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Lesson 3: Zeroing in on Genre / 1

Lesson 3: Zeroing in on Genre / 1

LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON / 1

LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON GENRE

So we’ve looked and discussed a bit about some of your favorite authors and what makes them genre-specific (or not ). Now let’s look more at genre and begin zereoing in on genre. Truth, Fact or ?

Do you know the difference? When is fact the truth and when is it fiction? When is fiction truer than fact? And how do you deal with these concepts in your writing? In this class, I can (sort of) assume that we are writing some type of and that it’s probably or or , some type of , that umbrella-like term that thankfully allows us to use “SF” which originally meant “science fiction” for now “speculative fiction” a term that encompasses the whole gamut of non-reality writing. What do I mean by “non-reality?” Well, take women’s fiction or some mainstream or western or mystery. Most of that is based in some form of “reality” or that thing that we call reality. It has “real stuff” in it and it not only has real stuff in it, but the litmus test for genre definition is……. Take out that element and if you still have a story, then you really didn’t write that genre story. Does that make sense? I know we’ve talked about this before, but I want to make sure you understand that if you take those ESSENTIAL GENRE ELEMENTS out of the story, the story should fall apart. If it doesn’t fall apart, then you weren’t really writing in that genre, you were just using it as window dressing (or a prop.) So what are essential genre elements?

Let’s get that out of the way right up front. If we are writing a paranormal about a and a witch falling in love (ergo, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness), if we made the vampire a normal, mundane human, would the story still be a paranormal? Eh, yeah cuz we got the witches (but then, it could be a historical). But definitely, there wouldn’t be a romance between a witch and a vampire and so the whole premise and story would fall apart. If I were writing about Napoleon at war with England, like say the Horatio Hornblower series, I’d have a historical. If I added dragons, as Naomi Novik did in her Temeraire series, I’d have a fantasy. If I take out

TROPES, TROLLOPS, & TRUTHS OF SPECULATIVE & PARANORMAL FICTION© by Pat Hauldren LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON GENRE / 2 the dragons, I have a historical. (Assuming the dragons are the essential element, there might be other magical things but we are simplifying for sake of argument.) If I put Napoleon in space battle and I take Napoleon out, I still have a space battle, but it’s sure not the SAME space battle, so that’s still science fiction, but not based on history. If I take the space ships out of it and put it on Earth, then it’s historical (or or some such). We discussed some essential elements for genre fiction before: Science fiction must rely on science/technology. It can be how it changes people (I hope it is LOL) and so on, but if you take out the science/tech, then it is no longer an SF genre book. Space ships, time travel, space suits, technology, science, scientists, geneticists, (any science that is considered “hard” like physics is hard science fiction, “soft” science fiction are the soft sciences like social and cultural sciences). Tropes include robots, androids, doomsday machines, resurrecting using science, machines, nanotechnology, etc. Fantasy relies on fantastical elements. Those things deemed “unreal.” (Some people might believe them LOL). Can include paranormal creatures, but usually in a more fantastical way. Lines blur here, so it’s hard to draw one, but normally not using paranormal creatures or not all creatures of paranormal types. , kings, queens, royalty, serfs, middle earth, golems, wands, magic ball, psy abilities, , , gods, religions, monsters, dragons, etc. Romance relies on romance and on the fringe, relationships. HEA, not HEA, two fight against each other, forced pairing goes wrong, finding your true love, not finding your true love, soft porn, and so on. Western relies on the “wild west” era (a very small era) in American history. Guns, rifles, horses, log cabins, cast iron skillets, wagon trains, Indians, duels, whiskey, saloon, cowboys, ranches, oil (maybe), watering hole, saddles, cowboy hats, dandy, carpetbagger, and so on. Horror relies on horrific elements and sometimes they might share elements with fantasy or other , but the question is, is the intent of those essential elements to shock, scare, freak out, or otherwise generate “horror” in the reader? Horror used to be lumped in with fantasy/SF, but it’s come into its own as a genre and how it’s marketed will determine a lot. Scary situations, dark rooms, caverns, lost, maps, hunts, can be science gone wrong, psy abilities (think Carrie LOL), , zombies, apocalypse, and so on. Paranormal depends on fantastical elements of certain types and is usually, but not always, contemporary in . , witches, , sprites, fairies, gnomes, spells, wands, amulets, mirrors, potions, psy abilities, blood memory, buried alive, coffins, graveyards, ghosts, spirits, and so on. Most of these types will be marketed as paranormal instead of fantasy nowadays.

