TECH: Hah, a genre by any other name would...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Oct. 8, 2016

Be as hard to write? Anyway, as we're heading into Nanowrimo time, here comes Sarah Hoyt with a quick guide to genres. It seems appropriate to think about using this as a brainstorming tool. What kind of a story do I want to write? Or even what kind of subplot do I want to mix in? So, take a look at the original over here

https://madgeniusclub.com/2016/10/05/romancing-the-genre/

Or consider this list (summarized and commentary by me!)

Erotica – sex and kinkiness!
Romance – relationships. The plot is about the relationship and the emotions.
-- Sweet romance. No sex scenes.
Mystery. Crime and its solution. Murder is the biggie, but... you can have others, too.
-- Gritty or Noir. Dark, tough guys, action in the grime.
-- Police procedural! NCIS?
-- Genius Private Investigator. Rex Stout, Holmes. Intellectual puzzles.
-- Cozy. Milieu and relationships. Miss Marple.
Thriller -- The Chase!
Science Fiction -- What if? Future possibilities.
-- Hard. New Tech!
-- Space Opera. How do people handle this brave new world?
-- Military SF. You're in the Army/Navy/Space Force now...
-- Post Apocalyptic SF -- the world as we know it has ended. What y'a gonna do?
-- SF Romance. Sex and robots?
-- SF Erotica? You must be kidding.
Fantasy. Impossible, but... what if magic?
-- High Fantasy. Tolkein and many, many others. The lost heir?
-- Contemporary fantasy/Historical fantasy -- realistic, but…
-- Urban fantasy -- Set in the city (or at least suburbia), with a character handling magic and evil.
-- Paranormal Romance. Whoops! Magic or evil is sexy? Hum... Rule 34!
Historical -- set in some time, some place, almost anything.
-- Steam Punk? Gears and steam, Victorian sort-of?
Main Stream -- now, with the guy next door, doing every-day stuff.
Literary -- language and other problems.
Horror! Can you scare us! Subtle, or just splatter gore?

Whoosh! Quite a list. Oh, yeah. Don't forget the Young Adult markup.

Most of us know quite well what kind of stuff we like to read, and we often stick with that for our writing. After all, you know the tropes. If you want to switch genres, you're going to at least have to go to TVtropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage (Warning! This site can consume hours and hours of browsing, and... what were you looking for, anyway?)

and see what they say about that genre. Even better, plan on spending a little time reading some of the classics.

Okay? So... what kind of a story are you going to write for Nanowrimo? And are you mixing in subplots of some kind? Oh, one of those?

tink