Genre-Blending—Adding Elements of Another Genre to Our Story

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Last year, I received a contract extension for my Southern Quilting mysteries—Penguin wanted two more books. So I knew that the series would last through 2015 and then would be up for consideration again.  I started writing the book that’s coming out this August, Shear Trouble.

I was about to work on subplots for the story when I got an email from a reader in South America. She’s what many writers call a “True Fan.” True Fans have been defined by former Wired editor Kevin Kelly as:

“A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.”

It’s said that you only need 1000 True Fans to be a long-term success.  So when True Fans write me (and frequently, they’re the only ones who write me), I pay attention.  She said some nice things about my books, being extremely specific about the elements she liked.  And then she stated that “it feels that it’s time for Beatrice to start dating Wyatt.”

Beatrice is my sleuth, my protagonist in the Southern Quilting mysteries and her friend is Wyatt.  I have been moving their relationship along very slowly.  I don’t consider myself particularly adept at writing romance and I’d originally thought of their story as a subplot that was somewhat incidental to the mysteries.  But my editor keeps reminding me that, as writer Jeff Cohen put it, the “The crime is the bait; it’s what Alfred Hitchcock called “the MacGuffin,” something the people in your book are desperate about but the reader should find secondary. Your characters are first.”

This was the first of a couple of messages I received from readers regarding Beatrice and Wyatt.

So…I needed a subplot.  My readers wanted a romance.  I set about figuring out how to make it work and making sure that it would work so that it would be the best thing for the story. I’d uncovered some interesting posts in the past on genre-blending.

Writer Nicola Morgan had three questions to ask when considering genre-blending:

1. Are the lovers of one genre likely to want to read the other genre at the same time?

2. Is it possible that many lovers of one really don’t like the other? Enough to be put off?

3. And, if so, are the dissenters likely to scupper the chances of your cross-genre book by simply not buying it?

Mystery and romance are commonly mixed together—in everything from police procedurals to cozy mysteries, so no problem there. And readers were clearly asking…actually asking, yes…for this subplot to proceed.

Writer’s Digest also had a helpful article by writer Michelle Richmond: “How to Write and Sell a Cross-Genre Novel.”  Her three points:

“Recognize your primary genre—and use it as your compass.

Draw on your strengths as a writer, regardless of genre.

Create characters that defy genre conventions.”

So I knew my strengths as a writer and I knew what I was experienced at writing.  I was interested in branching out a little and didn’t mind trying something new as long as it didn’t mean I was going to fall on my face while doing it or ruin a mystery.

That’s when I decided to, yes, have the characters start functioning as a couple—but also use that relationship as a way to build tension and conflict and even humor into my story.  That’s what I’m better at writing. That’s what I was more confident I could pull off.

I wrote in the subplot and turned the manuscript over to my editor.  I’m curious to see if she thinks what I wrote worked—I did end up feeling good about it and how the storyline meshed with the mystery.  Ultimately, it will be up to the readers to decide if I hit all the right notes.

I honestly think that most books do genre-blend…at least to a small degree.  What elements of other genres have you added to your books?  How did you integrate them seamlessly into your story?

 

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