No, really. What is “Genre”? The answer is … //shrug// … ?
Hear me out. Genre is one of those aspects of writing that is both easy and hard to define because, with Genre, maybe more than any other writing concept, context matters.
We’ll start simple and get a dictionary definition. I went with the Cambridge Dictionary because it was fast and easy. By definition, Genre is a style, subject, type, or model. When we’re talking about writing, there are four literary Genres: Poetry, Drama, Fiction, and Non-Fiction. I like to call these the “Academic Genres” because they were how my Professors discussed Genre in college. So, poetry is going to be works like The Raven or She Walks in Beauty. You know, poetry. Drama would be Shakespeare plays, A Streetcar Named Desire, or Avengers: End Game. Fiction would be Frankenstein or Jane Eyre. Fiction stories. Non-Fiction would be memoirs like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or non-fiction books like Devil in the White City.
And right about now, you’re looking at me and saying, “What about Horror or Science Fiction?” To which I say, exactly! When we’re talking about Genre, context matters. Most people aren’t going to think about defining only 4 Genres. Most people hear Genre and think about styles within a specific type of art. If I sit here and tell you that the 1980 movie Airplane! is a Drama, you’re going to argue with me. It’s definitely a Comedy. Aliens has its dramatic moments, sure, but it is definitely a Sci-Fi/Horror movie. Outside of Academic discussions about literature, we don’t discuss Drama as the Genre that encompasses all Performance Media. Most people think of Drama in terms of movies like Terms of Endearment or The Shawshank Redemption.
So, we’re going to define our context for Genre. We’re going to look at Genre in the context of Fiction.
What Are the Genres of Fiction?
Bear with me. Genre is basically – what kind of story are you writing? We have some basic genres, but what they are varies based on who you ask and, say it with me now …
CONTEXT!
If you ask your friend what the different genres of fiction are, they might give you a list like Horror, Detective, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. Someone else might add things like Women’s Literature, Classical Literature, and Children’s Literature.
Basically, different people have different ideas about what the Genres of fiction are because we don’t have any single authoritative and exhaustive list of Genres. Personally, I think if we talked about Genres of fiction more in Academic settings, we’d have at least a consistent baseline of what makes up Genre. But when I was in college, that wasn’t what Professors wanted to teach. They wanted to focus on character-driven narratives, plot structure, descriptive settings, and themes in works. Which, yes, are important things. But … not every kind of story needs the same kind of emphasis on those elements.
The Type of Story Matters
Even though I’m talking about fiction writing, I want to stop a second and look at a movie, because it is a really good example of what we’re going to discuss regarding how much attention to detail different elements of fiction need in different types of stories. I’m going to argue that plot holes can be okay.
We’re going to talk about Annihilation, the 2018 Alex Garland film. Now, if you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. The movie is very good. Once you’ve watched the movie, I suggest watching this video from Folding Ideas on YouTube, because it will be on the test. Dan talks about how Annihilation doesn’t merely use metaphor, but is really itself a vehicle for metaphor. The movie isn’t about its plot, or really even about its characters. The movie is about its Ideas, its Themes. To quote Dan Olson, “for this movie, metaphorical is textual.”
So, with that in mind … what’s up with the tattoo? If you’ve watched the movie and Dan’s video, then you know what I’m talking about. Anya, at the beginning of the movie, has an oroboros tattoo, which we see before they enter the Shimmer. Later, we see the same tattoo on a soldier who died in the Shimmer. This isn’t that big of a deal. Maybe in the universe of the film, the oroboros tattoo is a common design. But … later, the tattoo appears on Lena, having formed over time because of the Shimmer. So, now it begs the question: what’s up with the tattoo? Is it a common tattoo in this world or a simple coincidence? Or is the appearance of the tattoo something the Shimmer does to people?
When we’re focused on understanding Plot as a vital element of Fiction, this is a problem for the movie. If the answer to the question is that the tattoo is just common in this film universe, then why does the Shimmer put the tattoo on Lena later? If it is supposed to be something the Shimmer does to people, then why does Anya already have the tattoo before she goes in? Now, it feels like someone made a mistake and put the tattoo on the actress for Anya too early. Even if we split the difference, the tattoo being both muddies the effective creepiness of the tattoo’s appearance.
