Yo. I'm new. Ain't that nifty? Anyway...
I can't tell whether this is a horror, thriller, sci-f or fantasy...
SYNOPSIS:
A group of... random people unwittingly band together to counter against an ancient cult of brain-addling monks. These said monks try to kill off everyone on the planet - because everyone's a 'sinner'. They do this by using advanced technology that literally shreds the fabric of reality apart.
Wow, it actually sounds awful and absurd. I apologize!
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60,054 / 50,000
Jan 22, 2008 - 13 28
Well, it's nearly impossible to tell from just a synopsis, so what you're going to have to do is look at the overarching themes of the book, and what the focus is. If the main focus and drive is the technology, and the technology has some basis in reality, then it's probably sci-fi. If there's no basis in reality, there might be fantasy. If you are more focused on the adventure leading up to the final confrontation, then it's adventure.
What you want to do is look at the novels in the area you're thinking it is, and decide which it's closest to. H.P. Lovecraft can be classified as mystery or fantasy, but the focus makes it unequivocally horror. :)
----------Heather
Forums Moderator
0 / 50,000
Jan 23, 2008 - 06 45
You make some sense *a compliment there* :P
trouble is, that the elements are all as sinificant as the other.
the cult itself is... horrorlike
but their technology is sci-fi (plays a bigger part than says in the synopsis). i shpose u could compare it to being doctor whoish.
however, the way its written is adventure/ fantasyish
maybe it's just an oddity.
60,054 / 50,000
Jan 23, 2008 - 10 15
Unlikely, but always possible. The important thing to remember is that genre is actually completely irrelevant... it's a mere shelving technique, a way of getting readers to look in the same place for books they might like. Someone who hates fantasy, for example, doesn't want to have to comb through fantasy while they're looking at non-fiction books... it just gives us an arbitrary means of organizing things on our shelves, so that you know that if you usually like books of one type, you might like books of a similar type.
It's not really useful to assign a genre (unless you just know) until the book is finished, anyway. I have one book, for example, that started out as a cyberpunk science fiction... but it's already turning (much to my dismay) into a romance.
What matters is the end product, not where it sorta is in the midst of writing. Nothing stops you here, for example, from using all the genre forums related to your novel... no one is going to kick you out of the fantasy forum for writing something that's also a bit of a horror. :)
Here's the analogy I like to use: A novel is like a cake. What matters isn't the ingredients you put together, it's what you pull out of the oven at the end.
All cakes will have the same basic ingredients: eggs, flour, milk (I know, I know, some don't but stay with me.). Just because the cake has eggs in it doesn't make it an egg in the end; it's how you combine them, how long you cook it, and what other ingredients you add. Combine the same ingredients in different proportions, and you get muffins. Add chocolate, and you get something new, that's still a cake, but has a little more.
Genre is like that. Just because it has some elements of horror in it doesn't make it a horror. :)
----------Heather
Forums Moderator
0 / 50,000
Jan 23, 2008 - 15 55
aha.
the guy who compares the elements of something (novel) to the ingredients of a cake!
Always useful. Puts things into perspective.
Guess I'll just wait until I've finished it, read it through, THEN decide on its genre.
*bows* only a small bow, mind :P