TROPES, TROLLOPS, & TRUTHS OF SPECULATIVE & PARANORMAL FICTION© by Pat Hauldren LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON GENRE / 3

Mystery can be a pure mystery, a crime drama like a murder, a medical mystery, it all involves figuring something out using clues. Police, detectives, murder, blood, knives, weapons, snoops, crime sleuths (think Sherlock), secret wills, secret doors, kidnapping, and so on. And we talked about how these main genres can blend together, often call bleedovers, to form subgenres and sometimes it’s difficult to know just where to shelve them in our mind. But happily or unhappily we don’t usually have to worry about that. I just returned from Fencon, a local science fiction convention in Dallas, and there was much talk about how ebooks and classification freedoms of ebooks may (and are) changing how books are electronically “shelved.” Bookstores have physical space. They want their buyers to enter the store and know where to go. A lost potential buyer is lost revenue, not just for the bookstore, but the publisher and the author as well. So it behooves us as authors to know our genres and understand them. However, Amazon and its ilk are changing the face of genre classification. There will still be science fiction, but now, you can narrow your search even further, adding parameters to the equation Amazon’s system uses to categorize your . If you write romantic , for instance, maybe it’s even a romantic suspense crime novel, or romantic suspense with historical elements. So I don’t want to beat a horse dead with genre, but it’s what it’s all about. Now, let’s move on specifics in defining genre and ask ourselves if we have these in our writing? When we look at essential genre elements, they will be of specific story constructs: 1. SETTING 2. CHARACTER 3. POV 4. PERSON 5. RELATIONSHIP 6. SCOPE 7. These are not in any particular order and there might be more, but we’ll start with these. Let’s look at the sub- genre of and see how they fit in.

SUB-GENRE = HIGH FANTASY When we think of high fantasy, think of royalty and middle earth and power and lower technology and culture like Game of Thrones, like Lord of the Rings, and many more.

Elements of High Fantasy High fantasy is defined as fantasy fiction set in an alternative, entirely fictional ("secondary") world, rather than the real, or "primary" world.

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The secondary world is usually internally consistent but its rules differ in some way(s) from those of the primary world. By contrast, is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements. i SETTING There are basically 3 subtypes of high fantasyii: 1. Setting—primary world does not exist (ie no Earth) and that covers stories like Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc. 2. Setting—2ndary / parallel world(s) entered through a portal from the primary world (Alice in Wonderland, The Chonicles of Narnia, Xanth, The Dark Tower, etc.) 3. Setting—a distinct world-within-a-word as part of the primary world (Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, etc.) We can tell, obviously, that setting is an important element in high/epic fantasy. SCOPE This is one element of high/epic fantasy that all share: a BIG scope, or world (you could say setting). Like Game of Thrones, there’s a huge world of various people all vying for something, mostly to survive, or for power, whatever, but they all have their own agendas, big and small. GoT is a BIG struggle of survival, against evil forces of some type, usually (cuz mundane forces would be boring LOL.) MAPS

TROPES, TROLLOPS, & TRUTHS OF SPECULATIVE & PARANORMAL FICTION© by Pat Hauldren LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON GENRE / 5

