the wood. Will he have to let her go completely? The end.
The genre? Magic realism? I guess so. But what can go wrong with Realism? What can go wrong with Magic?
- The power of a realistic story would be destroyed if the protagonist could just use magic to get what they want - no struggle, no empathy.
- How does the author stop the magic becoming a slippery slope (why doesn’t he change too?), and the magic being reduced to realism (i.e. hallucination, madness, illness – it’s all a dream)?
She carefully chooses the narrative voice, and anticipates the reader’s objections. It’s a tricky balancing act.
The Realism aspect dominates. She keeps the magic to half a page. Unrealistically he doesn't freak out (but then, nor does Kafka's metamorphed man). At first he tries to keep her as a pet. He tells neighbours and her workplace that she's left him. Fair enough, but there's no mention of curious friends or relatives - a gaping plot loop-hole.
The fairy tale element is strengthened by a lack of worldly detail. We never discover the man’s name or what work they did.
There are compromises. Yet readers go along with the story. Many are moved by it. They understand the rules of the game. The advantage of the magical element is that the situation can be applied to any relationship where one partner changes (has mental problems or out-grows the relationship, or dies) and the other partner has to cope, has to decide how his love will adapt - will he let her go?
The narrative voice tries to steer readers away from disbelief of both the realistic and mythic elements, it tries to counter objections. Actually there are two narrative voices blended together - his realistic point-of-view and a detached, more mythic/meta viewpoint. For example, before any magic, there's this - Her pubic hair is harsh when it dries; it crackles against his palm, contrasts strangely with what's inside. A mystery he wants to solve every night. There are positions they favour, that feel and make them appear unusual to each other. The trick is to remain slightly detached. The trick is to be able to bite, to speak in a voice not your own.
In a realistic story, the man might query his sanity. In a more intellectual meta-story he might think he's trapped in a fable. The author tries to pre-empt both of these possible reader expectations. After the wife becomes a fox, he locks her in the house, and researches in the library, wonders whether he's mad. Then
He returns home with medical texts and a slender yellow volume from the twenties. There is little correlation to myth.
An extra layer is introduced here - the "slender yellow volume" is likely to be "Lady into Fox", David Garnett's 1922 novella, whose plot points Hall knew. I presume she wants readers to know that she knew. At the end of Hall's story
He has given up looking for meaning ... One day, Sophia might [...] enter the kitchen and sit at the table. I dreamt of the forest again, she will say ... To watch her run into the edgelands, breasting the ferns and scorching the fields, to see her disappear into the void - no - how could life mean anything without his unbelonging wife?
His lack of panic (which at first seemed unrealistic – something the author had to do to make the fantasy angle work) and undemonstrative, slightly detached (though sincere) love may be the very factors that made her leave him. The conflict of genres replicates the difference between the two people.
Predicting the next genre trend
When researching I noticed that genres come and go. Here are some details and opinions that might give us insights into future trends -
- Historical -
- "The historical novel flourished in the mid-20th century but it went completely out of fashion", Alison Weir, "Writing Magazine (June 2018)"
- Romance - Romance is the most profitable genre, according to Ferah Heron. It’s price-sensitive - E-books caused an increase. Bridgerton (Netflix. Color!). Definition? It needs 2 people falling in love and a happy ending. Harlequin needs that meeting to happen very early, and has other timing requirements.
In "Romance: Find your pigeonhole" Jess Morency, Writing Magazine" (March 2022) it says
- "Regency romance is a complete genre in its own right ... and there's now comedy Regency too" Linda Hill
- “I think [chick lit] died in the 1990s" Anne Williams. “In the 1990s, "publishers were asking authors to transcribe books from first to third person as the former was seen as 'too chick lit'” - Jenny Bent
- Horror - Horror boomed in the 1970s and 1980s before collapsing in the 1990s because of lurid covers and video nasties. Overtaken by “paranormal romance” … So people renamed it “psychological thriller”, weird fiction (Writing Magazine, 2018).
- Crime –
- “the detective story proper only begins with Edgar Allan Poe and his Chevalier Dupin” (Peter Hutchinson).
- Autofiction – Started in 1977.
- Uplit – a hit in 2021.
- Flash – It’s been around forever – the bible and before – but in 1992 it acquired a catchy name and has carved a niche. It's reclaiming material from other niches (free form poetry, etc), and has periodicals specialising in Historical Flash, etc,
- Fan-fic – less a genre, more a lifestyle. All genres are there, and mash-ups are the norm. #crossover is the simplest I suppose. There’s #Drarry for the sub-genre involving Draco and Harry Potter relationships.
I conclude that -
- If market trends change, you may not need to change your text - just say it's in a newer genre.
- It's sometimes not too hard to adapt a text to keep up with market trends (as with chick-lit)
- The Flash bandwagon is worth jumping on. You may already have written some without realising
Where are the clues for guessing the next trend?
- Films? - But StarWars didn’t help SF novels
- World events? - Covid? Do we really want a load of killer plague books? But maybe readers want escapism (cottage core) or whodunnits set during the Great Plague, or stories where doctors are heroes.
- Best-sellers – Urban Fantasy? Will Richard Osman’s success encourage cosy crime? I’m afraid so.
- Minority stats – In 2018, out of over 4,500 SFF books published only 5 were by UK BAME writers! Surely that situation will change. Fast change is possible - in the 2010s only 2% of children’s authors were BAME. Now it’s 20%.
Or maybe try things at random -
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Exercise: Can everything be mixed with everything else? Let’s play Mix’n’Match (use earlier offered genres)
I think Film-noir + Comedy is tricky. So is Slapstick + anything. |
Outlets
Most places accept genre mashups. In particular Bending Genres Journal - “We seek thrilling, fanciful, oddball, unusual, stunning fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction pieces.Think Olympics on a case of Red Bull. Think October in April. Think Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey. … A world not quite right? Yes, that is Bending Genres.”
Conclusions
- Sometimes you have to stick to the tried and trusted genre rules. If you intend writing a series (and many genre writers do) it would be silly not to
- Genres are often mixed. Readers are usually fairly adaptable. The problem is not so much the quality of your writing as the timing of your book release. The first example of a new genre-combination may have trouble. After that it gets easier.
- Is any combination possible? Looks rather like it. And more than 2 genres can be mixed. My guess is that it’s easier to mix genres in longer pieces. But Alex Davis (in Writing Magazine, March 2022) wrote "Short story readers tend to be a bit more amenable to writers playing with genre and doing things differently - novels have a different readership and are prone to different market forces. ... But short stories are an accepted place for experimentation, and as such you can merrily blend genres or indeed move your tale from one genre to another"
I began with a quote, so I'll end with one by Erica Wright- “Genre’s just a vehicle. Drive it like you stole it”
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