It’s a plot hole. It’s not a major plot hole. But it is one. And … that’s okay. It’s okay because we’re not meant to look at Annihilation through its Plot. We’re meant to examine the movie, to follow it, through its Themes. Even the characters are there just to serve the Themes. Like … while the movie tells us why these women were chosen to go into the Shimmer, is it really a good idea to send these women into it? Because the movie shows, if you’re focusing on the kind of Characters that should be in this kind of Plot, that characterization is a bit off.
But … when you look at the movie thematically, everything fits. Annihilation is a Sci-Fi Cosmic Horror, according to Wikipedia. While yes, it most definitely has the themes of Cosmic Horror, I’m hesitant to call it a Cosmic Horror film. A film like Event Horizon is 100% Cosmic Horror. I would categorize Annihilation under Psychological Horror/Sci-Fi, with themes of Cosmic Horror. To talk about why, let’s talk about what Genre does for us as readers and authors.
Genre Tells Us What to Expect in a Story
In the long-ago times of YouTube, people did this thing where they took movies and gave them alternative trailers to make them look like they were a different Genre of movie. One of the best of these is one that presents The Shining as a Romantic Comedy. It’s great. 10/10. No Notes. But … imagine you’ve never seen The Shining before. You stumble upon that video on YouTube and, thinking you’re about to see a Romantic Comedy, go and watch The Shining for the first time. You’re going to be thrown for a loop because a Romantic Comedy gives you a very different set of expectations than Horror does.
Let’s stay with Stephen King. The Gunslinger is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. Now, a lone gunslinger inspired by Clint Eastwood’s character in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has to be a Western, right? While The Gunslinger certainly has elements that pull from Westerns, if you go into The Gunslinger expecting a Western, you’re going to get frustrated after Roland leaves Tull. The Gunslinger is a Fantasy book. Granted, Westerns as a Genre, especially classical Westerns, have more in common with Fantasy than they do Historical Fiction. Even so, Westerns come with a set of themes, character types, and plot developments that, while present in The Gunslinger, do not overwrite the more prevalent Fantasy elements that better define the novel. Fantasy Western, a redundancy, see above, would be a more precise category.
So, let’s go back to Annihilation. While the movie has definite Cosmic Horror themes, for me, focusing on the Genre as Sci-fi Cosmic Horror focuses more on the Plot of the movie, and less on the Themes, which we’re meant to focus on. However, if we look at the movie as Sci-Fi Psychological Horror, well, now we look at plot inconsistencies differently. Because in Psychological Horror, a plot inconsistency signals an Untrustworthy Narrator. An Untrustworthy Narrator in a good story means we’re going to see one of two things,
- We’re going to get hints of what really happened
- We’re going to focus on Themes and Ideas to understand the movie
I would argue that Lena is definitely an Untrustworthy Narrator. If you’ve read the book by Jeff VanderMeer, I think this is a fair assessment and probably lifted from the book. But, we’re not meant to distrust Lena. That’s why we’re not given an indication of “what really happened”. There’s no scene of Lena unconscious and waking from a dream. There’s no revelation of a hallucinogenic gas. Josie doesn’t suddenly appear and go, “Here’s what really happened!”
Which means, we need to engage with the Themes and look at the metaphors in the movie. When you look at what the oroboros tattoo represents, what it is a metaphor for, the “plot hole” isn’t a plot hole at all. The soldier and Anya can both happen to have the same tattoo, either by coincidence or because it’s common in the movie’s universe. And the tattoo can be a manifestation of the Shimmer. Both things being true serve the Ideas that the tattoo represents – where we have commonality and how we take on aspects of the people around us (Olson).
The Cosmic Horror genre asks us to puzzle out the plot hole. The Psychological Horror genre primes us to look at what the inconsistency means.
Now, Let’s Talk about Genre
Now that we’ve discussed why Genre is important, let’s talk about the Genres of Fiction. Some of the more recognized genres include Romance, Detective, Western, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Spy, Horror, and Thriller (Burroway, 411-412). I would make Urban Fantasy and Paranormal their own Genres outside of Fantasy or Horror, because while they can have elements of both, they’ve developed their own expectations as more stories have been written in them.
