• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Do i need to classify my writing at all?

Tanihatu

Scribe
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 ;)
 

Mythopoet

Auror
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.


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.
 
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.)
 

Steerpike

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

JRFLynn

Sage
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 :)
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
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.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
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?
 

MVV

Scribe
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.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
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?
 

MVV

Scribe
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.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
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.
 
Last edited:

MVV

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

Tanihatu

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

As ever you guys have put my mind at ease!
 
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.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
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.
 
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.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
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.
 
Top