Guest Author - Melissa Weise

Genre writing can be very fun. Each category has their own set of rules and expectations. We often grew up reading the genre that we end up writing and so implicitly know these guidelines. For those of us who read or write science fiction and fantasy, though the very definition of our genre can be frustratingly variable.

For one thing, that science fiction and fantasy is lumped together in one amorphous heap is annoying to begin with. While there can be blurred lines between the two, they certainly are different from one another. Science fiction tends to have some aspect of, well, science while fantasy is usually more magic based. Unicorns, wizards and dragons tend to inhabit fantasy stories while robots, space cowboys, and mad scientists inhabit science fiction. Another genre that is also often interchanged is horror because of the more common practice of putting horror-like elements into a science fiction or fantasy story or vice versa.

But it appears that just the fact that science fiction and fantasy distort reality make them good bedfellows in the literary world and so those outside the genres would have difficulty determining a Wells from a Tolkien or a Bradbury (science fiction, fantasy and a surreal mixture, respectively). This generally is not helpful for the genres’ recognition or popularity which often leads to the image of zealous inbreeding at Star Trek conventions or ComiCons. And that is unfortunate because these genres have so much to offer the average reader or writer (even though Star Trek conventions and ComiCons are fun, too for those of us who really enjoy the finer points of the genres). These genres allow us to explore ethical dilemmas, social questions, and propose what life can be like in the future.

So how can you tell what you are writing? First, try to sort out if it is science fiction or fantasy. This can be tricky because you may have a truly mixed genre story, but usually it falls more distinctly into one or the other. Sometimes it helps to look at subcategories of the genres to figure it out. While the following list is certainly not comprehensive nor exhaustive (that would take ages), it’ll give a good gist of the basic subcategories:

FANTASY
Quest The main character is searching for something of importance to help save someone or something. Think “The Last Unicorn” or King Arthur’s knights.

Epic This fantasy story encompasses many people over a long period of time usually involving a kingdom. Think of Tolkien’s Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which can also be under the subcategory of quest if only the Ring is considered).

Sword and Sorcery Just like it sounds. Knights and wizards. Dragons and princesses.

Anthropomorphized animal tales In other words, animals that talk and act like humans. Think “Wicked” by Gregory Maquire.

SCIENCE FICTION

Outer Space: Aliens Think Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles”. The theme is set it another world, usually outer space and the focus is on the alien civilization or space colony, not the military.

Outer Space: Military This is where “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” and all the other primarily military focused outer space stories go. The focus is different and so the story is different.

Utopian Actually, most utopian stories such as Huxley’s “Brave new World” are actually “dystopias” cloaked as utopias. In other words, the concept of the story is that making a perfect world is actually a bad idea.

Futuristic Set in the future not through time travel such as “Bladerunner” by Dick. .

Post apocalyptic In the future after something bad has happened such as “A Canticle for Lebowitz” by Miller or “Mad Max”.

Time travel Of course, fashioned after Wells’ “Time Machine” this subcategory also includes “Terminator” and a host of other time-bending stories.

Scientific theory based These stories are usually set in current time and setting, but are working out a specific scientific theory through the story such as “Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton or “The Invisible Man” by Wells..

Then, once you have figured out what you are writing, look at other stories like it and see how they are marketed if you want to sell it. Although writing for these genres well can also lead to cult followings which can bode well for a writer wanting to write several books in the same world or with the same characters, how this will happen will depend greatly on what has come before it. Readers of these stories are usually very knowledgeable about their genre and are looking for a particular experience. In other words, very rarely does a sword and sorcery reader pick up and enjoy a story that is post apocalyptic. Publishers and editors will want to know that you know your categories as well for marketing purposes. So enjoy your writing, but be sure you know whether you are “boldly going” or “calling on Zeus” or something entirely original before you market.