Kathleen Kerridge's Blog - Posts Tagged "convention"
What's In A Genre?
What do you write?
I get asked this quite a lot, by various people. It seems like such a simple question and yet it's not so simple to answer. Broadly, I would classify my work as coming under the umbrella of Fantasy Romance / Fantasy Fiction. The categorisation is important. Extremely so. If I was nestled under Crime then you would expect a murder, maybe, and a detective. If I was nestled under Horror then you could expect something scary to send shivers down your spine and make you scared of storm drains (thank you, Stephen King). You get the idea. The genre dictates what you will find between the covers of the book you are reading and each genre has its own forms and conventions.
This is where the area starts to grey out a bit, for me. You see, I write Fantasy Fiction, with a side helping of romance (in my first novel).
My stories are built around a central couple who, in Into the Woods are searching for each other. They have dreamed of each other since the earliest onset of puberty, knowing that without the other 'half' of themselves, they are not whole. They are in separate worlds and need to find each other for the story to begin. Their meeting each other and finding each other is not the story...well, not the whole story. It's important that they meet, because if they don't, then where's my story going to start? They meet, know each other for the other halves of themselves, fall in love and are bonded together.
So. Fantasy Romance?
Not quite. My main protagonists are gay.
"Ahh," I hear you say, "so it's Gay Romance?" No, afraid not. Book #2 The Call of The Dark is not romance-centric. Indeed, remove the [romantic] sex, and the plot can work just as well. I just happen to like writing sex scenes.
My books do not follow the story arc of Romance Fiction. Not totally. You see, Romance Fiction has its conventions and requirements:
1) There HAS to be a love story.
2) The focus of the story MUST be on the budding relationship of the couple in love.
3) There MUST be a commitment entered into between the couple in love (marriage/engagement/avowal of adoration etc).
4) There MUST be a HEA (Happy Ever After).
I have a love story, but it's not the focus of the story. The focus is the struggle to reconcile very different worlds and the people within them.
There is a commitment, but there's no HEA in my first book. You see, therein lies the difference between Fantasy Fiction / Fantasy Romance & Romance.
The struggle of my characters is an ongoing theme, which does not always lend itself to a Happy-Ever-After ending. In fact, if I was to try to end Into the Woods happily, then it would be a mess. It can't be done. Not if the integrity of the series is to be maintained.
I can't say I write M/M Romance, because as the books develop, the emphasis is largely based on the situations around the characters, not on their relationship. There will be male and female couples, and female and female couples - the world I write about and the people living there are fluid when it comes to sexuality. Khari says in Into the Woods: "There's not even a name for it [being gay] in my world."
There have been so many positive reviews and beautiful things said about Into the Woods and The Call of The Dark. I will not let them be overshadowed by the negativity I encountered this morning. But PLEASE remember I am not a M/M Romance Author. I am a Fantasy author. So before you tweet me saying I am breaking the conventions of the M/M romance genre - I'm not. I never claimed to be writing it in the first place :)
I get asked this quite a lot, by various people. It seems like such a simple question and yet it's not so simple to answer. Broadly, I would classify my work as coming under the umbrella of Fantasy Romance / Fantasy Fiction. The categorisation is important. Extremely so. If I was nestled under Crime then you would expect a murder, maybe, and a detective. If I was nestled under Horror then you could expect something scary to send shivers down your spine and make you scared of storm drains (thank you, Stephen King). You get the idea. The genre dictates what you will find between the covers of the book you are reading and each genre has its own forms and conventions.
This is where the area starts to grey out a bit, for me. You see, I write Fantasy Fiction, with a side helping of romance (in my first novel).
My stories are built around a central couple who, in Into the Woods are searching for each other. They have dreamed of each other since the earliest onset of puberty, knowing that without the other 'half' of themselves, they are not whole. They are in separate worlds and need to find each other for the story to begin. Their meeting each other and finding each other is not the story...well, not the whole story. It's important that they meet, because if they don't, then where's my story going to start? They meet, know each other for the other halves of themselves, fall in love and are bonded together.
So. Fantasy Romance?
Not quite. My main protagonists are gay.
"Ahh," I hear you say, "so it's Gay Romance?" No, afraid not. Book #2 The Call of The Dark is not romance-centric. Indeed, remove the [romantic] sex, and the plot can work just as well. I just happen to like writing sex scenes.
My books do not follow the story arc of Romance Fiction. Not totally. You see, Romance Fiction has its conventions and requirements:
1) There HAS to be a love story.
2) The focus of the story MUST be on the budding relationship of the couple in love.
3) There MUST be a commitment entered into between the couple in love (marriage/engagement/avowal of adoration etc).
4) There MUST be a HEA (Happy Ever After).
I have a love story, but it's not the focus of the story. The focus is the struggle to reconcile very different worlds and the people within them.
There is a commitment, but there's no HEA in my first book. You see, therein lies the difference between Fantasy Fiction / Fantasy Romance & Romance.
The struggle of my characters is an ongoing theme, which does not always lend itself to a Happy-Ever-After ending. In fact, if I was to try to end Into the Woods happily, then it would be a mess. It can't be done. Not if the integrity of the series is to be maintained.
I can't say I write M/M Romance, because as the books develop, the emphasis is largely based on the situations around the characters, not on their relationship. There will be male and female couples, and female and female couples - the world I write about and the people living there are fluid when it comes to sexuality. Khari says in Into the Woods: "There's not even a name for it [being gay] in my world."
There have been so many positive reviews and beautiful things said about Into the Woods and The Call of The Dark. I will not let them be overshadowed by the negativity I encountered this morning. But PLEASE remember I am not a M/M Romance Author. I am a Fantasy author. So before you tweet me saying I am breaking the conventions of the M/M romance genre - I'm not. I never claimed to be writing it in the first place :)