You’ll notice that Burroway’s Genres are, generally, the way books are sold in stores or online, the commercial genres. Whether that’s because they were marketed this way or they were marketed this way because people wrote them or expected to read them this way is a chicken, egg, omelet discussion I don’t care to have today. Burroway discusses how genres we know today rose from the types of stories that were popular at one time or addressed a social issue of some kind – for example, romance addressing the concerns women had around their roles, desires, and love (Burroway 412), so it’s probably less a cut and dry, “what came first” and more of a fluid evolution between what people wrote, what people liked, what people wanted to sell, and what types of stories endured over time.
Oh, but what’s that? You can think of more Genres? I know. I can too. Wikipedia can think of about 400,842 genres I haven’t even considered as their own Genres. Seriously, in researching common genres and trying to put together a list and pull together sources, I came up with mostly a jumble. Author Nancy Christie has her own list of Genres.
This just goes to show that Genre is fascinating as a topic and not always clearly understood by new authors. We’re going to treat Genre like a Vibe. Why? Because that’s a really good way to look at it from a writing perspective. Genre is important in the way that a Vibe is important. It helps you understand what is going on. It can help you navigate a room. But it isn’t the structure of your relationships or the conversations and events happening around you.
As Burroway explains (and we discussed above), Genre is the expectations that a reader has of a certain type of story (411). A Romance will have two characters falling in love, facing some kind of conflict that challenges the relationship, and coming out of it (usually) together. A Detective story will have a person who encounters a mystery and then goes on to solve it somehow (usually). etc … Point being, each genre sets expectations for the type of character, type of inciting event, type of complicating event, type of climax, and type of outcome for a story.
Genre also tells agents, publishers, and platforms how to market a book. For example, if I’m on Amazon, and I’m considering buying IT and Pet Sematary, Amazon is probably not going to put Jane Eyre up as something it recommends that I buy. It’s going to suggest other Horror stories because that’s what I’m demonstrating I want to buy.
But – and this is important – you can’t just build your story based on the standard Genre conventions or how you want to market your book. I mean, you can. You can do anything you want. But your story probably won’t be very good or very original. That’s because, while the Genre conventions tell you what is typically found in that kind of story, they don’t tell you how you should put them in or explain why they’re there in the first place.
That’s why we’re going to look at Genre as a vibe.
Vibe Check, Characterization, and Plot
You go to visit your family for dinner. You walk into the room, and you do a quick vibe check. Who is in the room? What are the moods you’re seeing in people? Do you feel tension? Joy? Sadness? Who is close to whom, and who is avoiding whom? All of that information will come together and help you decide how you want to enter the room. But it’s not all the information you need to make your entrance.
Let’s continue with the family dinner. You walk into the room and find your family laughing together, smiling, and happy. The Genre Vibe Check says you’re in a Horror movie. What do you do? What about if the Genre Vibe Check says it’s a Romance? Science Fiction? Detective story? Each of these Genres gives you some expectations of what could be in the story, but can you give me an immediate answer for each one?
No. I mean, you could come up with something on the fly, but you’ll be jumping ahead to what we’re about to do.
When you’re writing your story, knowing your Genre is only part of the story. Just like walking into a situation in real life, a Vibe Check on the room will give you some ideas about how you want to behave, but you’ll have a whole host of other factors determining that as well.
Writing Prompt
We’re going to end with a writing prompt. I’m going to give you a Plot Hook and a Character Hook. Then I’m going to give you a selection of Genres. Your writing prompt is simple: write a scene in your selected Genre based on the Plot and Character description given. Then, choose a different Genre and do it again.
Once you’re done, examine both scenes. What’s different in each scene? What commonalities carry through?
Character Hook: You’re the family outcast. Your family follows a specific kind of tradition, and you’ve never adhered to it. As a result, you have family members who mistreat you, and that’s made you distrustful of your family in general, though you might trust family members who have been nice to you in specific circumstances.
The Plot Hook: You’re coming home to your parents’ house for a holiday or birthday dinner (your choice). You’re on the outs with your family and have been for several years, so while you come to this gathering every year, it is always tense. You walk into the dining room as everyone has already sat down to eat. Everyone is smiling, talking, and generally having a good time.
What happens when you walk into the room if the Genre is,
- Horror
- Science Fiction
- Romance
- Detective
- Thriller
- Fantasy
- Urban Fantasy/Paranormal
Citations:
Burroway, Janet, and Susan Weinberg. Writing fiction: A guide to narrative craft. New York: Longman, 2003
Folding Ideas. “Annihilation and Decoding Metaphor,” November 1, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URo66iLNEZw
