genre crossing text in creative writing

Genre Cross-Writing: A Methodology for Writing as Our Selves

• Haley Wellner Marquette University

Creative research methods are not prominent in the field of writing studies. I define creative research methods as artistic tools that can be utilized when trying to gain knowledge that brings depth or a new perspective to a topic, knowledge that might not be discovered when using traditional research methods. However, these tools and methods can bring dynamic, unconventional thinking into writing research, including undergraduate research. This paper offers an example based on my own work, which started with a class project that became the pilot for more formalized research. I feature genre cross-writing, a creative method that I first developed as an autoethnographic tool that I used to see how all of my identities worked together. Genre cross-writing also helped me explore the complexities of other people, their identities, and the genres they write. I coupled genre cross-writing with a heuristic designed to assist exploration of the different kinds of identities we embody. I encourage other researchers to consider incorporating creative methods into their work to gain more perspectives on the intricacies research can bring to the surface.

Author Biography

Haley Wellner double majored in Accounting and Writing-Intensive English and graduated from Marquette University in May 2021. She has been enlisted in the Wisconsin Army National Guard since April 2014 and is currently working towards her Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license.

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Genre is used and defined in different ways depending on different social and cultural contexts. For writers, genre is often thought of as a system of labelling works designed to help publishers, booksellers and readers, rather than as a helpful construct to assist during the writing process. Yet by drawing on a sociolinguistic and applied linguistic application of genre, the importance of considering genre and using genre as a tool during the writing process becomes clear. Different genres are applicable in different social contexts and considering genre when writing enables writers to communicate their ideas in the clearest possible way. The boundaries of genres are constantly renegotiated in social interaction between writers and readers through texts, shifting to reflect changing social contexts. Through the decision to conform to or subvert genre conventions in their writing, writers contribute to these changing genre boundaries.

Keywords : creative writing, genre, writing process, writing tools, linguistics

Introduction

Categorizing works by genre can be controversial in literature (Chandler 2000; Gaiman & Ishiguro 2015; Kim 2016; Wilkins 2005). Attaching labels to literary works is at times considered to be “pigeon-holing” works into set categories and thus undermining the complexity of the work or judging the work according to guidelines that do not accurately fit the text (Westwood 2011). Additionally, genre categorization is seen as a marketing tool for publishers to help sell books (Gaiman & Ishiguro 2015; Kim 2016). Yet genre is a term which is also applied and used in other fields, in particular in linguistics. While a literary view of genre places less importance on the role of genre for writers, a sociolinguistic and applied linguistic application of genre focuses on the role of genre during the writing process, as different genres are applicable in different social contexts and genre affects aspects such as the tone and choice of language within a piece of writing (Halliday 1978; Halliday & Hasan 1985; Feez 1998; Whitney et al. 2011). Genre is not only a labelling system designed for readers, but an important part of text creation for writers. Literature and linguistics are two fields of study for which genre is important, but each field defines and applies the term in different ways (Crystal 2009; Murfin & Ray 2009). By combining the use of the term across both disciplines, genre becomes more than a system for categorizing writing and becomes a key part of the writing process.

Genre conventions are in constant negotiation and renegotiation between writers and readers through texts, and these conventions change in response to changing social contexts (Halliday 1978). These changes emerge based on negotiations between a writer’s intent and reader expectation (Halliday 1978). Genre conventions are not prescriptive; rather, genres are fluid (Wilkins 2005). Classifying literary works into genres according to stylistic and content conventions ensures that readers have an idea of what to expect from specific genres before they start to read. Readers’ knowledge of particular genres guides them towards particular books. If choosing to read a work classified as a memoir, a reader would expect to read about the writer’s life from the writer’s perspective. While Chandler (2000) suggests that classifying works in such a way leads to passive rather than active readers, reader expectation is important and writers should not ignore the role of the reader in text creation. Thinking about genre during the writing process is one way writers can consider reader expectation.

Writer and editor Dinah Lenney explains the importance of reader expectation in regards to the number of books published over the last few years which were marketed as autobiographical yet were later revealed to be fiction:

People have been writing autobiographical fiction for just about ever – and blurring genre boundaries, too. But if you don’t clue us in, if we find out after the fact, it’s a one-sided game, isn’t it? In which case, you’re all alone on the seesaw. Does that sound like fun? Does that sound like art? If so, okay –  but whoever you are, you’re not  writing nonfiction. Because a nonfiction writer  doesn’t  want her reader up in the air! She doesn’t want him to wonder or doubt. She has an obligation. Her job –  that is  my  job –  is actually different from the job of a fiction writer. And I want my reader to believe he can count on me to revel in its challenges and rewards. (Lenney 2013)

An example is James Frey’s 2003 book,  A Million Little Pieces, which was originally marketed as a memoir (Borst 2010). The book tells the story of a drug and alcohol addict in his mid-twenties and follows his journey as he goes through a rehabilitation programme. Subsequently, in 2005, the book was chosen as a selection for Oprah Winfrey’s book club, which catapulted the title to number one on the New York Times bestseller list (Borst 2010). However, sections of the memoir were found to have exaggerated and stretched the truthfulness of Frey’s life ( The Smoking Gun 2006), which resulted in controversy surrounding the book. Frey claimed that, despite the fabrications, the book told the “essence” of his story (CNN 2006). Even so, many readers felt cheated by the way in which Frey changed details of his life. Frey essentially broke a social contract with his readers by claiming the book was true when in actual fact it was largely fictionalized. It was not merely a case of Frey pushing genre boundaries but of readers feeling as though they had been lied to. This is despite the fact Frey maintains that he was open and honest about the exaggerations and fabrications in the book throughout the publicity process (CNN 2006). Still, by publishing the book as a memoir despite the amount of fabrication, Frey failed to “clue [his readers] in” (to use Lenney’s phrase) (Lenney 2013) and therefore did not let them in on the joke. Writers can cross genre boundaries, but only once a writer is aware of the expectations of the genre. The reader is then aware of the rules before the writer breaks them, and is in on the joke. The reader can thus better understand what the author is trying to do and appreciate the creativity and complexity within such texts.

In this very journal, writers have a decision to make regarding genre before putting pen to paper: is an academic paper or a piece of creative writing a more suitable form for my research? Additionally, the very fact that the journal accepts creative writing as scholarly work when essential to an article challenges traditional thinking about what constitutes research output (Strange et al. 2016). Furthermore, whenever writers choose to submit their writing to literary journals, they ideally would first familiarize themselves with the kind of writing published by the journal to ensure their work is suitable for the publication, at both the level of genre (short story, poem, review) and sub-genre (fantasy, romance, science fiction). This paper will explore how genre conventions are negotiated between writers and readers through texts, and examine how writers can use genre as a tool during the writing process to assist in text construction.

