G is for Genre

Today, we're pleased to have a guest post by Jason Jack Miller on GENRE RESPECT.

Does genre fiction receive more respect now than it ever has?

Genre fiction has certainly become more daring in the way it deals with its own tropes.  Crossovers and blurred lines between the genres allow readers to dip a toe into new reading waters without fear of having it bitten off.  Consider Max Brooks' World War Z--is it horror or SF?  Or literature, maybe?  And what about the Twilight series?  Horror or romance?  Are there readers who loved Twilight that would never in a thousand years consider picking up an Anne Rice novel?  Certainly.  Both have vampires and romance, but only one had the benefit of a rabid fan base accustomed to using social media to take their passions viral.

There have been multitudes of novels that have straddled genre throughout written history, but they have never received the type of marketing attention that books get today.  I believe our perceptions of genre are manipulated by the publisher's marketing departments and big budgets.  With the right, well-targeted fan base a genre novel can fly or flounder.  'Don't judge a book by its cover' is an old adage that may not apply to 2011 when covers are usually tied to ginormous marketing campaigns and interactive media blitzes. Just look at the evolution of the SF/Fantasy reader stereotype over the last twenty years.  From the 1990s it's the Dune/Lord of the Rings/Star Wars fan living in his mom's basement on a diet of Doritos and Cherry Coke.  The 2010s stereotype is a tween who wants to know 'Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?'

Stories evolve and styles come and go, but readers always love what they love.  Now publishers can target readers more specifically than they ever have, and book clubs are global institutions no longer confined to library and church basements.  So while I'm not certain genre fiction receives more or less respect than it ever has, I know that fans and publishers are changing, and now more than ever fans are able to find, and talk about what they love.

Jason Jack Miller is a writer, photographer and musician who has been hassled by cops in Canada, Mexico and the Czech Republic. An outdoor travel guide he co-authored with his wife in 2006 jumpstarted his freelancing career; his work has since appeared in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, online, and as part of a travel guide app for mobile phones. Several of his articles are in the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft.

He received a Master’s in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill where he is adjunct creative writing faculty and he is an Authors Guild member. He's been a whitewater raft guide, played guitar in a garage band and served as a concierge at a five star resort hotel in Florida. When he isn't writing, he's on his mountain bike or looking for his next favorite guitar. He is currently writing and recording the soundtrack to his novel, The Devil and Preston Black. Find him at jasonjackmiller.blogspot.com.

F is for Fantasy

Since Seton Hill University has one of the only Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction programs in the world, we thought we'd talk about genre a bit this month.

One of the most popular genres these days is fantasy, as indicated by the massive success of the Harry Potter and Twilight novels and movies. Academic Richard Mathews says that fantasy "is a type of fiction that evokes wonder, mystery, or magic--a sense of possibility beyond the ordinary, material, rationally predictable world in which we live. . . . [It is] a fiction that elicits wonder through elements of the supernatural or impossible. It consciously breaks free from mundane reality." in his Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination.

Of course, J.R.R. Tolkien is largely credited with bringing fantasy to the masses with his very popular Lord of the Rings books, starting with The Hobbit in 1937. (I'm looking forward to the new movie, how about you?)

Academic Farah Mendlesohn outlines a classification system which is about "the way in which a text becomes fantasy, or alternatively, the way the fantastic enters the text and the reader's relationship to this." in her Rhetorics of Fantasy. Very briefly, the four major types of fantasy are:

• Portal-Quest Fantasy in which a character leaves his/her familiar surroundings and passes through a portal into an unknown (usually magical) place. A classic example would be an epic fantasy like The Lord of the Rings
  
• Immersive Fantasy in which the reader and pov character take for granted the fantastic elements with which they are surrounded. Science fiction would be a kind of immersive fantasy.
  
• Intrusive Fantasy in which the fantastic intrudes on the characters and the reader, with a sense of threat, of waiting, and of repulsion. Much of horror would be considered intrusive fantasy.
  
• Liminal Fantasy, or the fantasy of the possible, in which the fantasy elements are uncertain or hesitant. Magical Realism is an example of this.

Interestingly, fantasy began way back in the eighteenth century and "took shape through a dialectic with this new literature of realism. The ...modern authors who crafted fantasy as an alternative literary form ...understood that they could create a complex and appealing counterpoint to popular fiction...by imbuing their writing with ancient human impulses toward myth..." as Mathews says.

So, there you have it, readers in the twenty-first century enjoy some of the same things as those in the eighteenth century! The more things change, the more they stay the same. ;)

E is for Empathy

The goal for authors is: empathy for characters, especially for the protagonist.
Why? Because we want the reader to BECOME the character. The wonder and beauty of written fiction is it is the only medium in which a human being can become someone else. But it can't happen without empathy. Empathy is the identification, understanding and often sharing of, someone else's feelings and/or motives. I would even go so far as to say readers should have empathy for 99% of characters--that's what keeps us reading. The one exception is a particularly fascinating antagonist/villain, such as a Hannibal Lecter.

