| Saipanwriter | Genre Anyone? |
    45,877 / 50,000 Municipal Liaison Joined: Oct 9, 2005
Location: Saipan, CNMI, Northern Marianas, Micronesia Posts:
437
Posted on:
Oct 20, 2009 - 00 24 |
I tend to think it's not really a good idea to talk too much ahead of time about the novel you're hoping to write. So no lengthy descriptions here! But a little bit of information sharing might help us generate some enthusiasm and help us get psyched! So what genre(s) are you going to explore this Nano 2009? I'm back for historical fiction combined with mystery--a sequel to last year's novel. |
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42,562 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 03 13
Going for supernatural mystery/romance, with indecision on whether or not to incorporate some steampunk elements in to it... (what can I say - my category genre is as scatterbrained as I am lol)
45,877 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 17 29
I met with students at SSHS yesterday, who will be starting the Nanowrimo challenge on 11/1 with us. [I'm not sure they'll stay for the whole month. Their class ends on 11/13 when the quarter ends...(sigh)]. But in the discussion, the one aspect of novels that they really seemed to grasp was genre (although they didn't know how to pronounce it). But they brought it up.
And alas, the ONE genre category they missed was historical fiction. (sigh again).
Steampunk, suspense, mystery, romance, and supernatural/fantasy they got! Sounds like fun, Sea Phoenix!
----------Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com
36,464 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 00 27
I'm going to be working on a YA book. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll e sharing it with my class as some of it is a little old for them (I've got 4-6th grades and the MC is 16) . But I'm really looking forward to it!
42,562 / 50,000
Oct 25, 2009 - 07 30
Could be relational... If kids/teens are anything like they were when I was in high school - anything "historical" was generally avoided . Not sure why - just seemed to be the attitude of the time (myself included - I didn't start getting into historical fiction genres till about maybe my senior year... before that it was all fantasy or sci-fi).
I think historical fiction (and also steampunk, for this purpose, since it requires familiarity with the Victorian age before being able to tweak it to accommodate the fictional technology) can often require a great deal more research than the average fantasy or modern time setting novel (depending on content, of course). Sure - the story is fictional.. but the details need to be sound and accurate. I see this especially with historic romance novels - some writers are exceptional, and some, I wonder how they even got to the editor stage, much less, publishing. Something about seeing dark age clothing designs described in a setting that occurs in late medieval period... or seeing Regency styles set in Victorian times, and described as the latest fashion... clothing style can be the most blatant thing done wrong in poorly written historic novels (of any genre) - then comes the researching for the politics of the day (a time period is shaped by the current events, whether noticed or unnoticed), and also the common use technology of the time (not every house had a shower in Victorian times - and the few that actually were in existence were not the wonderful, smoothly operating showers that we take for granted today - and yet. for example, I've seen on numerous occasions where a given set of characters will not only not be surprised at shower facilities in a given home, but will expect them everywhere they go, and expect them to operate just like a modern shower) - cultural behaviors and social courtesies should be given due consideration as well. What's acceptable today is usually not acceptable behavior when going back in any length of time greater than a couple of decades. Use of language changes, slang, meanings of words, gender roles and interaction...
So, definitely a lot of research needed to get things right, and set the environment up for the willing suspension of disbelief on the readers' parts. If the reader can believe in the setting, the characters and plot tend to become much more easily accepted.
From my perspective of my peers when I was a teen, looking back on it now (because I certainly wasn't thinking these things back then lol!) - for the average teen all of that historical detail was just too much to overly think about - everything truly exciting or interesting either happens now or will come about in the future, and history was history... not nearly as important or interesting as what could be going on today or tomorrow...
Love historical fiction now, much more so than most straight fantasy novels (although those and sci-fi used to be my favorite as a teen) - I of course still love a good story line in just about any genre - but I love to see how the authors go about fitting things in to their proper time periods, for the historical novels. :-)
45,877 / 50,000
Oct 25, 2009 - 16 52
I'm writing my historical fiction set here in Saipan and on Guam. There's not a ton of stories, as there are for Victorian and Regency period. That makes it both easier and harder--easier because it hasn't all been done to death; harder because i'm hacking through the jungle with a 30-day machete! Haha!
Liss-My historical is also YA. Love YA--my favorite genre.
----------Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com
42,562 / 50,000
Oct 25, 2009 - 21 20
Sounds awesome! I'd actually been wondering about that a few months back - I have a story I'd started several years ago that I eventually want to pick up again. I have it set loosely on an island type location (for the purpose of incorporating the selkie folktales). I've been wanting to find a way to rewrite it to tailor to Guam now that I'm living here, as this island fits a lot of what I had in my head for visuals, plus, as you said, not too many stories set in locations out here... but I'm running in to one key problem... the closest seals, and only ones in Micronesia area are the Hawaiian Monk Seals... So far I've found nothing that could even point to the historical existence of seals out this way in decades or centuries prior, otherwise I could work that in still, somehow. About the only other solution would be to see if I could find a way to explain the presence of a seal... maybe an escaped specimen that had just been shipped in for the marine lab or a zoo? Don't really know... but it's one of the stories on the back burner, and hopefully I can eventually figure out a solution to make it work in Guam.... :-)
45,367 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 07 03
I'm trying an absurdist science fiction story with some political skullduggery, historical fiction and romance for texture. A lot of this owes to how much I enjoy Christopher Moore, the author of "Lamb,"
Of course, since we're here and our stories are set elsewhere, research will like the life's blood for our efforts. Google Maps has been spectacular so far in tandem with WIkipedia.
45,877 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 18 55
I gave up on the historical fiction on 10/31--when I realized I just wasn't prepared enough to do a mad writing month on a period I haven't researched or looked at since last nano.
So far, I'm writing, but still don't know what genre. It's looking a bit like YA, but there's a dead body that's just been found, so possibly mystery?
Really, it's just random genre!
----------Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com
42,562 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 19 36
My story has shifted a bit and is calming down into a more narrowed genre... no steam punk elements - the romance at this point is highly questionable as well.. it's turning more into just supernatural/thriller/mystery.. we'll see though. Characters seem to be writing themselves at the moment, despite the roughly done outline I had going :-)
3,379 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 02 49
I'm doing an Urban Fantasy type thing.
42,562 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 03 25
Roott and I were talking - and we would like to have an official write-in for Guam put on the calender. Next Sunday the 15th - at 1pm over at the Bestseller bookstore down by the GPO mall.. It's got a little cafe section, and plugs available for laptop use.
(Edit: woops - I'd meant to post this in the intro section... coffee addled brain at work - or not at work actually!)
45,877 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 21 32
No problem. I'll get it on the calendar. (Next time maybe just nanomail me.)
----------Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com
45,877 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 04 10
24,000 words in and it appears I am writing a YA cozy mystery type thing.
I might not have recognized it as a cozy, except I went over to the mystery genre thread to figure out why I had dead bodies showing up and what to do with them.
:- )
----------Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com
42,562 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 04 24
LOL... because nothing says cozy quite like a truck load of dead bodies :-)
Yay on the word count and pinning down the genre! My story can't decide if it'll be romance or not - but it does have a healthy dose of military conspiracy theory going on. I guess I'll just keep writing and see what happens :-)