Defining Genre

Heather Dubrow (1982) and Daniel Chandler (2000) discuss the difficulties in finding a universally agreed upon definition of genre, given that the term is applied differently in different contexts and is dependent upon both cultural and social (and marketing) factors. Chandler quotes film theorist Robert Stam:

A number of perennial doubts plague genre theory. Are genres really ‘out there’ in the world, or are they merely the constructions of analysts? Is there a finite taxonomy of genres or are they in principle infinite? Are genres timeless Platonic essences, or ephemeral, time-bound entities? Are genres culture-bound or transcultural?... Should genre analysis be descriptive or proscriptive? (Stam 2000 cited in Chandler 2000: 1)

Genre is defined and used differently in different contexts and disciplines and there are still areas of contention in discussions of genre theory. Despite this, according to Ross Murfin and Supriya M. Ray (2009: 202), a literary definition of genre sees the term as “the classification of literary works on the basis of their content, form, or technique”. This definition suggests that, in a literary sense, genre categorization is seen to occur after the writing process, rather than being an important consideration during text creation. The definition also acknowledges that many critics have criticized “the underlying idea that literary works can be classified according to set, specific categories”, yet contemporary thinking on the topic takes the view that genre is a “set of similarities shared by some (but by no means all) works which are classified together” (Murfin & Ray 2009: 203). This perspective places importance upon the role of the publisher and the reader in constructing genre, and the ways in which the reader’s interaction with a text is influenced by the genre categorization of that text. It suggests that genre is fluid, rather than prescriptive (Wilkins 2005). The focus of this fluidity is on the ways in which readers renegotiate their expectations of genres based on their reading experiences, thus shifting the boundaries of genres, with little attention given to the role genre plays in the writing process for writers (Chandler 2000; Wilkins 2005; Westwood 2011).

Novelist Kim Wilkins (2005) explores the idea of the fluidity of genre in relation to her 2004 novel,  Giants of the Frost . Wilkins explores how her own intentions, along with how readers reacted to her novel and the influence of booksellers, publishers and tertiary institutions, caused her novel to be categorized differently according to the different social contexts. For example, Wilkins’ different publishers each represented different elements from the novel on the front covers to reflect the different publishing contexts: her Australian publisher highlighted the fantasy and historical aspects of the book, her UK publisher historical fiction, and her US publisher romance fiction. Furthermore, different reviewers situated Giants of the Frost within many different genres, such as fantasy, dark romance and horror (Wilkins 2005).

Genre is more complex than a labelling system and marketing tool for works of literature. Genres emerge based on influences from wider society and on communicative need. A study by three researchers with experience in teaching high school English highlights this point. Whitney et al. (2011: 525) identified that high school students have little understanding of how writing is relevant outside of the assignments they write for their teachers. The aim of their research was to use genre as a way of teaching students about writing to deepen their understanding and awareness of form and structure and how genre is constructed by social functions. They write that:

…over time, people in recurring social situations develop consensual, conventional ways of understanding and responding. These genres are not only forms for action within situations, but they also shape the situations themselves and constrain, in helpful ways, the meanings one might make therein. Thus, genres are not fixed structures that some great arbiter of writing and its forms has decreed long ago from on high, much as it might seem that way to student writers. Instead, genres are living traditions—temporary, flexible agreements about how to get communicative jobs done. (Whitney et al. 2011: 526)

Genre conventions are fluid and these conventions change over time to accommodate different social contexts and ways of communication.

While linguistics also sees genre as “an identifiable category of literary composition” (Crystal 2009:210) and acknowledges the fluidity of genre, the discipline also emphasizes the importance of being familiar with genre conventions in text creation:

…a genre imposes several identifiable characteristics on a use of language, notably in relation to subject-matter, purpose (e.g. narrative, allegory, satire), textual structure, form of argumentation and level of formality. (Crystal 2009:210)

Linguist Michael Halliday further argues that a writer needs to understand the purpose behind their creation, because that purpose will dictate appropriate language choice, register and structure of the work (Halliday 1978). Literary studies focuses on the role of the reader in genre categorization, while a sociolinguistic and applied linguistic perspective places as much importance on the role of genre as a tool for the writer as it does on the role of the reader in constructing genre conventions (Halliday 1978; Halliday & Hasan 1985; Feez 1998). Halliday writes that “the form a text has as a property of its genre… defines for it a certain generic structure, which determines such things as its length [and] the types of participants” (Halliday 1978: 133-134). Halliday gives the example of a text entitled Fables of our time . Some aspects of the generic structure of fables includes featuring animals as characters and a clear moral at the end of the story. The genre dictates particular features of the text.

Halliday further writes that “the essential feature of text, therefore, is that it is interaction. The exchange of meanings is an interactive process, and text is the meaning of exchange” (Halliday 1978: 139- 140). All texts are created to communicate meaning and take part in an interaction, whether that be between a speaker and listener or a writer and reader. The way in which the meaning is communicated is as important as the way in which the listener or the reader receives that communication. Therefore, a linguistic application of genre sees genre as an essential aspect of the writing process. This is a perspective shared by the field of literary stylistics. Jeremy Scott (2014: 95) discusses stylistics and creative writing, beginning his discussion with the statement: “To write is to be a linguist.” Scott goes on to say that “combining stylistics and creative writing provides opportunities to explore how you can write, how to avoid certain common pitfalls of the beginning writer and, at the very least, to consider in-depth the question posed by Toolan… why these words, and not others?” (96)

Genre as a Tool for Writers

In recent years, genre has been considered more broadly in terms of the social contexts in which different genres apply (Bawarshi 2000; Chandler 2000; Halliday 1978; Johns et al. 2006). Genre as it is traditionally used in literature has been influenced by groundwork in applied linguistics developed by MAK Halliday through the 1970s and 1980s (Halliday 1978; Halliday & Hasan 1985). Halliday proposed a system, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), for considering different text types within their social context in order to analyze why particular texts are structured in particular ways and how the social context affects the language used in those texts (Halliday 1978; Halliday & Hasan 1985). Thus, particular generic structures are common to texts created to function within a specific social context.  For example, the purpose of academic writing is to engage with other scholars in the field and for the writer to communicate their own original research and ideas. Therefore, academics should choose discipline-specific technical language, a formal tone and a set structure to compose such a text. If an academic then wished to write about their research in a media outlet for a non-expert, general readership, the choice of language and structure would be different because the purpose and the social context has changed (Rothman 2014). Halliday’s work saw genre start to be applied more broadly, from literature works to any type of text, including essays, obituaries, speeches and reports. This led to a shift away from focusing on the form of genre to focusing on the social function of genre. This perspective indicates that, in order for a writer to write, the writer needs to know the purpose of their work so that they choose appropriate linguistic and stylistic conventions in order to communicate their message in the clearest possible way (Halliday 1978; Halliday & Hasan 1985).

Purpose dictates genre, and thus the choice of language and form. In the context of Writing in Practice , a clear genre choice is presented to every writer who chooses to submit to the journal: an academic paper or a piece of creative writing? Either of these choices is considered to be scholarly; however, the form and function of each option each provides a very different way of presenting academic research. Consequently, it is important for writers to be aware of the conventions of the genre or genres they wish to write in, so the writer can make appropriate language choices for the social context of the genre and clearly communicate the purpose of the writing.

Anis Bawarshi (2000) explores this evolution of genre and writes about the differences and intersections between a literary application of genre and a linguistic application of genre. He emphasizes the fact that much of the work in the repositioning of genre has occurred outside of literary studies (predominately in the fields of linguistics, education and sociology).  Within literary studies, genre has mostly “occupied a subservient role to its users and their (con)texts, at best used as a classificatory device… at worst censured as formulaic writing” (Bawarshi 2000: 336). To some extent, this thinking is still prevalent in literary studies (Gaiman & Ishiguro 2015; Kim 2016; Westwood 2011), although attitudes are changing (Wilkins 2005). In a later article, Bawarshi (2001: 70) goes on to explore the role of genre in the writing process through the lens of “ecocomposition”. Bawarshi (ibid.) further writes that “we create our contexts as we create our texts”, suggesting the importance of genre for a writer during the writing process. By considering genre in this way, genres become a tool with which writers can construct their texts, rather than merely prescriptive guidelines used by marketing departments to sell more books.

Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro discussed the constraints and merits of genre categorization in the New Statesmen in June 2015. The discussion arose after Ishiguro’s novel, The Buried Giant , was not published as a fantasy novel despite the fact many aspects of fantasy are prevalent in the book. The labelling, or non-labelling, of Ishiguro’s novel drew criticism from both literary writers and genre-fiction writers (Gaiman & Ishiguro 2015).   Ishiguro suggests that genre boundaries “have been invented fairly recently” by the publishing industry and “worries” when readers and writers hold true to these boundaries. He further believes that marketing categories “are not helpful to anyone apart from publishers and bookshops”. The discussion raises some valid points when thinking about genre from a form perspective, yet it does not consider the functions of genre and how negotiating genre conventions occurs in conjunction with readers. In response to a comment from Gaiman pointing out that Ishiguro’s fight scenes in the novel do not resemble fight scenes generally found in fantasy, Ishiguro responds: “If I was aware of genre at all during the fight scenes, I was thinking of samurai films and westerns” (Gaiman & Ishiguro 2015). This suggests that Ishiguro did consider genre during the writing of The Buried Giant , as he drew on his knowledge of samurai films and westerns in writing the fight scenes, yet the discussion does not go into more detail about the role of genre in the writing process and how understanding genre conventions enables writers to successfully subvert genre expectations and, in the process, develop new genres.

Author Kim Westwood (2011) points out that those authors whose works “slip between the genre cracks” are still judged and critiqued by many critics and readers against the criterion of the genre their works have been pigeon-holed into. Westwood herself was deemed by some in the industry to be a speculative fiction writer after a short story she wrote won the Aurealis Awards. Her novel, The Daughters of Moab (2008), was subsequently published as science fiction and was therefore judged and critiqued against the criterion of the genre, despite the fact Westwood herself labels the novel as “poetic apocalyptic” (2011). American investigative journalist and novelist Suki Kim faced a similar genre issue upon publication of her book Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite , published in 2014. To write the book, Kim went undercover in North Korea, teaching English at a university in Pyongyang. Her intent was to write a book of investigative journalism about North Korea, a country where the people are constantly monitored and there are strict controls on what is or is not permitted (Kim 2016). After returning to the USA and writing her book, her publishers decided to include the words “a memoir” on the front cover because Kim framed the narrative using the first person and because memoirs written by women are commercially more successful than investigative journalism (ibid.). Kim fought against classifying the book as such, because she felt it undermined her purpose and the huge risks she had taken to conduct her research, but ultimately she was unsuccessful (ibid.). As a result, some reviewers judged her work against the merits and expectations of a memoir, rather than investigative journalism. Reviews in Kirkus (2014), the Chicago Tribune (Tsounderos 2014) and the Los Angeles Review of Books (Zeiser 2014) all focused on Kim’s deception of her students and questioned Kim’s ethics and dishonesty in writing the book. Kim writes that her work “was being dismissed for the very element that typically wins acclaim for narrative accounts of investigate journalism” (Kim 2016). In Kim’s case, her intention as an author when writing her book was replaced by the intention of her publisher upon the book’s publication and therefore her work was received and read by readers as memoir rather than investigative journalism. Categorizing writing according to genre runs the risk of alienating readers if they choose a work which crosses genre boundaries when they are expecting something more typical of the genre. Kim not only received reviews which questioned her ethics and deception of her students, but experienced abuse on social media and in her email inbox in response to her book (Kim 2016). It is for this reason that many within the literary industry see genre labels as arbitrary and not overly useful.

Creative writing as scholarly writing can be seen to be crossing genre boundaries, as creative writing is still a developing academic field (Owen 2006; Strange et al. 2016). Academics in creative writing are often held to the same academic expectations of other fields when those expectations do not adequately suit the nature of creative writing itself (Kroll 2002). Sue Norton, English Lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology, writes that creative writing is still not accepted as scholarly output, even when such writing directly relates to the topics a lecturer teaches:

A publishing writer who lectures in subject areas pertaining to writing, whether in a traditional English department or any other Arts or Humanities department, is likely to be well regarded by her students. But, ironically, she will win the regard of her institution much more readily by writing in fora meant not for the public, but for other academics. (Norton 2013: 71)

While in some academic environments creative output is considered one type of scholarly output, it is not the case across all institutions or all nations worldwide. In some cases, there is still little regard for the value of creative output as scholarly writing and more emphasis placed upon academic output such as refereed journal articles and book chapters. There is indication that this view of creative research is changing with practice-led research becoming more accepted in academia, but there is still a long way to go (Strange et al. 2016). Strange et al. write that “Universities are also increasingly recognizing creative works among their research outputs. Even if these outputs are not always accorded the same status as traditional research outputs they are now widely believed to make a significant contribution to practice-led research environments in arts and humanities’ faculties” (2016: 404). They acknowledge that practice-led research is still not accepted by everyone within the academy, yet this transition for creative works to be accepted as research output illustrates the way in which changing social contexts influence writing genres. As creative arts disciplines continue to grow within the university sector, so too what is considered as scholarly research must change to accommodate the changing context.

Negotiating Genre

On the other hand, David Buckingham questions what would happen if readers chose to read texts as a genre other than that of the labelled category: “We might well choose to read Neighbours [an Australian television soap opera], for instance, as a situation comedy—a reading which might focus less on empathizing with the psychological dilemmas of individual characters, and much more on elements of performance which disrupts its generally ‘naturalistic’ tone” (1993 cited in Chandler 2000: 8). What, then, if we chose to read all scholarly writing as creative writing? Original research requires creative thinking and to then transpose such research onto the page also requires a degree of creativity. I made a deliberate choice with this article to choose a more traditionally academic structure, but that choice does not preclude the reader from considering this article as creative writing. By the same token, what if we viewed writing we consider to be traditionally creative as scholarly? Good examples of creative writing often demonstrate research, original ideas and contributions to particular fields of writing, all traits which are shared with traditionally scholarly writing. It is these interactions between the writer’s intent and construction of a text, and the lens under which the reader chooses to read the text that creates an interaction between not only the reader and the text, but the reader and the writer. It is these interactions that contribute to the shifting boundaries of genre.

The engagement that occurs between writers and readers through texts to negotiate genre can also be clearly seen in foreign language learning. The text-based approach to language teaching emerged in the Australian TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) context, where there was a need to teach students language using whole texts (Feez 1998). The approach aims to show students how language can be constructed to make meaning, and how different ways of structuring language are more appropriate in different social contexts (Feez 1998). Thus, considering the social context and therefore which genre of writing will most clearly communicate the writer’s purpose is an essential aspect of the writing process, because both readers and writers are essential in negotiating genre conventions. Using the literary and linguistic applications of genre together demonstrates this process of negotiation and highlights the importance of genre from the very beginning of the writing process. In learning how to read and write in a second language in particular, students benefit from a wealth of knowledge about texts from their first language (Feez 1998). This prior knowledge is helpful when deciphering texts in a second language, as recognizing familiar layouts of particular text types or genres assists the students to make meaning of the foreign text. A recipe is a good example of this. Recipes have a very clear structure: a list of ingredients, followed by the method of how to create the dish. Thus, when being presented with a recipe in a foreign language, students are able to predict what grammatical structures and what vocabulary is likely to occur in the text, as they are familiar with the structure and purpose of a recipe from their own language. This knowledge therefore also helps students in structuring their own texts in foreign languages.

