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Q&A

Posts tagged genre

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Q&A What genre would a fictional eyewitness account of a real historical event fall under?

I've written a short story about a true historical incident which involves a very famous person in history. The incident is true as are the people involved in it. But the story is a fictional eyewi...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by srini‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Baker‭

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Q&A What determines genre?

Is the "genre" a piece of fiction belongs to determined by the author, or by the editor and publishing house? Is there an established definition for each genre, or is it largely ad hoc? I ask bec...

6 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Zayne S Halsall‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Baker‭

Question publishing genre
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Q&A Story that's too depressing?

(Warning, mention of sexual abuse!!) In the near future where humans have polluted and radiated the Earth so much that animals and plants have been going extinct at alarming rates and humans thems...

10 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to avoid drifting into a different genre?

My intention is to write a novel that falls into the "contemporary fiction" genre. Also, maybe, the "family drama" subgenre, if such a thing exists. I have a plot point that puts one of my characte...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by iamtowrite‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre
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Q&A How do I avoid the "chosen hero" feeling?

In many works of genre-fiction (I'm talking mainly about fantasy and sci-fi, but others genres can apply), and across many forms of media, the main characters ends up being special in some ways. M...

10 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are the standard genre characteristics of contemporary women's fantasy [closed]

I want to write a fantasy novel with a female protagonist, and I want to familiarize myself with reader expectations. Is there still a tradition of (medieval-type) fantasy by and for women, and wha...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Sorry for that‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre fantasy
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Q&A Can You Mix Readers of Fantasy and Sci-Fi?

In his book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Orson Scott Card mentions the differences between fantasy and sci-fi readers, and even says that an author should stick to only one genre, as t...

5 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Thomas Myron‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there any risk of being published in the wrong genre?

From this question: However, unless you're an established author, you don't have the luxury of declaring your work to be fantasy or science fiction like Fowler does; someone else has to do that...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Summer‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question publishing genre
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Q&A How to call sub-genre of my fantasy?

For my own needs I write fantasy. But at this time I am not sure what genre it is. Base of that world is probably classic fantasy, because there are: unicorns dragons gods magic lycanthrops othe...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by Václav‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre fantasy
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Q&A What is the "acid test" for a nonfiction anthology?

I'm asking this on Writing.SE because I'm doing a short presentation on "What is an anthology," and I'm not sure how to answer the question "Why is X an anthology and Y is not?" Merriam Webster de...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by RJo‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A YA novel with old protagonist?

Edit: There have been a few very good answers and comments. The feedback I've got so far has made me question whether I'm even going into the right direction with my story. I felt like the themes ...

3 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by MadMonkey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A In modern writing is there a a significant difference between satire and parody?

Are there significant differences between satire and parody? Can you provide examples of the difference? Do you know of a book which is considered satire; one which is considered parody?

1 answer  ·  posted 9y ago by raddevus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre style
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Q&A What are the Criteria that Distinguish a Thriller from Horror?

The criteria that come to mind are not exclusive to horror novels, so I'm a little confused and annoyed (annoyed because I find horror novels scary, and yet just cannot define it logically when I t...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by user3422153‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Writing Across Multiple Genres

My current novel is of the satire/humour genre. Another novel that is currently in the works is still humorous, but is more of a fantasy novel. A third novel that I am currently working on - I li...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by M.Y. David‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre
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Q&A Is my serial-killer novel horror or crime?

I'm writing a novel which centers around a serial killer and his victims. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding whether it belongs in the horror genre (it's a disturbing, horrific slasher, and a lot...

2 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre crime horror
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Q&A Can we enable readers to connect to far future humanity, without pretending they wouldn’t be different?

Everything about our culture has changed so dramatically over the course of the last hundred years that it’s very hard to believe that we’d be the same as we are now in five hundred years. This is...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by CLockeWork‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A At what point can a story be considered "erotic"?

I would like to ask for any guidelines that could help to determine when a story can be considered "erotic". Is it based on the words, the number of scenes or on how detailed they are? Shortly, if ...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Stefan Weiss‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre categories
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Q&A Is there an alternative to the common genre-system for classifying books?

When fiction is marketed, I often see them listed by genre, for e.g.: "fantasy", "science fiction", "mystery", "poetry", etc. Most bookstores and Web sites use essentially the same categories to cl...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Village‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre
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Q&A How to tell a story with the least amount of writing?

I love to invent stories and come up with ideas, but I don't have the patience to fill out all the details that is usually a part of a novel. (For those of you familiar with Myers-Briggs or Jungian...

1 answer  ·  posted 11y ago by erikric‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is writing a light read or "chick lit" a good option for an aspiring literary fiction author?

I live in India and here light reads and "chick lit" have made a great impression. The youth are picking up such books like petrol on fire. Even non-readers are giving reading these genres a try. T...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by J A Tagala‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre
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Q&A What is the name of the genre of stories with multiple realities?

The movie "Sucker Punch" and the "Once Upon a time" series make it hard to distinguish what state of reality is the "real" one (not that it matters). In "Fixing the Shadow" we encountered a charac...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Arjang‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre fantasy
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Q&A What is the most important characteristic of New Weird as a genre?

Recently I've stumbled across China Miéville's novels. Apparently, they fit in a genre called Weird Fiction, or to be even more specific New Weird, where the "new" is used to distinguish new writer...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre
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Q&A The unknown and unexplained in science fiction

Science fiction has been defined as a genre where the "incredible" elements are "recognizable as not-true, but also as not-unlike-true, not-flatly- (and in the current state of knowledge) impossibl...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are some good historical sources for writing medieval battles?

This question popped into my mind after criticizing the strategic choices in a recent episode of a famous fantasy television show (coffs). A lot of genre fiction (mostly fantasy, even if we may ca...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What should tie a collection of short-stories together?

