I have been meeting with a writing group over the last few months. Each of us has a varied amount of experience and skill. When we started the group we introduced ourselves and stated what type of novel or what genre we are writing. I normally start with “Not a Romance.” Then I go on to say other things about the novel that I am so diligently working towards completion. Curiously, I thought that writing this blog entry and not writing my novel still defines ‘diligent’. That may point to the irony of this blog entry in its entirety.
Now, I have tried to clarify the genre of my novel, taking into account that it will need to be marketed. The genre helps to establish where it will be placed on the bookshelf in the store and how to sell the book to potential buyers, if not readers as well. The genre is an all encompassing tool for the sales-folk. I am not writing an allegory, apologue (although that sounds fun) or a traditional adventure with questing and what-not. Nope, this story has a comfortable milleu with uncomfortable and sometimes horrific situations. Struggle. Death. Supernatural Influence. These are all things the protagonist must deal with. Still, I wonder where to ply my genre label. Is it a crime, mystery, or horror? I wasn’t sure how to make the choice. But, it is most certainly not a romance. In my need to research, I looked up a list of genre to help me make my decision. What a mistake. It is insane the number of fiction genre that are out there. I mean come on, Mathematical Fiction cannot be a real genre. In fact that hardly makes sense anyway. It is like saying bad banana pudding. That just doesn’t happen. If it is banana pudding it is by definition not bad. So, how can anything mathematical be fiction.
That made it easy to not look at that list anymore. I looked up the word romance in the prestigious dictionary Merriam-Webster. I was only slightly surprised to see that the first definition to be something that I thought would be further down the list: a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric love and adventure… The second definition the one I want to talk about we will get to in just a second. The third definition: a love story especially in the form of a novel, seems to be the thing we most attribute to the word. That is what I think that most people believe they are saying when they use the term in relation to a story.
Now to the second definition: a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious. Holy novel, Batman! That is pretty much what everyone is writing. It doesn’t say heart-pounding erotic situations with insanely beautiful people. Rippling, muscled men who fetch an entire litter of cutie-pie kittens from a tree while keeping their hair perfectly combed and then grabbing the uncertain — but immediately lovestruck — woman by the waist… Ack!
I am not one to write much about the lava-hot, burning romance of the heart. Nor will I indulge in a fantastical, long voyage rife with adventure in search of a lost love. However, in truth, most — if not all, stories are about love in some manner. We can avoid the gushy or erotic and still have the love that a story needs. For what emotion can drive someone to do more than they are capable – other than love? That being said, I don’t think that even love can keep your hair perfectly combed while climbing into a tree with a bunch of tiny, albeit cute, Freddy Krueger in training cats.
You can derive any emotion from love. Hate, vengeance, sorrow all of these are bound by the remnants of a love either lost, stolen or denied. Who can say that any story worth any amount of time reading isn’t therefore a romance. Even after this little revelation, possibly despite it, I will still say that ‘I am not writing a romance novel’. I flipped a coin and chose ‘Horror.’ It sounds better to me than ‘Legitimate Farce,’ which I am likely to submit as new genre.