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[lagilman]

Andrew Wheeler is being Mostly Wise about genres and authorial insecurities and obessions....



(those of you who pay attention already know my feeling about genres, genre-specializing, and genre-identification-obsessing. For those who are new, a summation: stop worrying, and tell me a story)

Comments

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

Muchly agreed.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I hear ya... but I also have reasonable (damnit I think they're reasonable) concerns about marketability and marketing platforms.
You can super-niche-special-whadyne-sub-secret-genre it to death and leave yourself with a handful of indie presses that might tough it...and a scam agent who loves it to death!

...you think I'm obsessing don't you.
Stop that.

[otterdance.livejournal.com]

All writers can do is to write the stories they have in them. I'm not telling you folks to stop obsessing about this -- telling a writer to stop obsessing is like telling a normal person not to think of a pink elephant -- but, instead, to tell those stories your way, and not worry about what they're called. Good luck...and don't think about that pink elephant.

Great advice, and a very apt analogy, at least for me.

[neko-san.livejournal.com]

stop worrying, and tell me a story!

Boo-yay! My feelings exactly. All i was is a good story, i don't give a toss where it's filed.

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Not being in publishing, I don't have Wheeler or your perspective. I am, however, a reader. Genres aren't really for readers either. Genres are for libraries and bookstores. They help separate inventory. Break things into smaller more manageable sections so that they can then have one person over one section, another over another, and then a big person over all of the medium people. If that makes any sense... which I'm sure it doesn't.

Most readers I know, though it could just be those I know, don't go saying "hey I want a bodice ripper romance" or "I want a laser gun filled sci-fi thingy." Most go in saying, I want a good book. Genres often limit readers because bookstores get them locked in those little sections and readers then convince themselves that they are only "classics" readers or only "true-crime" people.

If it didn't make inventory easier by separating it out into sections, I'd say AWAY WITH THEM. As a reader I don't need a genre, I need a good title, a great back copy, and (sad to say, I know) a good cover. (Don't get me started on covers, I know I'm not supposed to judge by them, but shit, it's not hard to create a pretty cover!)

Anyway, that's my half-cent on the subject. Probably I would not have been so opinionated if some jerk had not just railed about the atrocities of romance novels... having of course never read one in his life.