How you can analysis your style to jot down higher tales
When I first wrote a novel, I only thought about the genre after the first draft and tried to untangle my confusion in the revision. After two painful years (mainly consisting of avoidance, postponement and general despair), I hired a development editor who started our first call with the question, "What book is this?" and "Who is your ideal reader?"
"It's for everyone," I said. I could hear the ups and downs of my breathing in silence.
"No, it's not," she said in a friendly but firm voice. Within a few minutes I realized that I had skipped a clarifying question that would guide every step of the book process from the plot and characters to design and marketing. The question?
What kind of book is that?
I had to identify the genre.
The genre appears simple on the surface: writing with a similar shape or properties. We know genres like mystery, romance, horror and science fiction. But it's more: genre is a promise to the reader, and more specifically, it's a series of promises.
Some authors think that identifying and writing a genre kills their muse's unicorn magic. Not so.
Think of it this way: good writing is like a tour. Readers buy books to take the tour. When I hire a guide to take me through Paris, I expect Paris. Not London. Not Berlin. While these are nice places, the tour guide didn't say we were going there and I didn't pay for it. There is nothing I appreciate more than visiting a city for the second, third or twentieth time and getting a great tour from someone who surprises and excites me by showing me the city in a new way.
Good writing is like that.
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Good writing knows where I'm going and it takes me there in an unexpected way.
Who is my reader What do you expect?
My creative writing students are often surprised when I tell them to start researching stories on Amazon. I ask her what my development editor asked me: "What story is that? Where would the reader look for it on Amazon? "
Some authors tell me that they only write for themselves, but I guarantee that when they finish a story, the first thing they say is, "Are you going to read this?" to everyone within earshot. I do the same. That's why I have to clarify the genre as soon as possible so that I know what my readers should promise and keep.
Here are two specific ways to get started. Ask yourself:
- What other book / film / TV show does my book like (or prefer)?
- Where would my book fit on the bookstore shelf?
It won't be exact, and that's fine. If you have a category, look at the summaries of several books or films in that genre. What patterns do you see? Hopefully you've read (or seen) a lot in this genre. So, if possible, think about the progress of the action. What are the key scenes? How does the main character change? What complications cause conflicts? What role does the attitude play?
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Clarify your genre early so you know what to promise and keep for your readers.
What does genre research look like?
If I have a book that resembles the Murder She Wrote show, I could break it down like this:
Genre: Cozy secret
Key scenes: Intro Sleuth, corpse (or puzzle) scene, Sleuth takes the case, clues, misdirection, clues, Sleuth solves it, traps murderers, justice
Main character change: Sleuth will not necessarily change, but we will see new pages of the Sleuth and community
Complications: red herrings (false information), people who lie, misdirection, another death, etc.
Frame: usually small, complex communities
Other conventions: A cozy person will have no explicit sex, no explicit language, no explicit gore, etc.
If I get stuck writing my book, I can see what a cozy puzzle usually promises and use it to keep me moving. If I know that my reader is expecting a body, I can deliver it in an unexpected way. (Wait, maybe that wasn't the best example.)
Note: Sometimes a story comes from more than one genre that can work. However, make sure the primary genre is clear, otherwise you run the risk of sending mixed signals to the reader.
But isn't the genre just a bunch of clichés? I want to be original!
Have you heard about Shakespeare? The guy wrote about ten tragedies for the stage, and each one begins with a noble person who is in trouble because of their pride and ends with corpses scattered across the stage. The approximately eighteen comedies he wrote all begin in chaos and end in marriage order.
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Shakespeare knew how to manipulate his genre by creating original characters and conflicts within the established form.
This also applies to us. If you know the most common devices in your genre, write them down and use them to create small twists or turns that set new boundaries for history. (Even in literary fiction, writers typically use external control to guide the story. Consider James Joyce, who used Homer's Odyssey as a structure for Ulysses.)
I talk to writers who are paralyzed because they don't want to write clichés all the time. Write them down and then revise them. We are writers! We are revising!
Haven't you started your book yet?
You can still use genre research to control your process even if you're a panther who hates contours. You might even have more fun writing if you have a few signposts along the way to keep the story up to date. (Last request: As a restful waistband, I can tell you that you save hundreds of hours (and pages!) On the revision to clarify the genre early.)
Incidentally, nonfiction research works the same way. See where your book fits the market.
After identifying the genre of my fidgeting novel as YA, Coming-of-Age Science Fiction, I understood which scenes had to be cut and what my protagonist had to do to grow up in the end. I understood where my book would fit on a bookshelf and what the cover would look like to find the right readers. I found out on page one how to make the right promises to orient the reader.
When I was in the middle? I knew there were complications that forced them to act independently instead of depending on older characters in the novel to reinforce the growing up issue.
It's worth spending an hour researching to answer the question that your first editor will ask, "What book is this?" Don't be like me – have an answer ready.
Would you like to learn more about the genre? Check out Save the Cat by Blake Snyder (especially Chapter 2) and The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne.
Did you research your genre? How did this research help your writing? Let us know in the comments.
WORK OUT
Take one of the following scenarios and write it as a short scene that fits a genre, but don't tell us the genre. Let's guess based on the promises you make with character, attitude, and other details. Scenarios:
- Boarding a bus / train / boat
- Choose a gift
- Push the stroller
Write for fifteen minutes. When you're done, share your scene in the comments, and don't forget to comment on some works by other authors. Can you imagine which genre you used?
A tip for teachers:
One of the first things I teach readers is to orientate on the text by identifying the promises made in the first few paragraphs, including the genre. In the fiction, stop reading the first paragraph or section and ask:
What is that story? How do you know?
Most students can tell you what kind of story it is, but they may find it harder to articulate how they know it. Help them make predictions based on the intro. Then let them go through these first paragraphs again at the end. You will be surprised at how often the beginning anticipates the end, and students can use the same circular technique to create unity in their own writing.
Sample stories for high school: "Mirror Image" by Lena Coakley, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
With middle school: "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Third Wish" by Joan Aiken
Sue Weems
