genre

Am I the only one who has fantasized about living in a library and why do you write the genre you do?

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I love reading and I suspect most of you do too. It is all about the stories, right? Whether zombie apocalypse, plague, end-of-the-world-whatever, I am hauling my happy ass to a library! I would spend so much time reading everything and eating apples.

The act of reading is itself a pleasure. While I have genres I prefer to read, stick me someplace with only silly teen romances available and by golly I will read those suckers.

Dark confession time. I have read the Twilight series. My daughter swore to me that they were better than the movies.

She lies.

I couldn’t get Kristen Stewart’s voice out of my head for everyone one of Bella’s lines. It is still better than 50 Shades of Gray, just saying.

The point being, I am not tied to a particular type of book. But when I write, I stick to the fantasy genre. Because I am lazy and it is easier. Also I am trying to really improve the quality of my writing and not having to spend time worrying about the correct details helps.

Last NaNoWriMo I wrote a story based on La Carambada. A female Mexican bandit in 1870 who seriously kicked butt. This woman tried to save her French soldier lover from being killed and was betrayed by the governor. To get back at the government, she dressed like a man and took to robbing people and did it better than everyone else. To really rub in the humiliation in this machismo culture, she would bare her breasts so her victims knew they got beat up by a girl. She may have actually poisoned the officials who would not help her.

She needs a story told about her.

The problem is, that while I live in Southern California and I love the Mexican people and culture, there is no way I could do this story justice. Not in a way that it deserved.

Unless…

The story now takes place in a land that is loosely based on Europe during the 30 years war. Very loosely based. Now a young woman is trying to protect her fiancee and is betrayed by the lords of the land so in turn becomes a robbing-hood type character, fighting injustice and flashing her tatas.

No mess, no fuss. I love writing fantasy because there are no rules and anything goes.

So what about you? How did you pick the genre you like to write in?

Have a great day!

Paula

 

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Quick Links: The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Well howdy partner, rustle on up a stool and sit a spell. The reason why I picked this article to share with you is that it is more about writing a story with western spirit than an actual western.   There is really a lot of great information in this post, even if you never though of saddling up and heading out yonder to ride off into the sunset. Do yourself a favor and go read  excellent post at Standoutbooks.

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The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western

Adding a smart aleck horse always helps, Wilbur.
Adding a smart aleck horse always helps, Wilbur.

June 22, 2016 by Robert Wood

Westerns are a strange genre of fiction. They’re generally set in one place, deal with one kind of character and utilize a specific but limited aesthetic language. At first glance, it seems like such a specific setup that this fully fledged genre should actually be just a niche interest. Cowboys on their horses always seem to belong to the generation before, yet the Western never really leaves, with constant new films, novels and video games published in the genre year after year.

Clearly Western fiction has something special to offer. By understanding what that is, authors can prepare themselves to write great Western stories. To that end, this article will cover the three golden rules of the Western, along with some advice on how to apply them to your own writing.

Rule #1 – It’s not about the cowboy hat

As I mentioned above, Westerns have an easily identifiable aesthetic (or ‘look’). The cowboy hat, horse, revolver and spurs are shorthand for a familiar, trustworthy character. In the Pixar children’s movie Toy Story, the writers use Woody the cowboy doll to support and introduce an outlandish world in which toys come to life. Dropped into this strange setting, children are greeted by the familiar and orientating presence of the dependable, recognizable cowboy.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: The Joy Of Genre Mashing: 5 Tips For Writing Cross Genre

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Some books are very easy to put into a genre – like The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe #1) by Raymond Chandler, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, or The Notebook (The Notebook #1) by Nicholas Sparks. Others not so much. Lines are becoming more blurry as authors try and find where they fit the best and to be honest where they can get the most exposure. Take the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer which can be classified as romance, fantasy, and for some of us, comedy.  (Sorry!)  shares her wisdom with us and gives us 5 tips to deal with cross genre.  So head on over to The Creative Penn and let us know your thoughts on genre.

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The Joy Of Genre Mashing: 5 Tips For Writing Cross Genre

A little sweetness, a little spice, makes my reading very nice!
A little sweetness, a little spice, makes my reading very nice!

by Joanna Penn

Genre is a difficult word as many authors resist being ‘put in a box.’ But the reality is that, when you self-publish, you have to choose three categories for your book. And if you want a traditional publisher, they will have to put you somewhere too.

So I tend to think of genre as category these days. The problem is … which do you choose!

As J.F.Penn, I write across the boundaries of supernatural thriller, action adventure, dark fantasy, and crime with an edge of horror. When I first started out writing fiction in Australia, I met Alan Baxter, because he writes books that I enjoy with similar cross-genre themes. In today’s article, Alan explains how we can make the most of writing genre-mashing.