Outside of the language learning context, these same principles apply to how people read and construct texts in their native languages. Situating texts within their social contexts and considering textual features such as purpose and form enables writers to better communicate their meaning, and provides contextual information to readers before they start reading the content, allowing them to predict what the content will be before they start to read (Feez 1998). In Whitney et al.’s (2011) study, the researchers created a semester-long program to teach students about writing through genre. The students undertook a Nature Writing assignment and an Unfamiliar Genre assignment, where the students were encouraged to explore and write in a genre they were previously unfamiliar with. While the students read examples of work which fit into their chosen genre and kept particular conventions in mind, the focus was on how the genre connects with the social purpose of the piece of writing. The researchers “hoped students would see genres as tools and, in turn, see themselves as users of those tools, as writers who could select, study, and shape genres themselves rather than just completing assignments” (Whitney et al. 2011: 527). While current genre conventions were the starting point for the students in the study, they were encouraged to explore and shape the conventions of those genres themselves, both through responding to texts and writing texts of their own. Genre became a tool the students could use to create their own texts, rather than prescriptive guidelines they must not overstep.

A research article published in an academic journal has the purpose of disseminating new knowledge in the field to other researchers within the field (Rothman 2014). Therefore, immediately, the reader understands the language will be of a formal nature and use terminology from the field. The title will most likely be a short description of the content of the article, rather than the more abstract titles found on literary works, and headings will be used to organize the information. The abstract will give a summary of the article. By drawing on this knowledge and the social context of the writing, the reader has compiled enough contextual information to make sense of the content of the article and to engage with the ideas the writer is presenting. The very reason for including these features is to make the information easily digestible for the reader. That is not to suggest that including these features automatically means that a piece of writing which follows a particular structure will be well written. Genre is one of many tools at a writer’s disposal, and it is then up to how writers choose to use those tools. Therefore, considering conventions of genre is essential for a writer, as it assists in ensuring that the desired meaning is being communicated to the reader as clearly as possible. Furthermore, when targeting writing to particular publications, there are particular conventions of form that writers must adhere to. These conventions provide a framework for writers during the writing process.

Genre conventions emerge from the interaction between writers and readers in a fluid process that constantly shifts the boundaries of genres (Halliday 1978; Halliday & Hasan 1985; Chandler 2000; Wilkins 2005). Despite this, the ways in which writers use genre as a tool in the writing process has been largely overlooked in favour of exploring the role of readers and publishers in genre creation (Chandler 2000; Gaiman & Ishiguro 2015). In writing this article, I purposefully chose a traditional scholarly structure to communicate the ideas presented rather than structuring my writing in a more creative form because, as a scholar and a writer, structuring my writing in this way best suited my purpose in writing this article. While on first glance this article appears to more closely resemble traditional academic writing, there is nothing to prevent readers from examining this article under a creative writing lens (Buckingham 1993 cited in Chandler 2000). Doing so may influence a shift in the boundaries and social contexts which divide traditional scholarly writing and creative writing as scholarly output, and the ways in which these works are constructed. In my creative work, genre is always a consideration somewhere in the writing process. When targeting writing to a particular publication, genre conventions inform the way I construct my ideas on the page. If I am not targeting a particular publication, genre conventions may not be a consideration when writing the first draft, but, from the second draft onwards, knowing and understanding genre conventions informs my decisions on which direction to take my writing, and whether to conform to or subvert genre expectations. Far from being prescriptive, actively engaging with genre and using such conventions as tools in writing aides the creative process. It is by thinking about genre and crossing genre boundaries that new genres emerge in a renegotiation of the changing social contexts in which writers create their works.

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Scott, J. (2014) ‘Creative Writing and Stylistics’ in Burke, M (ed.)  The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics . New York: Routledge.

Strange, S., Hetherington, P., and Eaton, A. (2016) Exploring the intersection of creative and academic life among Australian academic creative writing practitioners. New Writing . 13 (3), 402–416. DOI: 10.1080/14790726.2016.1192195.

The Smoking Gun (2006) A million little lies: exposing James Frey’s fiction addiction [online]. s.l: The Smoking Gun. Available from: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies [Accessed June 17 2016].

Tsounderos, T. (2014) Review: ‘Without You, There is No Us’ by Suki Kim [online]. Chicago: Chicago Tribune. Available from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-without-you-there-is-no-us-suki-kim-20141120-story.html [Accessed February 6 2017].

Westwood, K. (2011) Falling through the genre cracks and finding wonderland [online]. Melbourne: Overland. Available from: https://overland.org.au/2011/11/falling-through-the-genre-cracks-and-finding-wonderland/ [Accessed 10 May 2016].

Whitney, A. E, Ridgeman, M & Masquelier, G. (2011) Beyond "is this OK?": high school writers building understandings of genre: for writers, understanding genre means understanding forms, structure, rhetorical devices, and how to write effectively in school and beyond. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy . 54 (7), 525. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/JAAL.54.7.6 [Accessed 11 May 2016].

Wilkins, K. (2005) The process of genre: authors, readers, institutions. Text  9 (2). Available from: http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct05/wilkins.htm [Accessed 11 May 2016].

Zeiser, J. W. (2014) Secrets and Lies [online]. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Review of Books. Available from: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/secrets-lies/ [Accessed February 6 2017].

Raelke Grimmer is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Flinders University in South Australia and an ESL teacher. She holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Adelaide and a BCA in Creative Writing from Flinders University. Her MA dissertation explored the use of literature in language learning, and a chapter based on her dissertation entitled "Self-Learning a Foreign Language Through Literature: A Case-Study of a Self-Learner’s Socialisation into Czech Through Czech Literature" was published in Text-based Research and Teaching: A social semiotic perspective of language in use (Palgrave Macmillan 2017). For her doctoral thesis she is writing about Australia’s monolingualism and multiculturalism.

The Sandy River Review

A Literary Magazine Sponsored by The University of Maine at Farmington

Breaking Boundaries: The Relationship between Writer and Genre

by Willy Doehring,  River  co-editor

The “Writer’s Workshop” blog posts are meant to be a collage of writer’s tips, tricks, and strategies, including the first steps to publishing, writing prompts, strategies for writer’s block, and a general jumble of ideas to help you in your quest to create and publish.

Last week, I wrote about how reading across every genre can make your writing stronger. This week, I want to take an even deeper look at genre: specifically, I want to look at the relationship between genre and the writer (a.k.a., you!).

I recently had the privilege of attending this year’s AWP Conference (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) in Tampa, Florida. Over the course of the conference, writers come together for various panels that discuss all aspects of writing and literature. A speaker at one such panel expressed the idea that genre was much less a facet of writing itself and instead a “marketing term.” At the core of this statement is the argument that the writer need not concern themselves with genre at all, but rather it is the job of the editors and publishers to decide which genre best labels a piece of writing to distribute it.

