Special Posts – Genre Definitions, Part II

by Roseanna White | Jul 15, 2010 | Uncategorized

What Am I Writing, Anyway?
Part II

This is a two-part post I worked up for Go Teen Writers, where it’s also up today.

Yesterday I introduced genre breakdowns and talked about those for young adults and younger and historicals. Today I’m covering contemporaries and few of the big categories.

A contemporary novel is anything set after World War II through the present. Futuristic, science fiction, and fantasy are grouped under the title of “speculative”–I imagine we all know what those are.

The most widely read genre is Romance. And yet many of us (myself included) have no idea when we set out that Romance has a few musts. First, the love story between hero and heroine must be center stage. If it shares equal billing with another element, it is most likely a cross-over genre like Romantic Suspense or the like. Hero and heroine need to be apparent from the get-go, and usually they must meet within the first few chapters. Hero and heroine must have some issues, must work through them, and must find a happily ever after (a.k.a. HEA) by the last page. Usually this means either marriage or the promise of marriage.

Now, having a book where you don’t know who the heroine will end up with can be an excellent story—but it’s mostly likely not a strict romance. Having a book where the heroine doesn’t meet the hero until the last ten chapters—the same. A book where it ends with the hero and heroine not together—not a romance. These can be love stories, they can be women’s fiction, they can be some other genre. But romance readers have expectations, and if you don’t meet them, an editor is most likely not going to touch you. And you know, that’s for a purpose. When I picked up a book by an author I knew wrote great romances and discovered that she killed the heroine two-thirds of the way through the book, I didn’t finish reading it to figure out how the hero picked up the pieces and raised their baby. I wanted a happy ending, and I wasn’t interested in a “satisfying” ending at the time. Had I been, I would have picked up a different type of book, one that did NOT say “Romance” on the back.

I mentioned women’s fiction, which is what many books are that have love stories but don’t fit the strict Romance definition. Authors like Nora Roberts are billed as women’s fiction writers, even though most of her books are romance. Some defy the conventional definition, so there you go. Other women’s fiction includes the books about a group of four friends who each come into their own, the story about a woman finding a second chance after a divorce, the wife dealing with infertility, with unfaithfulness, the woman whose mother has Alzhiemers, etc. These are books geared at women, which are dealing with women’s issues. They can have romance, but don’t require it. I have a manuscript right now that has a love story, but just as key is the facing-her-past story. I could take the romance out and still have a book. This is women’s fiction, not romance.

There’s a thing called Love Story, which is what Nicholas Sparks says he writes. It’s again not something a publisher will use a label, but it’s something readers and writers toss around. Basically, it’s a story where the romance cannot be removed, but which does not promise to follow Romance guidelines. Maybe it stretches all the way until death, like Sparks’ The Notebook. Maybe the hero dies saving the heroine. That sort of thing.

Other contemporaries include:

Mystery—a whodunnit. Usually murder, but there are “cozy mysteries” that are often about a less gruesome crime. A mystery has an amateur crime-solver as the main character.

Suspense—one of those stories with high stakes, danger, intrigue, and a professional as a main character. Think 24. Jack’s a federal agent, not an amateur. Military stories are usually suspense. The ones about police officers tracking down a serial killer. That sort of thing. (A Romantic Suspense is a story where the romance and the suspense are equal.)

Chick Lit—light and comedic, generally but not always in first person, may or may not have romance. Chick Lit is currently out of fashion. I suspect it’ll make a resurgence under a different name soon.

I’m sure I’m overlooking some, and feel free to chime in with other examples or questions about how to break these things down! They’re tricky—published authors can sit and debate this stuff to no end. But subtleties aside, you have to know what it is you’re pitching to an agent or editor. And most of them will roll their eyes if you say, “It’s a historical mysterious romance that takes place in 1980.” What they’ll take from that is that you haven’t done your homework and don’t know where your story fits.