I am unashamedly a genre writer. But I find it hard to answer when people ask what genre.

Generally, I tend to write speculative fiction, which is the umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy and horror. Most of my stuff is dark urban fantasy and horror. But it’s rarely only those things. I include a lot more than just SFF tropes in my stories. I’m a huge fan of crime, noir, mystery, thrillers – in all honesty, I’ve never met a genre I didn’t like.

I’ve written a weird western ghost story, a novella that turns sweltering Sydney into a noir landscape where supernatural beings are dealing with mental illness, a historical pirate yarn with a cosmic horror threat looming over the world. My novels are paced like thrillers, dive through realms of crime and mystery, but are thick with magic and monsters and mayhem. And often a lot of martial arts, as I’m a martial arts instructor too and that’s the only other thing I’ve been doing as long as I’ve been a writer.

So how do we genre-mash without our stories becoming a mess? Here are 5 tips that I like to keep in mind:

Read the full post on The Creative Penn

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Create A Compelling Book Title

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This post by Rachelle Gardner originally appeared on her site on 9/17/15.

I’ve been coaching several of my clients through the process of coming up with a good title for their book, so I thought I’d share my tips with you.

Let’s start by acknowledging a few things. The publisher is usually responsible for the final decision on title, and in the query stage, it’s not that important. In fact, some agents have said they don’t pay any attention at all to titles. But at some point, you’re going to want to think seriously about this. Your title is part of the overall impression you’re creating about your book. It can set a tone and create an expectation. Whether you’re pitching to an agent, or your agent is pitching to publishers, I think you want to have the strongest title possible.

Think of it this way: the better your title is, the better your chance that the publisher will decide to use it, rather than changing it.

So here’s what I recommend when you need a title, for either fiction or non-fiction.

 

Read the full post on Rachelle Gardner’s site.

Fifty Shades of Lit.

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This post by Andrew J McKiernan originally appeared as a guest post on Alan Baxter’s Warrior Scribe on 3/17/15.

It has been almost six months since Alan asked me to write him a guest blog post. He knows I’m fairly passionate and opinionated about the “Literary vs. Genre” debate, and that’s what he suggested I write about. That’ll be easy enough, I thought. So I agreed.

Turns out, it wasn’t so easy after all. So, instead of trying to create some kind of logical argument — as I was originally intending to do — I’m just going to wing it. Trust my instincts, follow my heart, and just lay it all on the table.

First, let me paste two comments I recently found accompanying articles re: the Literature vs Genre debate. They demonstrate why I get a bit angry when the topic comes up:

EXHIBIT A: User comment on article on whether Crime Fiction is real Literature [see Note 6 below]

“crime fiction has more in common with the crossword puzzle than with literature”

EXHIBIT B: User comment seen on Facebook:

“To me, literary fiction is just another genre, and today it means ‘realistic fiction written by professors, for professors.’”

[I can’t remember who said this, but I think the position is common enough amongst Genre readers and writers that the specifics aren’t important.]

Now, I’m not a professor and I ain’t had no fancy learnin’, but that sounds like crazy talk to me. Both comments based on a misguided and narrow view of what Literature and Genre might actually mean. And, though there’s been a lot of great work in breaking this ridiculously false barrier down, both sides still maintain a strong core of stubbornness and, to me, it seems a horrible prejudice.

 

Read the full post on Warrior Scribe.

 

Finding Your Genre: An Epiphany

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This post by Christa Allan originally appeared on Jamie Chavez’ site on 12/22/14.

If you’re not from New Orleans and you find yourself plopped in the Big Easy one day, it’s likely one of the first questions you’ll hear is “Where did you go to school?”

Here’s a “quirk alert” that will navigate you through this disarmingly simple question. If you answer with the name of a college or city or state, we’ll know you’re definitely someone who lives outside the greater New Orleans area.

When locals ask that question of one another, we respond with the name of our high school. You may have attended Harvard, been selected as a Rhodes Scholar, or graduated from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. To us, those distinctions provide little, if any, information about the real you.

But a high school? Say a name and we’ll know if it’s public, private, religious, the demographics of the neighborhood in which you were raised, where you shopped and ate, your friends … For the most part, our high schools defined us and were reference points for those who didn’t know us well. And there were anomalies, like the kids awarded scholarships to private schools or the ones who transferred to schools whose football teams won championships.

So finishing my first novel and being asked about genre was as disarming as a tourist being asked about school.

 

Read the full post on Jamie Chavez’ site.