On Defining Genre

A Guest Post by comic-book writer and SF author, Mark J. Howard

THIS WOULD SEEM TO BE A THORNY SUBJECT. I think that, historically, when one attempts to begin categorizing fiction one finds oneself on a rather slippery and treacherous slope. I would say it is best to keep it simple and so suggest the following three basic categories.

1. SCIENCE FICTION

Stories set in our reality, one very similar to it or a possible future. If your protagonist is a clone, an alien or a hologram then you’re writing science fiction. Science fiction deals with rational possibilities; things that can be built or achieved through science and/or engineering of some sort with at least a tenuous basis in real life. You can have as many elves, orcs, unicorns, dragons, werewolves and mermaids as you want in science fiction, so long as they’re artificially created or naturally occurring aliens.

The best science fiction writers are the ones who take a keen interest in the scientific achievements and advances, of the day, and use this as a springboard for speculation as to how a particular advance or discovery might develop in the future and how it might affect society or even a single protagonist. 

Examples of Science Fiction:

2001: A Space Odyssey. Independence Day. I, Robot. Twelve Monkeys. Star Trek. Terminator. Alien. The Abyss.

2. FANTASY

Stories set in realities different and separate from our own. If your protagonist is a naturally occurring sentient animal, can do magic or commune with the gods, then you’re writing fantasy. Fantasy deals with irrational possibilities; things that can be built or achieved through magical or unbelievable means with no basis in reality. You can have as many robots, clones, computers, starships and alien planets as you want in fantasy, so long as they have little or no basis in reality.

Writing fantasy gives a lot more scope than writing science fiction, because you don’t have to go into physics or chemistry to power a spacecraft or destroy a city, you can just use a magic crystal or a cursed feather.

The best fantasy writers take a keen interest in the pantheons, mythologies and folk tales of the world and imagine the impact things like magic, gods and monsters would have on the world if they were real. A fantasy world is a world apart from our own world where normal physical rules need not apply.

Examples of Fantasy:

The Lord of the Rings. Star Wars. Conan the Barbarian. Excalibur. Fatherland. Sin City. Watchmen. Stardust. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

3. SUPERNATURAL

Stories set in the real world but with fantastical elements. If your protagonist is a psychic manifestation, a ghost or a demon, then you’re writing supernatural. Supernatural stories can also be true stories, or at least one interpretation of a true story.

Supernatural stories are about the natural world and the unexplained or folkloric elements within it such as ghosts, spirits, demons, angels or vampires. If you put an angel in Middle Earth, you’re writing fantasy; if you put your angel in a tomb on Mars to be discovered by a Martian rover, you’re writing science fiction; if you put your angel in an actual Central London sewer, you’re writing supernatural.

Examples of Supernatural Stories:

The Exorcist. Dracula. The Blair Witch Project. The Sixth Sense. Ghostbusters. Angel Heart. The Omen. A Christmas Carol. Interview with the Vampire. The X Files.

4. HOWEVER!

These three basic categories, in my humble, are all we need. Things are, however, not quite so straightforward. For example, where would one place a movie such as Spider-Man? It’s set in a real city and based on science, isn’t it? So, it’s science fiction, right? Well, yes and no. The science it’s based on, that Peter Parker’s being is altered due to the bite of a genetically enhanced spider, is pseudo-science at best.

The New York of the movies isn’t quite the same as our New York and contains many pseudo-scientific wonders (mechanical arms, fusion generators, flying sleds and incredible weaponry to name but a few). I would, therefore, class Spider-Man as fantasy, although some might call it science-fantasy.

Films like Constantine and Day Watch likewise might confuse – are they supernatural or fantasy? I would lean towards fantasy in these two cases simply through the scope of the stories and their impact on what is portrayed as the ‘real world’ in them and also because these stories are told from within, as it were.

Constantine, as do the protagonists in Day Watch, inhabits a fantasy world supposedly hidden within the real world and, although many of their obstacles are traditional supernatural ones, the impact of their adventures on the Real World are widespread.

Supernatural stories tend only to affect a handful of people and a few specific locations, so my inclusion of Ghostbusters in the Supernatural Story examples is probably incorrect. Ghostbusters too should probably be under Fantasy. Stories submitted to us should fall under one of the above main headings. If you’re not sure what type of story you’ve written, then submit it as Fantasy.

5. BUT I’VE WRITTEN A HORROR STORY?

Well, bully for you. Horror, as far as I am concerned, is a sub-genre. For example, Alien could be described as a horror story. In this case, I would submit Alien as a Science Fiction story with the sub-heading of Horror. Let’s take Alien, for argument’s sake, and look at how I would submit that story to the website (if only I’d thought of it to begin with! *sigh*).

Title: Alien

Genre: Science Fiction (Horror)

Synopsis: The crew of a commercial spacecraft detect an unknown transmission and are contractually obligated to investigate. What they find is a savage and unstoppable alien creature that none of them is prepared for and, one by one, the crewmembers are slaughtered. Cut off and alone, the crew of the Nostromo find themselves in a primeval struggle for survival with no hope of rescue. In space, no one can hear you scream.

Or something similar. Similarly, you may have written a love story, an adventure story, a comedy or a tragedy but, depending on the main genre, any of these is simply a sub-genre in this case. For example; I, Robot is a Science Fiction (Adventure); Stardust is Fantasy (Love) and so on. The most important thing to convey in submitting your work is which of the basic three genres it falls under; Science Fiction, Fantasy or Supernatural.

6. RULES, SCHMULES! WHO CARES?

Of course, everything I’ve written above is pure guff. The fact is that most people have at least a vague idea of what it is they’re writing, and to be honest it’s not something you should think about until your work is ready for submission.

These genre distinctions are mainly for our benefit and for the benefit of our readers, so that they can better locate the genre of stories that interests them. You might think that the above three genres limit our scope, and to some extent this is true. These three genres embody the main areas of fiction that we are interested in, the type of fiction that is about the eerie and uncanny, the fantastic or the impossible, the speculative or outrageous. This is, I’m sure you’ll agree, a pretty big area.

If you’ve written a Victorian romance about a lamplighter’s daughter falling in love with the Duke of Manchester, then your story probably isn’t for us, but if you’ve written a Victorian romance about a lamplighter’s daughter falling in love with the Duke of Hell, you’d better email it to us immediately.

7. BUT THAT’S ANOTHER STORY

We all like stories, that’s why we’re here, but maybe you’ve written a story that you don’t know how to classify properly but are pretty sure is our kind of thing. As I said earlier, if you’re not sure then bung it in under Fantasy.

James Bond, Indiana Jones, Jason Bourne, Mission: Impossible, Magnolia, Vanilla Sky and Donnie Darko are all fantasies, and I’m sure you can think of many more.

So, that’s about it for genres for now. I’m sure there are people out there who will disagree with me. If so, write in and let me know what you think or, better still, write us a story…

© Mark J. Howard

EDITORIAL NOTE:

Mark, as a huge SF film buff, realizes this is a web site squarely centred around the written word and spec-fiction. So he apologizes for using movies as his examples rather than books. But when he wrote this article he was, as he tells me, sat facing his rather large DVD collection, not his bookcases.

GUEST AUTHOR BIO:

British-born author Mark J. Howard’s first novel, Tempting Fate, is just the sort of thing you expect Robert Rankin to have written while smoking something mind-altering. Mark is also becoming well known for his comic work, writing for such established titles as Judge Dread and AD 2000.