So—anyone need help figuring out what it is they’re writing? =)

Special Posts – Genre Definitions, Part I

by Roseanna White | Jul 14, 2010 | Uncategorized

So my fabulous friend and young adult writer Stephanie Morrill is on maternity leave, and I’m filling in for her this week on her site aimed at young writers, called Go Teen Writers. I’m doing posts on genre breakdowns, and thought I’d post here too.

To see the original post from yesterday, check out www.GoTeenWriters.com. Part two will post there tomorrow, as well as here.

These are aimed at teens, which is more obvious in today’s post than tomorrow’s, but the definitions might be of interest to many!

What Am I Writing, Anyway?
Part I

When I first began writing novels, I had all these big goals—among them, to provide that ever-elusive Something Different. I wanted to write a romance where you don’t know from the start who ended up with whom. I wanted to write a suspense where the main character dies. I wanted to shock your socks off with the ending of this could-be-romance—and then I couldn’t figure out why no agent or editor would buy them.

As it turns out, by breaking the mold of a genre, all you do is put yourself in another. And in order to sell it, you’ve got to know what it is you’ve written. So, I’m going to lay out some basic genre definitions so you can start figuring out what that work-in-progress is.

A lot of teens might be writing for their peers, which means you’re working on a Young Adult, or YA novel. YA novels are geared at people in high school, so ages 13-18 usually. Your hero or heroine ought to be about two years older than your specific target readership—so don’t write about 13-year-olds and expect that 16-year-olds are going to eat it up. Um, no. If you want it to reach 16-year-olds, make the protagonist 17 or 18.

There’s the Tween books, also called Middle Grade or Juvenile (not in a derogatory way, ha ha). These are books for the 8-12 crowd and should again have main characters at the upper edge of that age spectrum. Anything aimed at lower ages are grouped together under the title of Children‘s, though there are certainly breakdowns within it.

All these books can run the gamut when it comes to subject matter—they can be romantic, they can be adventure, mystery, suspense, you name it. Historical or contemporary, they still fall under the general headings of, say, YA. (You can certainly call it a YA Historical.)

Keep in mind that not all stories with teen main characters are Young Adult—the genre is decided by the readership in this case. I’ve read many a Coming of Age story that has characters anywhere from 9 on up but which are not appropriate for young people to read due to the subject matter. These are adult books.

Now, onto a few other generals. First, historical. Historical is any book that takes place from the dawn of time until the end of World War II. Don’t ask me why that’s the cut-off, and it will likely change in the next decade to include the 50s and possibly 60s. For now, though those are called contemporary.Within the historical genre we have . . .

Historical Romance—this is a historical of any time period, where the romantic thread cannot be removed without the story failing. If the story can stand without the hero and heroine getting together in the last chapter, then it’s . . .

Historical Fiction—a very broad genre that covers everything, pretty much.

Biblical Fiction—a historical that takes place during the time when the Bible was written, including New Testament times after Christ and into the Roman Empire. These stories may or may not revolve around the historical events in the Bible—they may just deal with issues of early Christianity or Judaism.

Medieval—a story that takes place in the Middle Ages. Regency—technically a story that takes place while the Regent ruled in England, but more broadly, anything from 1800-1830 in England. Victorian—from above through turn of the century, usually British. When we hop over to the U.S. we get our Americana novels, including . . .

Western—um, what it sounds like. Cowboys, ranches, gun-toting hotties wearing holsters and Stetsons. Prairie—also what it sounds like. Think bonnets and rag dolls, wheat fields and cabins. The Wars, such as Revolutionary and Civil, are usually just called historical. Turn-of-the-Century—not sure this is a proper term, but it’s a description used a lot. It leads up to . . .

World War I—pretty self explanatory. Twenties—yep. Depression Era—my, we’re getting creative. And we end our historicals with World War II.

Again, with historicals you can have romance (which earns the Historical Romance heading) within any of these eras, adventure, intrigue, suspense, mystery, etc. We occasionally use terms such as Romantic Historical Suspense to describe books, but that’s not something a publisher will usually put on the back cover as a label.

On Thursday we’re going to cover some contemporaries and huge genres like Romance, Mystery and Suspense, so check back in to figure out if you’re writing one of these!