Does genre matter as much as it used to?  What if your idea seems to fit every genre? Or none of them? Will it really benefit you to choose your genre before you start writing? Why not just write what you what to write and decide on a genre when you’re done? In the not very distant past, genre was vitally important: not only did it dictate where in the bookstore your book would be shelved, it was also often a factor in whether your submission was read by an agent in the first place. Sending an epic fantasy to an agency that only handled mysteries and thrillers was nothing but a waste of paper. You had to nail your genre (out of only a handful of choices), ensure your story slotted perfectly into that genre, and then select the right representative for it.  With indie publishing? That narrow stricture has, somewhat, fallen away. You’re free to test a variety of different genres and subgenres (and there is now a huge list to choose from) and let your sales figures and reviews ...

Each December our bloggers take a break while we look back at a few of the thousands of posts we've created over the years here at the Blood-Red Pencil. We'll start off with Genre . Secrets of Genre Strategy : Morgan Mandel shares some secrets for getting noticed in your genre.   Monday, July 20, 2015 Secrets of Genre Strategy Today, I'd like to share some secrets for getting noticed in your genre. First, it's a step in the right direction to write a great book. However, these days that's not enough. Amidst the vast competition, somehow your gem must stand out and get noticed. Genre strategy is one way to do that. Here are some secrets to achieve that: Be specific. Narrow down your genre . For example, don't just say you've written a romance. The romance genre contains... [ Read more ]    Playing the Genre Game : Linda Lane offers a warning that being too vague...

Today, I'd like to share some secrets for getting noticed in your genre. First, it's a step in the right direction to write a great book. However, these days that's not enough. Amidst the vast competition, somehow your gem must stand out and get noticed. Genre strategy is one way to do that. Here are some secrets to achieve that: Be specific. Narrow down your genre . For example, don't just say you've written a romance. The romance genre contains tons of categories. To help potential readers discover your romance buried amongst others, include another category, such as contemporary, historical, paranormal, Young Adult, etc. To further guide readers to your book, you can narrow the field by including an extra category to the first two, such as a  sweet contemporary romance, a Christian historical romance, an erotic paranormal romance. You get the drift. Amazon, for example, provides tons of romance categories from which to choose. I chose the r...

This post was first published here on January 28, 2013. Every plot hinges on a central question. Posing the question at the beginning of the tale and answering it at the end is sound story architecture. Does that task make your head spin? It shouldn’t. It’s as easy as choosing a story skeleton. Let’s explore a few examples. 1) The Romance skeleton poses the central question: Will they or won’t they end up together? The answer had better be yes or a satisfying equivalent. The girl can find out guy A isn’t what she wanted after all because she found guy B, but this is not the genre for an I’m okay on my own ending. That story uses the Literary (or Women's Fiction) skeleton. Romance readers want passion and fulfillment and are very disappointed if they don’t get it. 2) The Mystery skeleton poses the central question: Who did it and will they catch him? The answer is yes . The criminal may escape at the last moment to torment the detective another day, but the case t...

This post first ran on Thursday, May 16, 2013 In previous posts, we discussed choosing a central question and a story skeleton, also known as genre. We have bent and twisted a premise many different ways. What happens next? That depends on whether you are a pantser or a planner. Developing a conflict outline can keep you from getting mired in the middle. If you are allergic to outlining, you can wait until the end of the rough draft to examine each scene and identify the type of conflict it addresses. The four layer method I use is simply a new way of looking at conflict in the story. It ensures that every scene is earning its page time and is placed in an order that has logical “cause and effect.” First chapters are easy for most writers. The inciting event occurs. The protagonist makes an important decision or takes an irrevocable action. The antagonist knows of this decision/action and is prepared to oppose him. Then the writer loses momentum or doesn't know wher...

At the conclusion of your exciting tale, most readers are rooting for a happily ever after ending. They want the bad guy punished, the good guy rewarded, and the lovers to be in love. Sometimes that tidy ending just isn’t where the story should go. Should you change it to conform or end it the way you feel deep in your gut it should end?  Some genres have specific expectations. A Romance should end happily. A Mystery should be solved. Beyond that, the resolution of your story can be a little more creative. Every story has a central question. Will the protagonist succeed in his overall story goal? There are multiple answers. 1) Yes.   Dick succeeds and there is no gray area. The plot is tied up in a neat little bow and there are no unanswered questions. Dick feels good about it. This is an up ending. Readers love up endings. 2) No.   Dick fails and feels bad about it. He fought tirelessly, but in the end couldn’t win. This is a down ending. Readers u...

