Writing 101--Genres

I don't know if Writing 101 will be a regularly scheduled blog, but some things I've mentioned in the past bear repeating. I could have directed you to old posts, BUT these publishing times are a changin' very quickly. Something I firmly believed two years ago might not be appropriate now.

For many years when someone would comment that they wanted to write a book. My answer would be, "So write it." My answer is still, "Write it." because the only way your story will be written is if you do the hard work and actually write it. But now I have tempered that answer with some food-for-thought.

When I first started writing romances (notice that I don't write them anymore??), Marilyn Pappano asked me what type of book I was writing. "Romance," I said.  Duh!

Three years later, I realized what she was really asking. Yeah, I'm slow on the uptake.

TRUE STORY: If you are giving me the silent treatment because I pissed you off--it won't work. I'll just figure that you aren't feeling very well. It took another worker to tell me that another one of my co-workers was ticked off about something.
Yes, I'm that obtuse. But isn't this better than being one of those people who take offense over every suspected slight?? 

Anyhoo, what Marilyn was really trying to get me to think about was whether this story was a category romance or single title. Each of these romance sub-genres has a different set of expectations from the reader.

Here are a few things to think about:

--Where do you see your book shelved?
--Who do you see them next to?
--What type of reader do you want to attract?

So many newbie writers look down their noses at romance, claiming that it's cookie-cutter. It's a boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl, leading to Happy Ever After. 

And so it is.

But other genre books are also formulaic--Cozy Mysteries, Horror, Thrillers or Suspenses, Fantasy and Science Fiction (two very distinct genres), Westerns, etc.

Each genre has its own sense of 'rules'. Many people call it formula writing or cookie-cutter. I prefer to call it reader expectations.

If you pick up a book in the Thriller section of the book store, you want a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. You expect to be in for a fast-paced action ride. Think of the Jason Bourne books. The stories are complex and action-packed.

When you pick up a romance, you want the love story between two characters who can't possible live happily ever after. But they somehow manage it. It's the journey that readers enjoy reading about.

Here is my take on some genres (I'm sure I'll miss a few since I don't read all of them, so please keep that in mind).

CHILDREN'S--runs the gamut of picture books to young adult. If you want to write in this genre you need to be aware of what reading level your target audience is. And let me just mention that just because a group of kids is in the fourth grade, it doesn't mean they all read at the same level, which is why these books have age ranges.
Picture books are far more rigid than most people realize. The word count is limited, and the pictures are there to tell 50% of the story. Most of the time, a parent is reading this to the child, but eventually the child will start reading it on their own.  Dr. Seuss to Froggy
Early readers have pictures, but there is more story involved. Words must be easy for the reader to sound out. Henry and Mudge.
Chapter books are for a little older child who still needs some pictures to help break up the text along with chapter breaks. Many times this is a fun adventure that can be used to educate as well. Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Treehouse books.
Middle Grade books usually don't have pictures except possibly at the beginning of the chapter. The child character must be the one to solve the problem presented in the story. The books are longer with a slightly more difficult vocabulary. Rick Riordan's books, Harry Potter. M. A. Golla (hey, a gal has to get a little freebie promo in somehow!).
Young Adult stories tend to be a little more hard-hitting books that address issues many teens face on a daily basis: sex, drugs, abuse, etc. They can range from the lighter end of the spectrum (Gallagher Girls spy school) to heavy. I don't read the hard hitting stuff, so I don't have any examples. If I had to guess, The Hunger Games would be in here.

ROMANCE must have a Happily Ever After or a Happy For Now scenario at the end of the book. The 'romances' where someone dies or leaves or whatever aren't romances, they're love stories. Do NOT call them romances. Romances can have a heat rating from sweet (a stolen kiss or two) to erotica (graphic sex). The word count can vary depending on the romance, category (50,000 words) or single title (90,000 words). Many of romances include additional elements or sub-genres, but the core of the story MUST be the story of the relationship between the Hero and Heroine.
Here are a few sub-genres: faith-related, contemporary, paranormal, historical, and suspense.
If you want to write in a romance sub-genre, the sub-genre MUST BE INTEGRAL TO THE STORY. If you take out the fact that a character is a vampire and the story still works, then the story doesn't dig deep enough in the paranormal aspect. Dig deeper.