Game of Thrones Full World Map from ThinkGeek. This is a map you can purchase that measures 24” x 36” See http://www.geekalerts.com/game-of-thrones-full-world-map/ for details. Also a part of setting. Maps are one of my favorite parts of fantasy books and it doesn’t have to be a high/epic fantasy to have maps, but most high/epic do have maps. High fantasy worlds may be more or less closely based on real world milieux, or on legends such as the Arthurian Cycle. When the resemblance is strong, particularly when real-world history is used, high fantasy shades into alternative history. CHARACTERS

Most, but definitely not all, high fantasy storylines are told from one point of view, the hero. The hero is often the underdog, like an orphan or unusual sibling with an extraordinary talent for magic or combat. Usually the story begins when the hero/ine is very young (Eon, The of Drizzt, Riftwar , The Darkangel Trilogy, etc.) Some typical characteristics of high fantasy include fantastical elements such as elves, fairies, dwarves, dragons, demons, magic or sorcery, wizards or magicians, constructed languages, , coming-of- age themes, and multi-volume .

TROPES, TROLLOPS, & TRUTHS OF SPECULATIVE & PARANORMAL FICTION© by Pat Hauldren LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON GENRE / 6

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. “ ~Introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell, summarizing the monomyth.

Most high/epic fantasies follow Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces, using the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies. (This book by Joseph Campbell and Christopher Volger’s (and easier to read) The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. In my humble opinion, and in the opinion of many, many other writers of any genre, Campbell’s books are a must read. Here is a PDF of Cambell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. But if you’re like me, you’ll want to read it over and over again and make notes in the margins and put sticky notes on the pages. It’s one of the bibles of writing, period. Even George Lucas used Campbell’s monomyth theory in the making of his movies, esp. Star Wars. Bill Moyers interviewed Campbell on Lucas’ ranch (Skywalker Ranch) in 1988. THEME The theme is usually tied in with the setting, characters, milieu, and other genre and sub-genre tropes or elements. In Epic fantasies, the theme is almost always good vs evil. The importance of the concepts of good and evil can be regarded as the distinguishing mark between high fantasy and . In many works of high fantasy, this conflict marks a deep concern with issues; in other works, the conflict is a power struggle. In some works, as in large parts of Jordan's The Wheel of Time, the struggle between good and evil is mainly used as a backdrop for more intricate conflicts of interest, such as conflicts between different factions formally on the same side in the good vs. evil conflict. Recent fantasy have begun to depart from the more common good vs evil background that became prevalent after Lord of the Rings. Prominently, George R. R. Martin's acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire series more or less abandons the good-evil paradigm in favor of a more politically based and multifaceted struggle between different ruling families, most of whom display both good and evil tendencies in pursuit of power, which takes the place of the main catalyst of the story. Although several characters who have a civilized, trustworthy guise do perform terrible acts of cruelty marking them as morally degenerate, their intentions are not necessarily "evil". Often the will try to convince the hero either a) the villain is not in fact evil like the hero thinks he is, b) the hero is actually the evil/immoral one, c) the mentor character has been using the hero's special qualities for his own ends and does not really care about him/her. Most of these arguments will be followed up by a conversion attempt, with promises of redemption for supposed misdeeds or glory, riches and power. iii RELATIONSHIP In this case, relationships may or may not be a major element, and for this reason, relationships are not considered a major element in the High-Fantasy series.

TROPES, TROLLOPS, & TRUTHS OF SPECULATIVE & PARANORMAL FICTION© by Pat Hauldren LESSON 3: ZEROING IN ON GENRE / 7

Discussion:

Look at the list of specific story constructs (1-7) and share with us how your story fits into these constructs for your genre (main genre, you don’t have to do sub/genres unless they are part of the story constructs listed).

Extra credit—Tell me the difference in terms between these two images:

……………………….

(Your probably wondering where the trollops are. We’ll get to those very soon. )

i Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces ii Nikki Gamble: Exploring children’s Literature, SAGE Publications, pp 1-2-103 iii Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy

TROPES, TROLLOPS, & TRUTHS OF SPECULATIVE & PARANORMAL FICTION© by Pat Hauldren

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