It’s interesting the way writing gets chopped up and separated into categories. It’s important for readers to be able to find writing they enjoy, and that’s based on the genre; it’s important for publishers to be able to market your masterpiece and therefore need a genre to stick you in.
I say the hell with that. Too often these reasons lead to changes being made in your work in order to market it, or sticking your work into a genre it doesn’t readily fit into.
Cross boarders. Blur lines. Piss people off.
So, if you had to create a brand new genre to put your writing, what would it be? Something that really identifies what you write, not what other people want to label it as.
Weblogs should be a genre itself.
Right now I’m sticking to dark fiction, if that’s a genre. I might dabble in other categories, but right now I am pointing towards what I tend to do most and most naturally.
Dark Marxist fiction?
I agree that genre shouldn’t hold you back. I’m inspired by a lot of horror stories, entranced by Literary fiction, and moved by radical political stories. Often these don’t seem to mix.
Jason, You’re right. I write completely diffrent when doing this blog. (including spelling errors)
Scott, sounds gppd to me. I have a similar style, ‘cept I call it dark literature (instead of fiction).
Ben,
That’s the coolest genre I’ve heard of in years. I say you totally should market your stuff that way.
Unfinished fragments.
I’d corner the market.
I dunno what the hell you would call real world magic. Coincidences, deja vu, hopes met, I love the little things in life that make dreams and nightmares come true.
If the story is good, it will sell. Proven fact, a lot of writers have bended genre rules, done their own thing and been successful in terms of sales.
I don’t worry too much about genre, knowing the audience, writing to suit market trends etc. etc. Makes it all so calculated, doesn’t it? And writing is anything but that.
Good call Bhaswati
Fringes, I dunno…I think you miught have some competition–Me! 😉
Flood, that sounds like my kinds stuff. I’ve talked about Magical realism in a couple classes (not sure if that’s exactly what you meant), but it’s like Rushdie’s Satanic Verses.
Sury,
I totally agree with you. I have a lot of problems with labels (in and out of literature). I know it seems an odd choice, given this, to ask you all to make up NEW genre titles, but my hope was that it would help identify what it is you see in your own work instead of what others would want to label it.
In the end, Sury, you are absolutley right. We don’t need new labels to clutter things up.
A nice collection (that I have featured here months ago) is McSweeny’s Enchanted chamber of Secrets. The intro, by Letham, talks all about blending genres, and in fact, that is what the collection is of.