FANTASY and SCIENCE FICTION is growing. Many of these books tend to be 100,000-words or more, partly due to the world-building/description aspect of the story--and 90-95% of the world-building the author does shouldn't be written in the book. Personally, I feel that the author shouldn't have to describe their world to the reader, but draw the reader into the story through the characters. I read this genre, but only a few select authors. Fantasy can be anything from Urban Fantasy (Jim Butcher) to High Fantasy (David Eddings) to Science Fiction (Orsen Scott Card). I tend to read Urban Fantasy, but if you want to write fantasy you might consider reading numerous authors within this genre to figure out the reader expectations of the particular sub-genre you intend to write.

THRILLERS/SUSPENSE/MYSTERY Each one of these has different expectations. I don't read many of these, so the key is to read different authors and then dissect their stories to figure out their pacing and reader expectation for that genre.
In many mysteries, the crime or murder takes place off screen. The story is the character solving the unsolvable. Agatha Christie.
Suspense can be the character seeing something he isn't supposed to see, but he are running for their lives as they try to solve the mystery. Allison Brennan.
Thrillers are similar to Suspense, but I think they are more intense and action-packed.  Jason Bourne books.

FICTION books are all the novels that don't fit in genre fiction. These might include the Classics, literary fiction, women's fiction, etc. Can't help you here. I don't read these books. I'm just not that interested in them. I want to read to escape, not face the harsh realities of life.

NON-FICTION is the rest of the bookstore. If you want a cookbook, a 'dummies' book, research books--the Captain Jack Sparrow Pirate Handbook is here--yes, I have this one, history books, Dragonology books--got it, too, how to write books, etc.

So here's your homework assignment--think about the story you want to write and then before you sit down to write--READ. Yes, read the genre, but especially read the more recent books that have come out. In middle grade books, The Outsider's is a classic, and so are the Harry Potter books, but if you want to get the current point-of-view of young readers, then read Rick Riodan's Kane Chronicles--I'm still waiting for book 3!

Later, Peeps!




Think about these things while you are thinking about the Great American Novel that you want to write.

From Romance to Middle Grade

In case you weren't interested in hopping over to the Twisted Sisters blog the other day, here is my blog--for those of you who wondered about the how and why I started writing about goblins, gnomes, faeries and trolls.

Actually, it was less of a jump than a gradual merge into the slow lane. Yanno, like when the white-top old person has his signal on for ½ mile before he slowly merges into you because you thought he just forgot to turn it off. Yeah, like that.

The how and why I switched was part logical and part serendipity.

I had been writing for eight years, completing four manuscripts of every sub-genre around, including mixing a few of them together. I loved reading romance, but I couldn’t write one if my life depended on it. My last story was a 110,000 word romantic fantasy with a dash of high fantasy (elves and their realm), otherworldly (actually a new world), a missing child heir to the throne and the evil one who wants to control it all titled, THE LEPRECHAUN CONNECTION.

Yep, all that was missing was the kitchen sink . . . ‘cause I added that to ANOTHER story.

Believe it or not, I did get a request by the great Deb Dixon who ultimately refused it. But her input and request a different story spurred me on—to write another convoluted and confusing mess I titled, THE DEMON CONNECTION—uhm, I never finished this one. There’s some good stuff in there, but I’m not ready to write it yet.

Anyhoo, fast forward to May 2008, as I walked my kidlet to school, we made up a story about Peter the fly called, PETER’S MESSY ROOM.  I wrote 580 words in 15 minutes after I got home. And then I started writing short picture book type stories. I really, really loved writing these stories. They were short. They had a beginning, middle and end. They were fun. And most important of all, they made me happy.

During this time, I discovered my writing voice.

Then I started thinking. *scary, huh?* My writing voice didn’t lend itself well to romance. It was too snarky for most ‘normal’ romances, but not snarky enough for many paranormal, chick-lit (I know the term is a no-no, but it’s a TONE that conveys the style) type of story.

So what to do?

I really, really loved the main character in THE LEPRECHAUN CONNECTION, what if I wrote her backstory? Yep, you heard correctly—BACKSTORY. How did this character become who she ended up being?

The first story I wrote was called, MISSING: ONE GARDEN GNOME, which explained how Kyte Webber became the kid who saw Mythicals. During this time, I received over 100 rejections, changed the title, changed the character’s name five or six times, and cut over 10,000 words—twice. No, this was NOT an easy book to write. The title soon became TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME, and my character became Kyte—an old friend allowed me to use her old Dungeons and Dragons persona.  Eerie part is they have similar personalities.