Short-stories are a nice format to write. If you have been an aspiring writer for at least one year, it's quite probabile that you've got at least three short stories drafted out, sitting in some d...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Fictional races and fictional racism

Possibly related questions: Should I add racism in my book's world or have my world have no racism? Is accurate human nature required for good writing, even in fantasy scenarios, or with fictiona...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Monsters of psychological horror

According to Wikipedia, psychological horror is Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction that relies on mental, emotional and psychological states to frighten, dis...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is genre ever relevant to the writing process?

I'm a strong believer in genre being largely a thing that's used for marketing, an easy shorthand for book stores to know where to place your book and sell it better. It's also, unfortunately, a sh...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Matthew Dave‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre process
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Q&A Can I bring back Planetary Romance as a genre?

This question is about genre and reader expectations. I'm not trying to change my story to fit a mainstream genre. I have already taken steps to broaden it's appeal, but it's too late to create an ...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by wetcircuit‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Rewriting User Guides as Stories

I'm increasingly having to write User Guides as part of my job and I need routes to make this into a more interesting exercise. Hence, I was actually looking for something completely different whe...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by robertcday‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Mixing humour with horror in fiction

I got into trouble last year for submitting an assignment (Masters in Creative Writing) that included a story that sprinkled elements of humour (think Despicable Me) into a gritty and frankly distu...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by robertcday‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where's the middle ground between genre conventions and originality?

I've long been interested in writing a fantasy novel. Over the countless iterations I've gone through, one thing has remained clear: a quest for originality. I know some people like the fantasy c...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Thomas Myron‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it a bad idea to mix psychological horror with action?

foreword: I'm writing for a game, however it's (mostly) irrelevant to my question. Just FYI. I have three main characters in my story. One is a weak but smart child and the other two are trained m...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by noClue‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre videogame
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Q&A Working with hints/clues - Show vs Tell vs Nothing -ish

This is about the hints that the readers should notice as the story progresses - and should definitely notice upon re-read. First off, I looked around for a bit and didn't see any questions on th...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by storbror‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A A question on the ambiguity of the Alternate History genre

Say I am writing a (mostly) realistic fiction book. The entirety of said work is mostly what a person would expect from realistic fiction with the world being almost entirely similar to our own, po...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by TotallyN0tABot‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a difference between historical fiction and creative non-fiction?

I have seen two similar terms, historical fiction and creative non-fiction. I'm writing some stories that are set during a real time in history, that might mention real events, real people, but tha...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Village‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a way to break genre expectations successfully?

Premise: I believe that breaking genre expectations can alienate readers. If you go into a book expecting one thing and get another thing out of it - especially if that other thing is the complete ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Thomas Myron‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre readers
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Q&A Is time travel science fiction or fantasy?

The line between science fiction and fantasy is often blurred. And that's okay. Genre is often more about marketing than anything else. As a general rule though: SciFi has science and technology...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Cyn‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A A question on determining audience

I'm taking a writing course and the biggest challenge I'm facing is figuring out my audience — particularly for something I have written where I didn't have an audience in mind. Some topics or styl...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by L.Jeanne‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it bad if I don't like the "best" books in my chosen genre?

(This question is about reading but it pertains to writing as well). I write fantasy, and as a result, I've read a lot of fantasy books that are supposedly the "best," that are beloved by all fant...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by souzan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre fantasy
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Q&A What is a fiction story called, which is larger than a short story, but smaller than a novel?

Imagine I write a work of fiction, which is larger than 10.000 words (short story), but smaller than 80.000 words (novel). The external genre is thriller, the internal one -- disillusionment plot. ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Franz Drollig‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What is genre, and why should we care?

Here I came upon an argument about whether a particular grouping is a genre, or a marketing term. Which made me wonder - what is genre? How strict is this taxonomy, and what purpose does it serve? ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre
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Q&A The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction

The modern world has few true mysteries, among them the fate of the Roanoke colonists and the crew of the Mary Celeste but do such happenings have a place in futuristic settings? In settings with ...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Ash‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A When does something become "torture porn"?

I've heard this term thrown around sometimes in a derisive way (obviously), and usually not just to refer to Saw movies. I don't remember who it was, but I remember someone saying how the movie "Lo...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by noClue‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre narrative
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Q&A How do I write alternate history?

I plan to write an alternate history story that eventually leads to Texas taking up most of the area that otherwise would have been the USA. It starts with the European side of things, in particula...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Caters‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre technique style
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Q&A How do I ratchet down expectations in a genre that seems to have gone gonzo?

I've done worldbuilding and extensive plotting for a Book 1 based around a "detective" (not a literal detective but someone who fills that role) who hunts and resolves (neutralizes) occult object...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by wetcircuit‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do romances need to have a happy ending?

Is a book labelled "romance" expected to a have a happy ending? I've heard advice that "romance" novels are meant to satisfy, well, a desire for romance, and so an ending without a "happily ever ...

4 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question genre ending romance
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Q&A How little "fantasy" can be in a story and it still be recognizably fantasy?

How little "fantasy" can be in a story and it still be recognizably fantasy, and not mainstream fiction? The "recognizable fantasy" question is one I struggle with all the time. Fantasy exists on...

5 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre fantasy
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Q&A Should you read your own genre?

In terms of novel writing, I tend to avoid my own genre, at least for the most part. Some of the reasons why: Genre Blindness / Genre Trap: Too much reading of your own genre blinds you to the tr...

4 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Panda‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What is Literary Fiction?

I keep hearing about literary fiction, and how it is so much better than genre fiction. What exactly is literary fiction?

6 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Elizabeth Schechter‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