# Do i need to classify my writing at all?



## Tanihatu (Jan 16, 2014)

Fellow Mythic Scribers

Just something that is niggling at me as i write.

When i choose to read fiction i generally wander over to the fantasy and Sci-Fi section. This is where i find the most interesting stories, characters, creatures etc. I read for escapism and i tend to watch programmes or movies of a similar ilk.

When i decided to turn my hand to writing stories (admittedly for my own pleasure at the moment) i thought, write what you know and enjoy.

However, i find myself conjuring up characters, settings and stories but can i classify them as fantasy or scifi.....or do i need to? Are there key elements that should be included?

One story i am playing around with is set in the future and has a few spaceships etc. There is no detail of groundbreaking technology or aliens of any description really. Is this Sci-fi?

Another involves an imaginary land but the characters are very much human. Not a dwarf, elf or orc in sight. No magic really or fire breathing dragons. Can i still class it as fantasy?

I think i know the answer in that the story is what matters but would be interested to hear opinion. I feel i am very much cleansed anyway now after posting this! Panic almost over


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## Mythopoet (Jan 16, 2014)

Tanihatu said:


> One story i am playing around with is set in the future and has a few spaceships etc. There is no detail of groundbreaking technology or aliens of any description really. Is this Sci-fi?



Yes.




Tanihatu said:


> Another involves an imaginary land but the characters are very much human. Not a dwarf, elf or orc in sight. No magic really or fire breathing dragons. Can i still class it as fantasy?



Yes.


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## Feo Takahari (Jan 16, 2014)

Tanihatu said:


> However, i find myself conjuring up characters, settings and stories but can i classify them as fantasy or scifi.....or do i need to? Are there key elements that should be included?



Beware of people who say you're not really writing an [X] if you don't have a [Y], unless [X] and [Y] are the same thing. This goes beyond science fiction and fantasy--you can still write a romance that lacks most romance conventions, for instance--but science fiction has a particularly large and stable market for writers who aren't just blindly doing what everyone else is doing, and fantasy has plenty of room for variation (particularly if you go indie.)


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## Tanihatu (Jan 16, 2014)

Concise Mythopoet  Thank you


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## Steerpike (Jan 16, 2014)

Fantasy covers a lot of territory. There are fantasy novels without mythical creatures, or even magic.


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## JRFLynn (Jan 16, 2014)

Write whatever you want! The story itself is more important than meeting A,B,C criteria. It would be rather scary if everyone did that, not to mention booooring


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## A. E. Lowan (Jan 16, 2014)

Don't worry about exactly what genre/sub-genre you're working in at this very early stage.  Just write the story. Things can shift and develop during the writing process.  When you're done is when you get to sit back and try to figure out the specifics of marketing.


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## Penpilot (Jan 16, 2014)

I wouldn't worry about fitting your writing into a box, just write it and have fun. Down the road, I'm sure there will be plenty of people around to tell you which box your writing fits, if it fits at all. 

Think about Star Wars. Is it Sci-Fi or is it Fantasy? It's got space ships and ray guns, but it also has magic, so it's Science Fantasy.  Does that make things more complicated for you?


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## MVV (Jan 16, 2014)

First, I don't think you have to worry about classifying at all. Write what you find interesting and that's all you need to do. Eventually, it's the readers' and reviewers' job to do the classifying even though writers often disagree with the labels they are given.

Second, there are so many subgenres of both sci-fi and fantasy that you quite possibly fit into one or more even though your stories may seem non-typical. For example, socalled 'low fantasy' is basically about imaginary lands without too much magic (or no magic at all) and without too many magical creatures. So, if you want, you might label your fantasy story as low fantasy even though there are also other things typical for this subgenre.


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## A. E. Lowan (Jan 16, 2014)

MVV said:


> First, I don't think you have to worry about classifying at all. Write what you find interesting and that's all you need to do. Eventually, it's the readers' and reviewers' job to do the classifying even though writers often disagree with the labels they are given.



Not sure where you got this idea from, MVV.  Would you care to elaborate?


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## MVV (Jan 16, 2014)

A. E. Lowan said:


> Not sure where you got this idea from, MVV.  Would you care to elaborate?



Well, the examples are quite many. At least from what I know. There are many subgenres and labels that just don't make authors happy. Many authors just don't feel like fitting into a simple category. Also, saying (as a random example) that this and this book is [another] vampire romance (or I don't know what) doesn't make the book look very interesting. Precise categories make the books look all the same or very similiar.


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## A. E. Lowan (Jan 16, 2014)

MVV said:


> Well, the examples are quite many. At least from what I know. There are many subgenres and labels that just don't make authors happy. Many authors just don't feel like fitting into a simple category. Also, saying (as a random example) that this and this book is [another] vampire romance (or I don't know what) doesn't make the book look very interesting. Precise categories make the books look all the same or very similiar.



It sounds to me like you may be confusing what happens at the marketing stage with what happens after a book gets into the hands of readers.  Readers can say a book is whatever genre they like, but it's up to the author, and ultimately the publisher (if the author does not self-publish) to determine what genre to market a book as.  Genres used to mean more in the days when most book sales happened in brick-and-mortar stores and figuring out where to place a book on the shelves was crucial, but since the Kindle Revolution genre has become a bit more flexible and cross-genre books have become more prevalent.  This does not mean that authors can ignore genre, as they need to know how to market their work to readers/agents/publishers.


