Genres define your work
Genres are classifications. They tell people which shelf in the bookshop or library will hold your book. They also help readers find your books online.
Here are a few examples:
- Crime & Thrillers
- Mystery
- Horror
- Fantasy
- Science Fiction
- Romance
- Westerns
- And (most importantly) my usual genre, Historical Fiction.
Genres may help readers find you
Readers don’t want to have to search the whole shop or publisher’s website to find your book. They usually want a book of a certain kind: one which belongs to a certain genre. You want people to find your book if it is the sort of thing they are looking for. You don’t want to waste anyone’s time checking out your book if it’s obviously not what they want.
Your genre may be your comfort zone
If you always write in a certain genre, it will become your comfort zone. You will know where you are going when you start writing. You may know the ‘rules’ or traditions of your genre. If you write in more than one genre, you will want to decide which one you are writing about today.
Your genre may become a straitjacket
We agree that genres can be a help to both the writer and the reader. They are also a help to publishers and booksellers. What’s not to like?
What if you get an idea for a story that doesn’t fit neatly into one category? If you begin as a detective mystery but drift into the supernatural? If your romance belongs in another period of history? Some say it’s OK as long as one genre dominates. What if not? Are you tempted to leave out the elements that don’t fit and keep to the well trodden path? Would that impede your creativity?
What about me?
Most of my novels are a mixture of historical adventure and murder mystery. Murder is not a new phenomenon! The latest in the Highwaypersons series, Blood in the Heather, Rumours, Rebels and Rogues is a good example.
It belongs in two genres: Historical adventure and murder mystery.
If you want a novel that keeps to one genre, try Traitor: an Englishman sails with the Armada. There is no murder mystery in that. But there are murders.
Clearly this belongs in one genre.
Prefer to be confused?
See how many genres you can find in Death in Transylvania, an Englishwoman investigates. I hope the various different elements make it more interesting. Tell me what you think!
A story which crosses several genres.
For more on Death in Transylvania, go to my previous post.