Three of the books are available on Amazon:

TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME, book one of The Goblin’s Apprentice series

THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS, book two of The Goblin’s Apprentice series

LOST LEPRECHAUN LOOT, a Kyte Webber short adventure story, honoring St. Patrick’s Day 

I plan to publish three more stories this year:

A MAZE OF MONSTER MIX-UPS, a Halloween prequel to book three of The Goblin’s Apprentice, featuring Kyte Webber

FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS, book three of The Goblin’s Apprentice series

SUGAR PLUM DISASTER, a Christmas inspired short story, featuring Kyte Webber

Romance as Birth Control

I've been thinking about this topic ever since Jen Lyon (no, I didn't paste the exact blog post--get over it and look around her site!) asked this question on her blog site: How old were you when you read your first romance? What was the title the book? Now, she might not have worded it that way, but that was in essence the question.

Most of us started reading romance in our teen years, some of us were as young as twelve to about age sixteen. Some of us started with the 'sweet' romance of Barbara Cartland and the 1970's version Harlequin with Janet Daily, to the hot and sexy romance of Rosemary Rogers. One of my most favorite romances wasn't even considered a romance, Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. (yes, there are two different sites here) *sigh* Radcliffe Emerson and Amelia Peabody still send chills down my spine as their romance survived through the years of archaeological digs, Ramses (their precocious son), WWI, and all sorts of adventures. Though this smattering of blog readers read a variety of romance, NONE OF US WERE PROMISCUOUS BECAUSE OF OUR READING CHOICES.

Hm, interesting. Living smack dab in the heart of the bible belt, I remember preachers, teachers, and bible thumpers droning on and on about the evils of romance. So if romance is so evil and causes girls and young women to fantasize about the perfect man and meaningful relationships, why didn't we become one of the growing statistics of teenage pregnancies?

Could it be because we wanted to believe in true love? Could it be because we learned to respect ourselves and wouldn't succumb to the a quick roll in the hay? Could it be because we really believed that there was a Mr. Right or a knight in shining armor somewhere out there? Could it be because we believed in a Happily Ever After?

Granted, this was a very small smattering of blog responders, but I thought and thought about this for awhile. With the sky-rocketing teenage pregnancy issue in this country--Oklahoma is right near the top--could reading romances be a better birth control than simply handing young women pills or condoms?

Am I simply delusional or could I have hit on something? If nothing else, I'd love to see young women and men reading more and if they happen to read romances then there truly is the power of love.

What do you all think?

Believable Romantic Resolution

Tami Cowden & Margaret Golla, photo taken by Susan Shay, http://www.susanshay.net/


My epiphany happened roughly at 4:27 PM, 2/14/09 at the very end of Tami Cowden's presentation of the Hero & Heroine Archetypes, including villains.

During the AM session, she hit all the archetypes M & F & V (male, female, villain) and their various attributes. It was interesting to note that many of the villains were simply the dark side of the archetype they represented and had the same characteristics of the 'good' side.
What makes a villain would be a whole other blog, but it was eye opening to say the least.

In the afternoon, she talked about how to put the personality of the character on the page (fodder for another blog) and believable Romantic Resolution. Over the years I tried to write romances, and this was the one thing I never understood. Various people had described it to me as what is the internal conflict that keeps them apart.

I couldn't seem to get it.

It wasn't until Tami pointed out that the H/H archetypes could clash, but when they softened they could be the best counter traits to their partner. It was the clashing of personalities/characterization that provided the internal conflict. *ding, ding, ding* For me, this was the light bulb moment. Yeah, that often cliched line, "You complete me." is actually true.

I know some of you will be thinking, "Well yeah, Margaret, you doof!", but it took Tami Cowden and her archetypes to explain it in a way for me to 'get it'.

What was your most recent light bulb moment?
Write On!

Heroes & Heroines

I. AM. STOKED.
Tami Cowden is coming to town tomorrow. She's presenting a workshop sponsored by my old RWA chapter, Romance Writers Ink. I quit the chapter at the end of last year since the direction of my writing is moving away from romance and is heading toward a different genre, Urban Fantasy. That said, I'd be stupid not to take advantage of her presentation of her 16 master archetypes. Yes, the book is labelled Heroes & Heroines and it seems to be geared toward romance, but, as I've mentioned in other posts, I firmly believe in cross-training. A writer who thinks there is nothing left to learn is not very far sighted (How very PC of me, hm? Normally, I would have said, stupid, but I didn't).
There is ALWAYS something to learn and discover.
I just wish I had time this last week to reread the book. I bought it about seven years ago and read it then, but haven't picked it up since then. *sigh* Isn't that the way it always works?
I did manage to skim through it and there is a buttload of info. Even if you don't write romances, you can still read how your main protagonist will react to other personality types.
Write on!