August Deep Dive - Why your genre
Thoughts from August 1st's newsletter - if you're subscribed, free or paid, you've already read this. But, I figure it's nice to have as a separate blog post, for people who are just interested in the topic.
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I’ve been thinking about this since pretty intensely since a friend asked me on Substack in the last week of July. I think I landed on a good way to break this down. When I answered, my thoughts wound up making my reply fairly long, and I'm still thinking about it, so now I ask you — why your genre?
I like to think of genre as differently painted houses, or cars on the highway, where the street or the highway are our access to the information being presented, and the houses or cars are the stories involved. The paint, make, and model inform the story inside, and create an identity and a flavor to the core inside. The story is what's driving the narrative — what makes it run, or feels like a familiar space — but the genre gives it a flair.
Tina (who asked me this question originally — if you aren't aware of her, check her out here ) referred to herself as a literary omnivore. I love that term, and I’d probably point towards being one as a reader, myself. I read anything that catches my eye and sounds interesting, so long as the story grips me. The story is the most important thing.
That being said, I write almost exclusively horror and dark fantasy. I’ve written one paranormal romance, as well, but I am most comfortable and thrive in the genres that expect you to explore the uncomfortable. Even my romance ventures have elements that thrive in my horror and dark fantasy — told from the point of view of someone who would likely be considered a villain, or the main character is systemically at a disadvantage in their station.
So, this question —Why your genre?— got me thinking about this in-depth. Why do I choose horror and dark fantasy, when I read anything from cozy romance to extreme horror? Why do I gravitate towards supernatural characters and depictions from the point of view of an 'other', and why do I choose these lenses for it?
I think I have two reasons for this—
The first reason is that as a society, we make it nearly impossible to talk about the uncomfortable things.
The things that unsettle us.
The things that make us grieve.
That scare us.
That make us rail against the injustice of the world. The things that we know are wrong, but we turn a blind eye to because to acknowledge them means that we are either in part complicit, or need to take responsibility and stand up. As a direct result, these difficult topics are harder to handle and navigate when we ARE faced with the in-real-life equivalent.
The dark genres don’t allow the uncomfortable things to hide. They shine a microscope on them, but also make it so that we CAN explore the uncomfortable in a safe and therefore empowering environment— that we can face the things that bind us or block us and figure out what to actually do about it. By traveling along with the characters through their misfortune or trials, we learn as they learn without actually facing the peril of claws or teeth.
My second reason for writing my genres — horror, dark fantasy, supernatural romance — is seeing the unseen and making them known. I write a lot of things from the monster or the undesirable entity’s POV to show where their humanity lies. Monsters are often an allegory for an ‘other’, something we don’t understand and thus fear. But, if we can understand something as terrifying and undesirable as a monster, then how can we not understand something adjacent to us like another human? How do we let our biases drive us when we don’t think about it? Shining a spotlight on the unseen ultimately helps us broaden our minds.
Ultimately, genre is just the vehicle in which we choose to tell our stories, but some genres fit some topics better than others. And, I think that’s why I ultimately consume wide but create narrowly. So, if you're a writer, what about you? Why your genre?