Genre is ingrained into the minds of just about any writer; oftentimes (especially in academic settings) we may write with the goal of producing a poem, or an essay, or a piece of short fiction. This may work for some writers, as everyone’s process is different, but I’ve found that trying to work within the confines of a genre can box a writer in. On the other hand, setting aside genre during the writing process allows for a more open exploration of whatever story or topic you’re tackling.

In the acknowledgements section of Hanif Abdurraqib’s recent book of essays The Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (an absolutely fantastic book that I can’t recommend enough), Abdurraqib writes:

“To the encouragement from the poet who writes the long poem and calls it an essay or writes the essay and breaks it into so many pieces that it becomes a poem!”

This struck me as a perfect example of separating genre from the writing itself; Abdurraqib labels himself a poet but still shows a willingness to let each piece of writing take on the form that best suits it.

Inherently, genre not only defines what different kinds of writing look like but also defines what those kinds of writing do not look like. Fiction usually does not play with white space the way that poetry does; poetry usually doesn’t exist in a paragraph format. Nonfiction doesn’t cross into the realm of the fantastical, and fiction never quite reaches into our reality. As writers, we are all students of our craft; what we read, be it on our own time or in an academic setting, teaches us the possibilities and the limits of what writing can be.

By taking on the mindset of Abdurraqib and writers like him, the boundaries that we are taught through studying genre begin to fall away . Suddenly it doesn’t matter so much what poetry looks like in our minds, or whether reality collides with fantasy. Long poems are labeled essays, essays break apart and are labeled poems. These labels help us as readers understand how to define these works, but the writer’s words don’t change if we change the label.

This isn’t to say that genre is inherently bad, or that you’re doing something wrong if you think in terms of genre while writing. As I’ve mentioned before, do what works for you! My goal is simply to make you a little more aware of the writer’s relationship to genre. Developing my own personal views on genre and how it affects my writing has made me more willing to experiment and let my writing take whatever shape it needs to take; if this blog can help inspire a little of that in a few of you, that’s enough for me!

Until next time, happy writing!

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The Creative Penn

Writing, self-publishing, book marketing, making a living with your writing

The Joy Of Genre Mashing: 5 Tips For Writing Cross Genre

posted on April 27, 2016

OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

Genre is a difficult word as many authors resist being ‘put in a box.' But the reality is that, when you self-publish, you have to choose three categories for your book. And if you want a traditional publisher, they will have to put you somewhere too.

As J.F.Penn , I write across the boundaries of supernatural thriller, action adventure, dark fantasy, and crime with an edge of horror. When I first started out writing fiction in Australia, I met Alan Baxter , because he writes books that I enjoy with similar cross-genre themes. In today's article, Alan explains how we can make the most of writing genre-mashing.

I am unashamedly a genre writer. But I find it hard to answer when people ask what genre.

Generally, I tend to write speculative fiction, which is the umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy and horror. Most of my stuff is dark urban fantasy and horror. But it’s rarely only those things. I include a lot more than just SFF tropes in my stories. I’m a huge fan of crime, noir, mystery, thrillers – in all honesty, I’ve never met a genre I didn’t like.

I’ve written a weird western ghost story, a novella that turns sweltering Sydney into a noir landscape where supernatural beings are dealing with mental illness, a historical pirate yarn with a cosmic horror threat looming over the world. My novels are paced like thrillers, dive through realms of crime and mystery, but are thick with magic and monsters and mayhem. And often a lot of martial arts, as I’m a martial arts instructor too and that’s the only other thing I’ve been doing as long as I’ve been a writer.

So how do we genre-mash without our stories becoming a mess? Here are 5 tips that I like to keep in mind:

(1) Write the stories you want to read

The reason I like to mash genres together is because they’re the kind of stories I like to read. And you should always write, first and foremost, what you want to read. That’s where your particular passion lies.

(2) Don't mash for the sake of it

Any time we do something for the sake of doing it – in this case, cramming in tropes because we want to genre mash – it comes off hackneyed and try hard. That’s a terrible way to tell a story. But if you start by deciding what kind of story you want tell and then make sure you’re not averse to any strange occurrence coming along, you open yourself to all kinds of possibilities.

So take a step back and look at what you’re really doing. If you want a story about a magic-wielding urban mage, but you need him to go on a quest, find yourself a catalyst. Entanglement with an organised crime boss, maybe. Or on the run from the law. Or a vengeful ex-lover. Take those other tropes and slap them onto your urban fantasy and see where it takes you.

(3) Never only tell one story at a time

Some of the best writing advice I ever got was, “The best stories are the ones where something else is happening.” Unpack that advice and it means don’t only focus on your protagonist and their current predicament.

Look at what else is happening. Maybe they’re going through a divorce at the time. Maybe they’re fighting a law suit. Perhaps they’re trying to be there for a terminally ill friend while not telling that friend about battling demons from the Ninth Plane of Hades. Layers happen when you tell more than just the one central story, and sometimes you have to cross genres to do that.

(4) Everyone is the hero of their own story

This is another piece of invaluable writing advice and it’s particularly important for antagonists and villains. Don’t make them cardboard cut-out evil-doers. They have a history, they have personal motivations, they have things happening in their lives that are real and important to them.

So follow those up, think about what part of their story you want to tell and then have a think about what genres that might open. Horror? Mystery? Romance? It’s all there for the taking.

(5) Don't write for an audience

This is a bit of a return to the first rule, but there’s more to it than that. While you should always tell the kind of stories you want to read, you should also avoid being swayed by what’s currently hot. Especially so if you’re in traditional publishing, as that can move so slowly that by the time your book is written and in front of editors, the current hot trend is over. Even for indies who can move fast, you might miss the peak of the trend.

But more importantly, if you’re writing for a genre trend, you’re not writing your passion.

Don’t blinker yourself. Just because there’s not currently a trend for a hard-boiled detective investigating crimes that can only have been committed by a shapechanging alien, that doesn’t your book won’t find readers. And maybe your crazy, exciting, interesting genre-mash might just be the start of a new trend in publishing.

There are no boundaries except those you impose on yourself. Be free and create!

Do you have any genre-mashing tips or questions? Please do join the conversation and leave a comment below.

Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website – www.warriorscribe.com – or find him on Twitter @AlanBaxter and Facebook , and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.

Reader Interactions

April 27, 2016 at 9:17 am

My latest reflection on this issue: My books are cross genre and I get loads of comments about that as a problem from people who review. Also, it causes problems in selecting categories and keywords. Any reaction?

April 28, 2016 at 5:27 am

You’ll always face those troubles, but try to focus on the most relevant keywords. I usually call my novels dark fantasy thrillers, for example. Bookstores hate trying to shelve them though!

April 27, 2016 at 3:56 pm

Writing cross-genre isn’t so much a writing problem as it is a marketing problem. I’d love to read articles about how, specifically, with step-by-steps, that someone has successfully marketed cross-genre books.

April 28, 2016 at 2:14 am

It’s the same as any other book. Create things that you like, share things you like and you will attract the audience who likes those things too. I write cross genre – and one example would be sharing pictures on Pinterest of the aspects of my books which are not genre specific.

April 28, 2016 at 5:28 am

Agreed! And direct your marketing – sell the horror aspects to horror fans, the thriller aspect to thriller fans, etc.