We continue with our story seed featuring Dick, love interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward earth. We have gowned it as a Romance. We have twisted it into a Thriller. What else can we do with it? We can apply the Literary skeleton and explore the theme that relationships are vulnerable to unexpected blows. The impending meteor strike could be real or imagined, past or present. The tension it creates, or the mystery that surrounds it, tests the bonds of the people involved. Threatening situations can bring out the best or worst in people. The central question becomes: what life altering decision will Dick make and how will his life change? He can decide to walk away from his chosen career, stay or leave an unsatisfying relationship, or come to terms with the fact that you can’t save everyone, especially from themselves. We can take it on a Road Trip. Dick, Sally, Jane, and Ted travel to the crash site. What they find when they get there isn’t the...

We continue with our story seed featuring Dick, love interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward earth. If we select the Thriller and Suspense skeleton, the overall story problem becomes the catastrophic danger that must be averted: the meteor. If we choose the Psychological Thriller, there is a cat and mouse battle between Dick and Ted or Jane. Dick isn’t certain who the enemy is, but if he can’t identify him/her in time, the meteor strike erases the possibility, along with the entire cast. Sally's life could be threatened by the antagonist. Alternatively, Dick is forced to solve the mystery of the meteor strike location. Was it a space rock or something more nefarious? Can he prove it? If we choose the Religious Thriller, Dick could be a priest or religious scholar. The plot involves a religious prophecy or the meteor is somehow tied to biblical history. Perhaps Dick finds the Arc of the Covenant actually contained a piece of meteor that bestows...

We continue with our story seed featuring Dick, love interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward earth. If we select the Thriller and Suspense skeleton, the overall story problem becomes the catastrophic danger that must be averted: the meteor. Dick’s rivalry with Ted, pressure from Jane, and relationship with Sally create interpersonal and antagonistic obstacles to solving the overall story problem of the meteor. The meteor itself is not an effective antagonist. A member of the cast, perhaps Ted or Jane, serves  as the person standing in the way of Dick’s successful resolution. If we choose the Conspiracy Thriller, Dick fears there is a powerful group behind the meteor strike. Dick navigates the maze of conflicting information until he ends the threat to his world. Meanwhile, Ted and Jane make this difficult while Sally either helps or hinders. If we choose the Crime Thriller, there is an element of mystery that Dick must solve. There is a ...

We continue with our story about Dick, love-interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward Earth. If we select the Romance skeleton, the focus is on Dick meeting, possessing, or losing the object of his affection: Sally. The meteor, Jane, and Ted present obstacles to this goal. Let’s look at different ways to dress up your plot skeleton. You can add the Contemporary Romance jacket. This is defined by the time period. The obstacles to their love occur post World War II to modern day. It is often combined with, or related to, the term women’s fiction . Ted wants Sally, or Jane wants Sally. Jealousy and rivalry keep Dick from achieving his goal. The impending meteor strike adds an element of anxiety. At the final turning point, Dick saves the day and wins Sally's heart forever. Sally and/or Jane saves the day if you want to add a feminist touch. If you add the Historical Romance mantle, it means that the obstacles to love occurred prior to World War ...

Genre is the promise you make to your reader to give them the kind of story they want without annoying them by giving them information they don’t want. So what happens when your premise, that brilliant story seed that came to you in a dream or while pacing your kitchen at 3:00 a.m. on a sleepless night, doesn’t fit neatly into one of those broad categories? What if the term genre makes you feel slightly nauseated or makes you fear you’ll have to kill too many darlings?  The answer lies in the story skeleton you select and how you layer the conflicts. Let’s say you have a brilliant story idea about a scientist named Dick trying to win the heart of Sally, the girl of his dreams. Meanwhile, Jane asks him to solve the problem of a meteor streaking toward earth. In addition, Dick really hates Ted because Ted is eager to replace him as head of the space defense department. You want to cram all of this into one story. But what kind of story is it?  That depends on h...

When I conceived the idea for my young adult series, Mythikas Island , I knew it would be four girl protagonists and four books. The story uses a Road Trip skeleton with a mythical adventure twist set in ancient Greece. The destination isn’t as important as the survival exercise and how it changes the characters. I settled on one character first person point of view for each book and decided each girl would come to terms with an event from the past. Diana, the Archer, begins the tale. She resents not winning the position of team leader. However, Diana has never been a good team player. The challenge teaches her what it means to lead and how to follow when needed. Along the way, Diana comes to terms with the murder of her mother. Persephone, the Healer, picks up the tale in the second book. She would prefer to remain at home on Helios and practice healing instead of babysitting teammates she despises. She not only learns to care for her contentious cousins, she comes to terms...

