If the NaNoWriMo story I’m currently planning is ever bought (and written 
), I’m thinking it will be labeled as Young Adult, Fantasy, or both. The protagonist of the story is a boy around the age of 12 and the story is going to have “fantasy elements”. There will also be little swearing and no “sexual situations”. For these reasons I imagine it will be labeled Young Adult, or Teen, or whatever.
When I’m writing this book, though, I don’t plan on dumbing down the words I choose, nor the themes or scenes in the book. Really, I’m just writing a book I would want to read, and this is what’s coming out.
My question is this: At what point (if ever) do you consider genre when you’re writing a story? The first draft? After a few edits. I’m not too worried about it, but I was curius as to what other writers are doing out there.
Filed under: Writing | Tagged: fiction writing, genre, NaNoWriMo
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Hi.
I am new to your blog. Actually, I just discovered it two minutes ago. I have a similar procrastination problem when when it comes to my writing, so I thought I would comment about this little dilemma that you currently have.
Honestly, I usually consider my genre before I write so I have a vague idea of where I want to go. However, there are times when I just write and then say, “Oh! This fits that genre.” It is really, very hit and miss.
If you are ever going to visit my blog, I have two, my personal, and my writing blog. The writing blog is going to be up soon. I’ll leave my url’s later, once I fix my writing blog.
CurbxStomp
aka Dragonfly
I usually consider genre before I write, when I’m in the planning stage, but I try not to get too hung up on it. If the story takes me somewhere else, I go with it. But I find it does help to have an idea ahead of time, just as a guide. Sometimes things don’t always have a clear genre going in, but I’ll kind of back my way into one as the story progresses. Those are the times you just throw genre rules out the window and write what you want and it gets where it’s going eventually. Those are the really fun times.
Before. Knowing the genre helps set the world in the rough draft. I’m actually debating with myself these days about how to tell a short story that I am working on. It would more naturally fit in sci-fi/dystopia type of setting but I think it might be more fun to tell it in a fantasy world. We’ll see who wins.
Good luck with NaNo.
For my NaNo, I knew basically what genre it was going to be before I even started writing notes. I didn’t choose a genre and plan with that in mind, but I can see an obvious genre emerging as I work out the story in my head.
The genre isn’t written in stone, though. If I happen to cross over into another genre while writing, that’s fine with me.
I don’t really consider genre – I just grab whatever makes sense for the story but generally that seems to wind up with some kind of fantastical elements. I think keeping too much of an eye on genre while you write can lead to writing by formula.
Well, having NOT (yet??!) written a lengthy story at all, my gut reaction to this question was this.
I would NOT choose a genre. I would just write the story I feel like writing, what’s waiting impatiently to let out of my head, if there’s such a story. And/or I would just siply write a story I would like to read…
Perhaps choosing a genre helps the writer in a way that s/he has guidelines to attach to…If those are helpful, selecting a genre is helpful, too.
I think the story idea comes and the genre naturally follows. This is something I have been wondering about with my novel, since it has a teenage protagonist. Will it be considered a young adult novel? That’s OK by me. This morning I was looking at length averages for novels and thinking of adding more voices into the narrative, those of her mother and father, and possibly another character. This might flesh out the novel’s plot a lot, but might also change the genre. Interesting.
kf
Thanks for all the thoughts everybody. I knew you all would have an opinion. I personally don’t like labels on things, so I don’t pay too much attention to genre.
I never consider genre, but it always ends up literary fiction. I’ve tried several genres but it never works out.