April 27, 2016 at 7:59 pm

My story has a man finding a time machine to enable him to travel backwards 1,000 years to find his ancestors, A lot of it in the 1800s where he decides to live for a while to learn about the era. He brings back a woman from 1841 to 21st century who, through what he learns on other trips to the past turns out to be is six-time great-aunt. A villain from the 25th century tries to steal the time machine for his own use. Another antagonist stabs his wife and is saved by transporting her to the 25th century by “Traveller’s” who have been observing them trying to apprehend the 25th century villain. There’s also a lot of underlying romance. So Science Fiction/Time Travel, Romance, Historical drama, Crime.

How should I categorize it?

April 28, 2016 at 2:13 am

If it has a time machine, I’d say it’s Sci-Fi 🙂

April 28, 2016 at 5:29 am

I’d sell that as science fiction/crime to genre fans and as SF/romance to romance fans.

I’ve done weird Westerns and my other series of books is a weird mash up of horror (classic monsters like mummies) and fantasy (people can use magic) but it’s set in a weird Gaiman-esque landscape that’s part Victorian London-part Venice! It’s often precisely the things that make stories difficult to categorise that makes them most popular with readers – most of my reviews reference the world-building in some way! I do think categories are more for marketing than they are for readers, and luckily indie publishing makes it easier to reach more readers by not being so strict 🙂

April 28, 2016 at 5:30 am

Categories, really, are mostly for bookshops!

April 28, 2016 at 1:43 pm

Excellent advice. I’ve always had a problem with genre-naming. Why can’t it just be fiction or non-fiction? If I have some romance in my book, I still don’t want to call it romance. If I have suspense, I know it’s more than just suspense. Then I’m told to use the term romantic suspense, but that turns off the readers who don’t like romance, or who don’t like suspense. And I HATE the term ‘women’s fiction,’ as if only women will enjoy stories about relationships/family/’life.’ Sigh. I’ve had agents tell me I need to write ‘more romance’ in there so they can sell it as romance, or ‘more mystery in there’ so they can sell the book as mystery. No, I write the book I want to read and that speaks to me. I just read a ‘fantasy’ book that I never would have read because it was billed as part of the fantasy genre. I read it to support another blogger and LOVED it. Never would have if I just paid attention to how it was defined.

April 28, 2016 at 10:10 pm

Thank you for this timely post. I have a hard time coloring between the genre lines, and I’ve always been a bit defensive about it, but I write stories I like to read, and I guess that means that mystery, suspense, urban fantasy, supernatural horror, romance, and a touch of wry humor will always be part of my books.

I just rebranded my first series with urban fantasy covers, but based on the rankings, it’s selling best in the paranormal romance category. The reviews are gratifying , but nearly every reviewer comments about how surprised they were by the books and how different it was from their expectations–and most importantly (and gratifying to me), how much they enjoyed them.

I’m down with genre-mashing. But I still haven’t figured out the trick to brand it, except by trial and error (and universally fabulous covers). Not sure if that’s a problem or one of the privileges of being an indie author. At this point, the paranormal romance mystery series with the urban fantasy series covers is doing pretty well.

May 27, 2016 at 5:26 am

I’ve written my first cross genre novel, science fiction with a political power play that explains how we got to this. I describe it to puzzled friends as `Tom Clancy meets Michael Crichton’ and the light goes on, but it is a bit reductionist. How do you get over the problem of describing a cross genre novel?

May 28, 2016 at 3:38 am

I particularly like the tip that the antagonist is the hero of his/her own story. Once I realised that it helped me a lot with adding another layer to my current work in progress.

May 7, 2017 at 11:25 am

Thanks for the encouragement! I’m three novels into a cross genre series. I’m of the opinion I should have three to four in the pipeline before launch, so I am close. I was motivated in a similar fashion. I couldn’t find very much of what I wanted to read, so I am writing it now. I hope there is an audience for it. I was a James Bond junkie as a kid, and graduated from the films to Fleming’s novels. But I always wanted Bond to encounter the supernatural. So now I have a counter-intelligence operative confronting terrorists who are vampires with geopolitical ambitions. I call it Vince Flynn meets Anne Rice. Surely there’s an audience for that.

August 14, 2017 at 11:38 am

Joanna and Alan, I saw a summary of this on Goodreads, so I’m taking the opportunity to comment here. I’ve written blog articles for some time mentioning genres directly or indirectly. Here’s a summary of points I think are important: (1) I’ve always considered them artificial constraints and only conveniences for book retailers–they really have nothing to do with storytelling per se. (2) I write mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi according to most pundits, but I’m really just a storyteller. One YA title could be considered a sci-fi mystery, and I have several books that could be called sci-fi thrillers. My latest novel could be classified a mystery/thriller–it begins like a Christie-style mystery and ends a thriller as events almost overtake the sleuths, if you will, but it’s all one story. (3) Genres are dangerous. My new book was found in the Art section at a bookstore: the title is Rembrandt’s Angel, the person doing the shelving just focused on the title, and s/he didn’t even bother to read the blurb on the back. Good discussion. (And I apologize for using my own books as examples. I know them better than other books, of course.) r/Steve

March 19, 2018 at 9:38 am

Thank-you Joanna for the useful article. Although, you have discussed fiction here and my work is nonfiction, I believed you could still give me a suggestion as a writer.

I am quite confused about my book’s genre. It is nonfiction, self-help, spiritual/religion, transformation. I believe it is creative/narrative nonfiction as my style in the book is not technical, or academic.

It is my personal story of losing my mother to cancer and what I learnt from it. As I am Life Coach, it has self-help lessons shared as learning as I move forward with my story. It is spiritual as it focuses on the inner-self/soul and religious as I have references in between from scripture (Quran) just to solidify my own reflections. The target audience is any Believer in God.

With such a mixture, what is the best way to describe it for a Review Query.

Your help is much appreciated.

March 20, 2018 at 1:47 am

The way you write it will determine what type of book it is. “A personal story of transformation” could be a memoir if the book is your story. But if you use your story as a way to specific write self-help sections that will help others, as I have done in The Successful Author Mindset, then it can be self-help. You need to decide yourself where it fits!

July 26, 2018 at 2:33 am

Thank-you for your help.

February 26, 2019 at 7:45 pm

I’ve had a lot of trouble describing my book because it crosses so many genre boundaries. I entered a contest in the “Cross Genre” category and won it, as part of my plan to try to convey what my book was.

In person, I describe my novel, The Internet President: None of the Above, as an “Action-adventure, comedy, drama, romance with elements of suspense, science fiction and a whole bunch of politics. It has actionable political ideas and a chapter on how to improve the education series wrapped in a genre-bending narrative that builds to an action-packed climax. It’s like no book you’ve read before.”

That’s quite a mouthful, but I think people get the idea. I wish there were BISAC codes for cross-genre and more reader awareness of those of us who draw outside the lines.

February 27, 2019 at 7:18 pm

I’ve been thinking, it’s possible to actually propose new BISAC codes. One of the requirements to do so it to include a lot of examples of books that fit the label. I thought of Cloud Atlas as a good example, but they get around it by calling the book “Epistolary Fiction.”

If we can crowdsource a dozen other books that fit the criteria, perhaps we can actually get a real category for “Cross Genre” books. I think Wikipedia says 2 or more genres, but I think the bar should be 3 or 4. If we work together, perhaps we could make such stories more visible.