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## MVV (Jan 16, 2014)

OK. I guess you're right. I actually didn't think about the whole marketing process but about what's going on after that.


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## psychotick (Jan 16, 2014)

Hi,

You don't classify your work for yourself, you do it so that readers know what your works about and can find it when they browse. And yeah the genres get a little bit of a hammeringand bleed into one another, especially in these indie days. Just write your work and worry about what genre it is when you come to publishing.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Tanihatu (Jan 17, 2014)

Thanks everyone. The original post was a bit of a panic/rant.

As ever you guys have put my mind at ease!


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## The Dark One (Jan 17, 2014)

Mainstream publishers (in my country at least) still want you to be pretty clear about what you're submitting and where it fits, because they believe readers are very siloed in their tastes. (I am told this all the time by agents.)

My work has always defied genre, which gave me headaches in the past - trying to interest professionals in it. The closest writer I can think of (in terms of genre spanning) would be Vonnegut. His best work was set in the here and now with big dollops of sci-fi high concept mixed in and leavened with humour. My first two books were like that and I got constant feedback from agents and publishers saying: it's well written...but what is it exactly? Who's going to buy it?

My next two books both got published, and while they still (I think) defy genre, they've been classified for me as 'offbeat' crime. Mind you, there  are some people who've told me they're not crime because they don't have enough of the trad crime elements in them...whatever those are.

So, I guess my point is, in my view, commercial publishers and agents still care about what genre in which to market your book, but if you get it out yourself you'll at least have to alert an identifiable reading subculture about the book's suitability to their taste. You can't effectively market to groups of one without infinite time and patience.


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## Caged Maiden (Jan 17, 2014)

I struggle with genre, too.  I wrote a series I can call fantasy because there are dragons, elves, magic, etc.  but my WiP is set in an alternate earth, though it lacks some of the societal conventions of our true history.  No magic, no creatures, but still, I call it fantasy... much like I'd probably call Assassin's Creed a version of fantasy.  It isn't exactly historical, but based off history?  Confusing.  I'm glad to let someone else who has more experience sort it out.


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## Ireth (Jan 17, 2014)

Caged Maiden said:


> It isn't exactly historical, but based off history?  Confusing.



I'd be more likely to call that historical fiction.


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## The Dark One (Jan 17, 2014)

Historical fiction must have elements of real history in it - as opposed to the many fantasy books set in a quasi-medieval culture.

I would suggest also that once you introduce magic to a real historical setting, it is no longer historical fiction. One of my several WIP is a retelling of a major historical event, using fictional and historical characters. One major subplot is vaguely fantastical (involving a druid fighting, she believes, a war of gods) but there are potentially realistic explanations for everything she does.

I think it just stays just this side of historical fiction without quite slipping into fantasy.


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## Caged Maiden (Jan 17, 2014)

Yeah, for me, the confusion comes in because it's 50% romance and 50% spy games.  It's a love story and a mystery... all wrapped up in an alternate Venice, where two religions (not similar to Christianity) fight for superiority.  So for me, historical fiction is just going to be a disappointment to readers who expect an amount of real world in their story.  I have no magic or creatures, but I'm hesitant to market this as either a mystery (which it definitely isn't) or a romance, which will disappoint readers who expect  certain amount of graphic sex to their story.  I'm not sure where it fits except that it's just the sort of thing I read and I read a book very similar published by Ellen Kushner, which leaned more toward romance and I believe it was published as a romance.  Both romance and women's fiction repel me though as marketing strategies because most of my readers have been men so fr and I believe it's too limiting to expect women alone to enjoy this story. I'd rather market it as fantasy and include information in the blurb that will let a reader know it isn't sorcerers and dragons fantasy.  Tricky.


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## A. E. Lowan (Jan 18, 2014)

Here's a question I've been running into the past couple of weeks - what is the difference between urban fantasy and paranormal?  Is there a difference?


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## buyjupiter (Jan 18, 2014)

A. E. Lowan said:


> Here's a question I've been running into the past couple of weeks - what is the difference between urban fantasy and paranormal?  Is there a difference?



Urban Fantasy would include _The Dresden Files_, while "Paranormal" screams out to have "romance" follow it. I've seen Laurell K. Hamilton's classified either way, depending upon which series you're talking about (Merry Gentry would probably fall more in the Paranormal side of things, while Anita Blake might fall more on the Urban Fantasy side of things). Sookie Stackhouse would be paranormal as well.

I would say a better definition would be Urban Fantasy happens within urban environments, it can have romantic elements in it but doesn't have to include them, and does not primarily feature werewolves/vampires/Fae.

Most people use the terms interchangeably, I've found.


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## wordwalker (Jan 20, 2014)

These days they amount to the same thing, although Paranormal also includes the ghost/demon/psychic side of the genre that's verging on horror. But really they've become half taken over by "Paranormal Romance" to various degrees.

All highly subjective anyway: what's one person going to call something, what's a reader going to infer from it?


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