Of course, authors have many tools at their disposal to tell their stories and engender empathy. These include dialogue, character's thoughts, description of setting and action and narrative. There are some special writerly mechanisms to make characters empathetic:

• make the character an underdog or experience some kind of trauma
  Note: it's important the character not feel sorry for him/herself
• show the character caring about other people
• show other people caring about the character
• have the character protect or help someone less powerful than themselves.

As examples, Harry Potter was a huge underdog at the beginning of his adventures, and Katniss Everdeen took her little sister's place in The Hunger Games, and we liked them immediately! Character's thoughts and backstory can be particularly effective in making characters empathetic. And don't forget to give you character some flaws! :)

It has been said that the ability to create fiction and other artistic works is a fundamental aspect of human culture and one of the defining characteristics of humanity. So, why not use all the tools at your disposal to create fiction that engenders empathy and hence insights into the human condition?

D is for Dialogue

Dialogue is crucial in many kinds of writing. What I see sometimes in my critique partners' writing (and mine, if I'm honest) is dialogue that doesn't go anywhere. For example, "Hi, how's it going?" "Good, how's it going with you?" "Good. Thanks. So, what'cha up to?" "Oh, you know..."
Ugh. Don't do this. Dialogue needs to serve a purpose like all other writing; it should further the plot or build character or similar. Dialogue needs to sound like real people talking--but better.

As an example of good dialogue, here's an excerpt from Aaron Sorkin's Academy Award-winning script for "The Social Network":

ERICA
--I have to study.

MARK
You don't have to study. You don't have to study. Let's just talk.

ERICA
I can't.

MARK
Why?

ERICA
Because it's exhausting. Dating you is like dating a stairmaster.

It's difficult to get the full flavor of the movie (and dialogue) in just a few lines, but I think you get the idea.
For the rest of us mere mortals, how can we track down dialogue that's not working? Reading it aloud can really help.

One of my writer friends wrote a good blog entry on dialogue a while back: Make or Break Dialogue. Ooh, I see he has another: Great Dialogue. And there's one from me, too: on inconsistent dialogue. Check 'em out!

Good luck with your dialogue!

C is for Conflict

The heart of every story is conflict. In fact, without conflict there isn't a story/plot. I'd even go so far as to say conflict is key in a story or novel.

To be clear, conflict does not have to be a physical battle. Conflict does not even have to involve an antagonist. I had a critique partner who sometimes seemed to lose sight of this.

Recall, there are really very few kinds of stories:

• (wo)man versus (wo)man
  
• (wo)man versus nature
  
• (wo)man versus self

What do all these plots have in common? Versus, i.e. conflict. (Okay, they also have (wo)man but I'll come back to that later in the month.) So, go ahead, torture your darlings! Make your characters suffer. Give your writing conflict.

Les Edgerton has a very nice blog post on this subject: Creating Tension

I should also mention C is for contest. My colleagues over at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers have opened up their annual contest for entries of fiction novels. There are six categories: Action/Thriller, Mainstream, Mystery, Romance, and Speculative Fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror) and YA (all subgenres). This is a good contest, run by good writerly folks, and has led to some book contracts.

Good luck!

B is for Book

My first "B" thought was buzz, as in buzz or publicity or excitement that's created about books, but I already blogged about that in Book Buzz, so let's talk about books... (And, yes, blog, is too on-the-nose.)

There has been a lot of, well, buzz, in the blogosphere about e-books and self-publishing. The biggest stories last month were Barry Eisler turning down a $500,000 traditional publishing deal and self-e-published Amanda Hocking getting a $2,000,000 traditional publishing deal. They gave an interview together here. Clearly things are in a state of flux. What this all means for books, I don't know.

But, what can I say? I love physical books. I'm never going to embrace e-books like p-books. :) Perhaps that's because you can't teach an old dog new tricks (And, yes, I'm the old dog in this metaphor). Perhaps it's because I worked at the public library during my teenaged years. Maybe it's because I write speculative fiction and my imagination is too active. (What's going to happen to all those e-books when civilization collapses?) Whatever, the reason, I hope physical books are here to stay.

What do you think?

A is for Author

Perhaps the most obvious thing related to writing is author. There can be no writing without authors! (At least not until they really perfect that writing software. :) ) Right now, I'm pondering what to teach my fellow aspiring authors for my MFA teaching practicum requirement. I think the best piece of advice for an aspiring author is: write! I know it's obvious, but you have to write in order to be an author. Also, as the years slog by for me as an aspiring author, another good piece of advice seems to be: don't give up.

A also seems to be for advice. What do you think? What advice would you give an aspiring author?

Since we're talking about authors, I really should acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe many authors. Thanks go out to the many authors whose work I've loved over the years and who made me love books. Thanks go out to my fellow aspiring authors, my fellow students, my critique partners. I sincerely appreciate your words of commiseration, support and encouragement! You rock! And thanks go out to the authors who I've had the pleasure to meet or know in person and who have encouraged my work. You rock, too! And, yes, I will consider some vocabulary-building exercises. :)

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!