July 29, 2020 at 2:49 am

Really interesting article and comments here thank you. I’ve just had my wip assessed by an editor who said it’s a mixture of three genres and I need to choose one or I’ll never get an agent. So disheartening. I like cross genre novels and I don’t want to fit in a box but I understand that if an agent is not clear on where to position it they will say no thanks. The advice was ‘make more of a deal about the potential love interest’ and you could say it’s a romance. I don’t want it to be classified as a romance and it’s not the main thread of the story. Change the ages and make it a YA – as there’s a little bit of magic. I don’t want to write a YA. Or position it more as a family saga as the MC is tracking down the father she’s never known. It’s so tricky trying to write the story you want to write but then realising there are these very old constraints that still exist in the publishing industry…gah!

March 18, 2021 at 7:43 pm

Wonderful and very interesting article. If the book is valid, it will discover a crowd of people that is intended to understand it. An author is somebody for whom composing is more troublesome than it is for others. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

December 13, 2022 at 11:25 am

Thank you for your post, I know it will be beneficial to me. I particularly write erotica, fantasy, harem, and hospital romance.

What I have in mind is different, i want to write erotica and Mystery and it will be under erotica because that’s what readers want.

I also learnt something. Always write what you want to read, I love that.

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Creative Writing Genre Guide – The Many Genres of Writing in The Creative Arts

Written by Scott Wilson

Like the hiss of a jagged sword slicing past your ear or the roar of a spacecraft entering the atmosphere of a strange planet, genre echos through every piece of creative writing.

Whether or not the author chooses consciously to conform to an existing genre or decides to break new ground, genre will attach to whatever they create. Even so-called non-genre, or literary, fiction is itself a sort of genre. Genre is a tool that is used by:

• Writers , to guide story and expectations
• Critics , to categorize and analyze creative works
• Publishers and Booksellers , to stock and market books to their target audiences
• Readers , to find and read works that align with their aesthetic preferences

Understanding and mastering genre is not optional for creative writers. But it’s not easy, either.

How Genre Defines Your Creative Writing Work

Genre is a hot topic in the world of creative writing. You won’t get far in the average creative writing program before you get into some kind of argument over how to classify some piece of work.

That’s because genre is necessarily subjective. There is no centralized Genre Board that puts a stamp inside the front cover of each new book that is released. The American Literature Association does not maintain an official list of genres that authors are required to choose from among before beginning their next story.

The reality of a serious writer is a reality of many voices, some of them belonging to the writer, some of them belonging to the world of readers at large. ~ Aberjhani

Our literary genres today are simply social conventions, conventions that evolve over time with community expectations and tropes. It’s impossible to come up with a genre writing definition that will satisfy everyone. At the same time, genre is descriptive enough to be indispensable for readers and writers alike.

Genre is so difficult to get a grip on because it is effectively a kind of rolling consensus.

Genre is defined by the authors themselves, by critics who seek to interpret works, by readers deciding what they like to read, and by publishers looking to market those works.

And those definitions change all the time.

The Rapid Evolution of Genre in Writing

Take the ancient and well-established genre of fantasy, for example. Myth and legend may be the oldest genres of fiction, stretching back to our earliest recorded works. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Beowulf both fall into the realm of fantasy.

But fantasy has evolved as its readers and writers have.

Fantasy writing today is nothing like what it was prior to Tolkien’s tales of Middle Earth reaching and shaping the expectations of readers. Epic works like The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia set a standard for their writing genre, and subsequent tales are inevitably judged by those standards.

With the pace of publishing increasing rapidly and the ease of finding literature to taste getting easier and easier, genre is evolving at a lightning pace.

Writing Sub-Genres Have Become Ever More Niche With the Internet

That kind of specificity comes with very distinctive expectations, however. Niche works are often expected by readers to follow a very specific formula—hit a certain set of plot points, come in at a particular word-count, feature a distinctive type of characters. If you’re aiming for success in the Highlander romance niche, you had better have an evil Englishman somewhere in the story—and heaven help you if there’s not a shirtless man in a kilt on the cover.

While this kind of narrow, formulaic approach is seen as a constraint by some authors, it represents a kind of feedback loop that allows writers to reach very specific audiences. If you plan to make a career out of creative writing, understanding and selling to the market is door you’ll need to open. Genre expectations give you the key.

The genre of writing you pick for any given story you choose to tell will define how it is viewed and what readers expect before you even put down the first word. So understanding how genres in writing work and how to use them in your own pieces is a key part of being a creative writer today.

Picking a Writing Genre Can Be Empowering for Creative Writers

Understanding what genre is and how genres are defined is the only way that you can understand how your own work will be perceived. And developing that kind of knowledge allows your writing to grow and operate on multiple levels as your stories unfold. Genre offers subtext to your stories. Adding a new entry to the catalog of any particular genre expands what the field has to say.

The many types of genres in writing offer an avenue for every writer to explore and expand their craft.

Equally important for some writers is the sense of context that genre creates for their writing. Not only can it help shape creative works by offering standards to aim at, but it also provides a set of expectations that can be subverted to critical effect. For example, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane would not have had the effect on readers that it did without a long tradition of glorious war stories from a genre that it mimicked, then up-ended with the hero’s cowardice.

Pure formless creativity and invention are wild and dangerous things. To develop a coherent story and a world that is true enough for readers to believe is a tricky business. Having a set of general rules to follow and expectations to meet brings focus.

Beyond that, the very act of channeling your imagination into a defined form and to tell your own story within those rules is a challenge that rewards the creative spirit. Finishing a novel can feel very much like clicking the last piece into place on a jigsaw puzzle. The picture on that puzzle is the genre. When everything lines up to match, your sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is immense.

Writing Genres Give Readers the Stories They Are Looking For

Those stores, and the publishers who print novels and magazines, live and die by genre sales. Some publishers either specialize in or dedicate certain of their imprints to particular genres. Editors, illustrators, and agents may also specialize by genre. Critics, industry awards, and writing groups are often dedicated to different genres. Even creative writing programs offer specializations or concentrations in certain writing genres.

Ultimately, however, genre in writing persists and is needed for the reader. The evolution of genres in writing has largely been in the hands of publishers and book sellers, all seeking to match works with groups of readers who will find them appealing.

Genre in Writing May Be Determined in Different Ways

Genres in writing are not absolutes. Any given work can fall into many different genres depending on how the term is being applied. For example, the two big categories of writing are the genres of poetry and prose. Every work will fall into one of those, as well as others.

The most common ways of categorizing genre are:

• By literary technique and style
• By setting or character type

Each of these different genres of writing will share certain characteristics, but may diverge through other categories. For example, there are works that have a common science fiction theme, but use technique and style more common to literary fiction. The Handmaid’s Tale , by Margaret Atwood, is one example… set in a dystopian future, it nonetheless develops characters and explores deep themes common to other classic works of literature.

In addition to crossing genres, creative writing works also may fall into sub-genres. The most writing genres evolve branches over time. In fact, science fiction, one of the biggest and most popular genre examples in writing today, is simply a sub-genre of the larger category of speculative fiction.

Sub-Genres Sprout From Pop-Culture in Unexpected Ways to Offer Something Uniquely Tailored to Every Audience

To give just one example of this process, consider the evolution of the genre of steampunk.