“You promised!” is a cry often uttered by frustrated toddlers denied a treat. Frustrated readers feel this way when a writer makes a promise she does not keep. At the outset of every story, a writer promises to tell the reader a specific sort of tale. This promise should be clearly stated in the synopsis or back cover blurb. There is a difference between premise and promise. Premise is the story idea, such as a tragic love story about ferrets. The premise could feature giant cockroaches invading the planet, a guy meeting the girl of his dreams, a terrorist attack, aliens descend, a murder is committed, an asteroid heads toward earth, a mysterious virus strikes, a heist is planned, a criminal breaks free, a thief needs to be caught, a monster eats Manhattan, or an evil wizard seeks control of Wonderland. Translating the story idea into a novel-length manuscript is where the work begins. You must pick a promise, also known as genre. The term genre is often considered a four-lette...

Come a new year, most writers begin to think of new projects and start to plot out their writing agenda for the new year. While you're figuring out what new projects you want to write, how about figuring out what new style or genre you want to write in? Writers should always be about stretching their literary wings and fine-tuning their writing craft, and they can do that by switching up what they've been doing and trying something new. If you've always written romance, why not add a mystery element to a story? If you spend your time writing dramatic stories, why not try your hand at a comedic piece? If novels are your thing, why not attempt a screenplay? By doing something new, we can learn our strengths and weakness as writers—make it a learning experience. ----- Writing in 140 is my attempt to say something somewhat relevant about writing in 140 words or less. ~~~~~~~~~~ Shon Bacon is an author, editor, and educator. She has ...

This is a piece that appeared here on BRP on January 25, 2009. As an editor, I always ask potential clients to tell me about the books they've written, and many of them go into a long, detailed summary, but sometimes, we need to be able to tell our story's idea in short fashion. Enter this commentary. You’ve written a novel – congratulations! Believe me, I know about the struggles that writers go through putting pen to pad or fingers to keys. There were probably a million times you wanted to give up and walk away from your words. There were bouts of writer’s block. There was doubt. There were those who just didn’t get why you wanted to write. And despite these and other issues, you rose above them and finished a story from beginning to end. Stop. Smile. Pat yourself on the back. Tell yourself you are awesome. Call at least three people to tell them the good news. Treat yourself to something special. Take a few days to put some space between you and your glorio...

Recently, my fourteen year old daughter was, as usual, sitting in the back seat of the car texting to a friend. “Hey, Mom, how do you spell genre?” My husband and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. What fourteen year old uses the word “genre” in a text to a friend? I’m not sure I’d even heard the word until I was a librarian. Readers today are much more aware of the genres of books they read. They are much more likely to stick with one genre and not read others. Go into most modern bookstores and you’ll find the books organized, not by author, size, or color, but by genre. We at the Blood Red Pencil are going to use a few posts over the next weeks to define and discuss genres. The market may be better for some genres than others. There may be different marketing approaches for different genres. You may find that some agents specialize in handling one genre over others. We’ll discuss those all these points in upcoming posts. I’m going to begin the discussion with a relati...

The Science Fiction and Fantasy subgenres are very often blurred, and, if you don’t set out with the intention of deliberately writing one or the other genre, it can be difficult to categorise a story that has elements of both genres. Science Fiction Science Fiction – which is shortened to SF, not “Sci Fi” – is used to describe hard- to medium-core science-based fiction. The science forming the background of the book can be hard science, such as nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, chemistry, biology, geology, genetics, robotics, etc – or it could be a soft science like psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. Whatever the science discipline referenced, it forms a large part of the plot process. The current laws of the discipline must be followed, or, if broken, there must be an explanation for the fictional possibility of breaking or bending the laws. Sci-Fi Sci-Fi is the fun version of Science Fiction. Sci-Fi can play with concepts that would never be possible based on our ...

I love a good cozy mystery, but not just for the intrigue of discovering the villain. The best ones have a bit of romance to spice things up. I mean a little tiny bit, not searing like so many of Nora Roberts' books. Writing romance is an art in itself, and melding it with mystery takes a really deft hand. But the end result is incomparable, the best of both worlds to me. In a cozy novel, the mystery and romance are just that - cozy - which is about all I can handle. A while back, Shelley Thrasher explained to us how to make things CLICK between characters and amidst the sheets, and you can read about that here . You can also check out Writing Romance by Vanessa Grant for everything a writer needs to make a book sizzle, "from spark to finish". Included is a CD with Excel template to track character history and timelines. I recommend the book to anyone thinking of trying out the romance genre. If that's more than you wanted to know, experience my ideal of the mystery/...