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Oh, the fraught nature of labels. We humans have evolved to use them to our advantage in the natural world. Our brains translate a boat-like body, webbed feet, and quacking (label: duck) as “not a threat.” In contrast, sharp, barbed objects on a plant (label: thorn) are to be avoided unless you fancy a nice cut. Pretty handy, except that mentality has carried over into the modern era where it can cause issues.
This is a blog about writing, so you can guess, together with the title, where this is going—the love-hate relationship between readers/writers and genre. Maybe you have strong feelings. Maybe not. But I guarantee at some point in your reading/writing adventures, genre will be both a blessing and a curse. Why? Well, let’s dive into the pros and cons of this classification tendency.
What is Genre?
If you don’t already have an inkling of what genre is, you probably don’t read genre fiction (commercial fiction) and/or you don’t consume much of any creative work (e.g., movies, TV, video games, music). I’m sure you’re already well aware of what genre is. Why else would you click on a blog post with the word in its title? Still, for the sake of thoroughness, let me briefly define genre.
Quite simply, genre is a categorization system for works of art, music, and literature. Popular genres for fiction books include science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, and so on. Each of these genres utilizes different styles, focuses on different concepts, and contains different content. Genre is a quick way to classify something.
When Can Genre Be a Good Thing?
For readers, genre is an incredibly efficient way to navigate the labyrinth of all possible reading material out there. If someone tends to prefer the style and content in horror, they know that they can mosey on over to the horror section in a store (brick-and-mortar or online) and likely find a book that will suit their tastes. Without genre to guide their decisions, readers would be faced with far too many options and too little time.
What about writers? Genre is again a time and money saver at least in terms of marketing. Even if a writer goes the traditional publishing route, they still have to be able to pitch their novel to an agent or publisher. To do that, they need to know what their genre is. If writers opt to self-publish, they need to know their genre in order to reach potential readers.
In short, genre saves both readers and writers time and money and yields the best results—readers getting a book they enjoy and writers finding readers that will most appreciate their book.
When Can Genre Be a Bad Thing?
All that being said, like any human construct, this classification system can impose limitations. Readers may be tempted to only read within specific genres and, in doing so, miss out on many stories that could have captivated them.
I fall prey to this myself. I tend to read science fiction and literary fiction without dabbling in much else. However, the bits of fantasy and horror that I have read continue to heavily influence my writing. Cosmic horror is a fundamental part of nearly everything I write, even if it is only subtly there. If I hadn’t read a compilation of H.P. Lovecraft’s works, I never would have been inspired to write so many of my own novels.
This leads directly to the negatives of sticking to a given genre for authors. In short, it stifles creativity. Why do so few science fiction novels feature compelling love stories? There’s no reason they have to exclude them. Many fantasy authors have picked up on the fact that readers appreciate aspects of romance within their genre so much so that we now have the hybrid genre of romantasy. Why not do the same for science fiction (perhaps yielding science friction)? Note, I can’t take credit for that genius name. It came from fellow sci-fi writer in a Discord group I belong to.
Besides giving readers tunnel vision and pigeon holing authors, genre also has a huge impact on the publishing industry as a whole. If readers clamor for clear-cut genres and writers obey their demands, is it any surprise that the publishing industry will fixate on these labels too?
My Own Struggles with Genre
I bring up this debate for two main reasons. The first is the impression I’ve gotten over the past few months of being active on Bookstagram (Instagram’s book community). In my experience thus far, science fiction readers are notably absent. Romance, fantasy, and horror seem to have a monopoly. This is disheartening for someone who labels herself as a science fiction writer (me!).
The other impetuous for the post comes from the fact that I recently finished the first draft of my newest novel, Blessed is the Rot. While I let the manuscript sit for a month and put some distance between it and myself before diving into edits, I’ve been mulling how I might pitch it to literary agents or readers (if I go the indie route). I get mild anxiety any time I do this because the book defies a simple classification into any one genre.
Blessed is the Rot has aspects of science fiction, horror, romance, and fantasy, but it’s not dominantly one of these, at least not at the outset of the book. It’s as if D&D (fantasy tabletop game) met Bloodborne (gothic/cosmic horror video game) met Canticle for Leibowitz (post-apocalyptic science fiction novel) with a love story in the mix.
A sci-fi writer friend of mine defines fantasy as any book where magic drives the narrative, whereas science fiction requires technology to drive the narrative. Simple right? And yet…I can’t use this distinction for Blessed is the Rot. Without giving too much away, non-Euclidean distortions of space-time drive the story, but what the heck would those be considered? Magic since they don’t actually exist? Technology since they seem tied to physics and math? Do you see the dilemma and why it makes me fume at the restrictions imposed by genre? Okay, rant concluded.
Feel free to offer me your thoughts and insights on my impasse or just let me know what you think of genre more generally in a comment.
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