The Genre Box
Does genre really matter for creative branding?
Hello, Sunshine ☀️! Welcome back to the Hinterlands 🌳🌳.
I found an old blog post I wrote many years ago (circa 2013) as a guest spot for another author. In short, it was a rant about genre: I felt confined by advice from other authors and mentors who, following the publication of my debut novel, The Grim, told me I needed to stick to psychological suspense. This advice annoyed me because, at the time, I had an active work in progress that was more romantic suspense and was also dreaming up the early outlines of my current YA fantasy, The Lova Chronicles.
I lamented being “shoved into a box”, made to stick to a certain expectation. I wanted to write “the stories of my heart”, regardless of where it fit when I needed to classify it later.
Ah, the naivete 😌
We’ve had the discussion often here about genre, and that’s because I think about it a lot. I have ideas I may never write because they don’t exist within the brand I’m building here in the Hinterlands. And not all of those ideas are terrible ones. That romantic suspense I mentioned was about two couples whose lives collide when the husband of one couple and the wife of the other engage in an extramarital affair. And what’s worse: I know this idea would have sold like hotcakes because it had thousands of reads on FanFiction once upon a time. It’s popularity is what made me want to convert the story into a novel in the first place.
It took me a long time to connect the stories I want to tell to the brand I wanted to build. I lacked a cohesiveness that I thought was rooted solely in the categorical positioning of my stories. But…it’s infinitely more than that. There’s a through-line I needed to find, and that required real reflection over time.
Does genre even matter now?
Honestly, this question has a complicated answer. From a consumer standpoint, no—readers have a very generalized idea now about genre, with subgenres having become an almost nonentity for most. But, as a creator, I do have to know what it is I make. Because when it’s time to sell it, I have to place it where it belongs, package and promote it like others in its category, and describe it in a way readers who like that sort of thing will recognize.
With music, it’s a bit harder, because music lovers tend to be more particular. They do understand genre and categories, down to finite niches. They know and can describe the difference between pop rock and alt rock, down to band examples and cadences. And they know very specifically what niche genres they like and don’t, what they will support with cult fandom, and what they’ll simply stream occasionally on Spotify. And in my humble opinion, as someone who has produced both books and music, book production is cheaper—if the goal is to create quality without the use of generative-AI.
Asking the Hard Question
I was so naive in the early days because I didn’t understand my creative brand. I loved to tell stories. All that mattered was what I had to say, and that was important, however it came out. So, I wrote it all down; I sang it all out. And the catharsis was surreal. I understood my purpose.
I would learn later how genre correlates to branding, and the central question I needed to answer before I pursued my singing or writing career further:
Who am I?
In my 20s and even 30s, I didn’t know. I was gaining snippets of knowledge to answer that question, but as they say, “Life be life-ing”, and I legitimately didn’t get the full picture of who I am and what I want to say until my 40s. It wasn’t until I could answer “Who am I?” that I was able to fully define my brand.
Brand Definition: Just Fantasy…?
I said in that original blog post that I don’t just write psychological suspense. And that’s true. Nothing that I’ve written or plan to write in the next few years is psychological suspense. The Lova Chronicles is a young adult fantasy series, and my follow-up series will be cozy fantasy mystery. (Correction: The Grim will get an overhaul prior to releasing a sequel that my father has not-so-humbly demanded.) From a genre perspective, none of these three go together; there’s no obvious thread. But after examining myself and the kinds of things I’ve written throughout my life—songs, poems, short stories, novels, essays, blogs—I do see the pattern. And if you’ve been with me for any length of time, Sunshine, you see it, too.
I write monsters.
Mythical creatures, the spirit lurking in the shadows, and the demons within. All of them monsters, hiding ominously in our everyday lives. My favorite films have monsters, be they psychological or fantastical, and I watch an inordinate amount of true crime—because it shows the monsters within us.
I settled on fantasy because it was a genre favorite in adolescence, a form of escapism that allowed me to dissociate from the dangers of the real world. The monsters in everyday life sometimes felt impossible to fight, but in books, I had powers and magic that rebuked the dark and summoned the light. And in fantasy, the monsters could be a real creature that could only be vanquished by sword or magic, or a phantasm bred in the main character’s mind. Fantasy gives me flexibility, even when I set the obstacles in a world that mirrors our own.
You see, I never won any of my own battles with a monster. At best, I merely escaped. But in the worlds I created, my MCs can win—and do.
It Still Varies Though
In my quest to develop a new, evergreen reader magnet for you, Sunshine, I needed to fully understand what my particular blend of fantasy is likely to give you. I settled on three, all with varying degrees of darkness.
Fantasy Suspense. In the style of M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Split, The Village), these stories will be the darkest I write. They may have ambiguous endings that force you to question whether the monster was real or imagined with unreliable narrators you might not even like. The tone is darker and likely scarier, bordering on thriller and horror with classic fantasy elements like magic and the supernatural.
Story Doors in this category: The Grim series, The Nobody Man trilogy, The Nightborn Pact
Dark Fantasy. These books will mimic the classic 80s fantasy I grew up with and have talked about a lot here: The Secret of NIMH, The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, and, of course, The Last Unicorn. Classic book examples might be the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, Harry Potter, or The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. These stories are dark because the evil is brazen and clear-cut, but the horror elements are less prominent.
Story Doors in this category: The Lova Chronicles, The Dark Realms trilogy, The Mage Sisters Saga
Cozy Fantasy. This genre technically shouldn’t have any suspense, but again—I write monsters. These stories will give all the feels and vibes that make you want to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a soft blanket, but will still have the suspense and danger I’m known for. We’re talking safe danger here though, if there is such a thing lol. Think Murder, She Wrote or Only Murders in the Building. They won’t just be mysteries, I think—or maybe they will 🤷🏽♀️
Story Doors in this category: the Red Riding Roux Mysteries, the Elm Street Crew
Reader Magnet. I’m writing a new reader magnet that will allow you to experience each of these genres in my repertoire. It’s a choose-your-own journey adventure where you can determine your personal level of scary. And if you like them all—well, jump into all three! I’m hoping to have that available for you this summer.
And while you’re waiting—
