I'm really bad at genres. Like, really bad. I'm bad with any kind of categorization. And I generally don't do it. But. As I talk to people about this years NaNo, I can't help but come across the question What's your genre? So I was wondering if you kind people of the forum could give me an idea of what I'm dealing with here.
In short terms, my story is about an assassin mourning his lost love. He's doing his job, but he feels like there's no real point anymore: all he's ever done is assassinate people to be able to be with the love of his life, and now the only reason for his existence has been brutally murdered before his very eyes. He goes through the motions, but he starts seeing this love of his in different locations. And he starts receiving messages from gods of the different cultures he works among. The gods seek him out, appear in flesh and blood. And the lost love, the phantom, seems to want revenge. So he starts seeking out the killers. He starts to want revenge. He makes mistakes, he gets psychotic, he rebels against the gods who all try to persuade him to do their bidding, whatever it may be. And in the end, everything crumbles (predictably).
All in all, this story is filled with all kinds of "paranormal" things, a lot of random occurences, violence, gory details about the killings (and all that juicy stuff to fatten up my word count). BUT, the problem is that all that weird stuff is really only happening in his head. So I can't put this directly under Fantasy or Paranormal or whatever. So, what is this?
And as said, I'm bad with genres, so if the answer is obvious, please don't be mean. I'm a sensitive soul. (Right.) And I'm not as clear in English as I am in my mother tongue, so I apologize for the possibly confusing nature of this post.
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"'No man', proclaimed Donne, 'is an Island', and he was wrong. If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each other's tragedies." - American Gods, Neil Gaiman
50,246 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2007 - 16 37
Do you need to really label your novel yet? You clearly know what it's about, so why not write it, and then at the end, sit down and reread it - you might find that as you wrote, certain aspects assumed a bigger role than expected, or a smaller role. Unless it's vitally important, I'd not stress too much about genre now. Save the stress bunnies for NaNo writing ;-)
(I'm useless at genres too, but I am not trying to get published, and know that my Fanfic belongs here in Other Genres!)
Good luck with NaNo!
----------BFS goals - http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1075131
50,224 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2007 - 02 19
You're definitely floating somewhere between a Romance and Adventure.
(I think there's a big misconception that "romance" has to be a cheesy story about a guy on a sailboat whisking away from fragile and beautiful young woman with a candlelit backdrop or something). Clearly your MC is motivated by love, and he pursues a huge series of adventures. Paranormal events are important to consider, but unless your story focuses on them (i.e., a story about a ghost and his journey through death/heaven/etc), they are usually considered to be devices of the larger plot, which, in your story seems to be an Adventure storyline.
I almost want to say Fantasy because of the Gods, but because they are background elements (alike to the paranormal events you mentioned) and not dominating the main storyline, i still want to file this one under Adventure.
Hope this helps :)
53,699 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2007 - 02 56
...I don't know, but it sounds freaking fantastic.