Ramblings on Genre
So this may not warrant the cut, but just in case it does...
There was an entry recently that gelled with the Interstitial competition
I'm trying to gather up the courage to write for.
I have a protagonist and I think I have a plot. It remains to be seen whether
Heyer/Austen-esque Space Pirates really works.
Anyway, apparently two creators of children's/YA series have said that they didn't think of themselves as writing Fantasy and this has been perceived as a slap in the face by the genre.
Now, I kind of haunt bookshops and I've noticed something here in the UK--no idea if it applies in other countries--that seems to have some bearing on this. (Both the authors are actually UK authors, if that means anything).
The only novels categorised by genre are adult ones. Children's are categorised by age range: 8 and under, 8-12 and Young Adult/Teenage/12 and older.
And it struck me that this gives children's authors somewhat greater scope. Because they can have a historical novel with a strong supernatural element without having to worry about it not being Fantasy enough or Historical enough.
Certainly CJ if he ever becomes more than just a character in my head would have elements of both. I need books on the building of Notre Dame for him.
I like all kinds of books and have a large collection of spec fic, but I'm not sure I always get ideas in any one genre and I'm never entirely convinced by the whole categorisation of books anyway.
People can miss a lot of fiction they might otherwise like because it happens to be classified as something they believe they don't.
Whether that says more about the ineffectiveness of categorising or the prejudices readers have, I'm far too drugged up to say.
Did any of that even make sense?