Steampunk is a sub-genre of cyberpunk, which already lies at the bottom of a long list of other sub-genres of fiction:

In addition, steampunk works almost all fall into the addition speculative fiction category of alternate history, since they imagine a historical era not as it was, but as it might have been. Some can be called Westerns; others are post-apocalyptic, taking another bite out of the dystopian genre apple.

The first proto-steampunk works were published in the ’70s and ‘80s by authors such as Tim Powers and James Blaylock, but it was 1990’s The Difference Engine , by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling that really kicked off steampunk as a genre—probably because Gibson and Sterling were also two of the prime movers in cyberpunk itself.

As steampunk caught on and became more popular, not only did newer works emerge to expand the genre (including its own sub-genres), but older novels that included or inspired the same elements were sometimes described as steampunk. Seminal works like H.G Wells’ The Time Machine and Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea are sometimes found in lists of steampunk works.

Why not just do away with genre, and consider each piece on its own merits? Ultimately, many scholars and creative writing professionals are able to do just that.

In the same way that a rock musician can understand, appreciate, and adapt techniques from the classical world, good writers recognize and respect good writing craft, regardless of genre.

But genre is also a part of artistic judgement. A creative work can be assessed by how well or poorly it conforms to the expectations of the genre it is aimed at.

How To Succeed as a Creative Writer in Different Types of Writing Genres

To be clear, you don’t need to pick a genre lane if you don’t want to. Iain Banks had no problem at all jumping back and forth between epic sci-fi novels, psychologically complex literary fiction, rollicking travelogues, and even poetry. All of it earned critical acclaim.

When J.K. Rowling decided she needed a break from fantasy, she picked up the pen name of Robert Galbraith and popped over into crime fiction instead.

But most creative writers aren’t made of the same stuff as Banks or Rowling. It may be that a particular genre is what inspires you to write in the first place. Perhaps it’s a fascination with the subject matter that draws you in to a particular kind of world. Or maybe it’s just a raw commercial calculation, playing to the market and what is most publishable.

In any case, deciding the genre or genres you are interested in writing in is only one part of the process. Each genre has its own unique path to success.

The Many Genres of Writing in English Literature

To help you get started, we’ve got a whole list of writing genre guides that take you step-by-step through the process of becoming a successful writer in that field.

Literary Fiction

Literary fiction is the non-genre genre of creative writing. It includes works that are too non-traditional to fit cleanly in existing genres or that focuses on characterization and exploration of deep truths over conventional plot or narrative structures. Much of the pantheon of great novels and works that are used in teaching creative writing fall into the literary fiction genre.

Fantasy authors excel in creating imaginary worlds where fantastic creatures roam, magic and the supernatural shape character’s lives, and medieval settings call classic mythology to mind. Fantasy is one of the oldest of genres in both Eastern and Western writing traditions, and its popularity continues to ensure steady careers for well-trained fantasy writers.

There is a fascination with the macabre and surreal that keeps horror novels on the top-seller lists year after year. From Anne Rice to Stephen King, some of the most commercially successful modern authors have chosen this genre. And with classics from Shelley and Poe as part of the enduring tradition of literature, a career in horror offers creative writers a shot at both fortune and fame.

Mystery, or crime, fiction embraces a whole spectrum of entertaining works from Agatha Christie’s classic detective novels to the hard-boiled works of Dennis Lehane. Writers who have the talent to deliver an intricate plot and keep readers engaged with a steady stream of clues, but still make the reveal and resolution a rewarding surprise, have a bright future in the mystery genre.

The Western genre is both relatively new and distinctively American in nature. Following in the footsteps of Louis L’Amour and Max Brand is no easy task, but there is plenty of life in the humble Western, as works by Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry have shown. Western writers may or may not need a ten-gallon hat, but the definitely need story-telling skills and a strong set of research skills.

Young Adult

Young adult works often combine other genres into stories that deal particularly with the interests and concerns of teenagers. Whether it’s a mix of fantasy and school, like Harry Potter , or pure works that explore contemporary problems and challenges like the classic The Outsiders , young adult novels can shape the perspectives and growth of a generation. Young adult writers have to develop not only a knack for telling stories cleanly and understandably, but also for tapping into the zeitgeist of their target audience. 

Science Fiction (Sci Fi)

Science fiction uses the prism of technology and time to explore both exciting theoretical science and social mores and consequences of humanity today. Science fiction is a genre that has a robust demand and strong traditions. Although it can be tough to break into sci-fi, studying creative writing offers the kind of analytical tools and techniques that can make it happen.

Short Story

The genre of short story is one rooted in length rather than subject. A short story can be told in almost any of the other genres listed here, but it is a form that requires its own set of skills and sensibilities. Creative writing degrees are one of the best places for writers to polish up their ability to deliver the crisp, clear, meaningful prose that is needed to build a successful short story.

Making people laugh is a rare skill in any kind of artistic endeavor. Comedic writing has a long and honorable history in the world of dramatic literature, serving as one of the first genres recognized by the Greeks. Comedy often crosses other genre boundaries, with tendrils in horror, science fiction, and crime. But pure comedies in the form of satire and parody serve important roles in social commentary as well as entertainment.

Historical Fiction

Writing historical fiction comes with a set of guard rails that play directly to the strengths of creative writers: research offers a glimpse of the world as it once was, and imagination fills out the humanity of those times. While the historical setting can be one grounded firmly in reality, like Hilary Mantel’s acclaimed Wolf Hall , it can also serve as a portal to the fantastical, as in Susanna Clarke’s incredible Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell .

• Long Fiction
• Micro or flash fiction
• Short fiction
• Stories for Children
• What I’m Reading

Genres, crossing the boundaries with your writing.

I had some happy news this week – I won a writing award (The Mary Grant Bruce Gippsland Writer in the FAW Literary Awards) for a children’s story and it was the second year in a row that I have won this particular award.  I don’t write many children’s stories, even though I have four young children myself.  In fact, the story that I won this award with didn’t start out life as a story for children, it just happened to be about young people.  A few comments from readers later and I redrafted it specifically for the younger age group.

I have won awards or had stories published in other genres too – horror, contemporary, humour, even some spec fic.  So, do I need to pick a genre and stick with it?  Or do I go with the flow and write whatever is in my head and worry about genres they fit into later?

There are some notable authors who have had success crossing genres: Agatha Christie is famous for her crime novels but wrote romances under a pen name, Mary Westmacott; Paul Theroux writes travel books and novels; Roald Dahl, famous for his children’s stories also wrote adult fiction.

But how difficult is it for emerging writers to get away with crossing from one genre to another, or even writing cross-genre stories?  If you’re seriously trying to make a name for yourself in a crowded industry would it be better to apply your craft to your more favoured style of fiction?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, but in the meantime, I’ll just bash out whatever comes into my head and see which box it fits.

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4 responses to genres, crossing the boundaries with your writing..

This is quite interesting to me becuase I’ve never wondered about what genre i’m trying to fit into. I’ve always simply written and the story ends up writing itself in the end and by the time the story is done I can usually classify it in some sub-genre or other. I’m a big writer of spec. fic. but i’ve also done some fiction as well as a good amount of poetry. So i guess, in my experience I write the story I want and worry about where it fits in to genre once its finished.

Congratulations Vicky 🙂 Will it be published? I won the same award about three years ago and signed the necessary FAW permission forms for publication but never heard anything more 😦 I should have followed it up again – it was about the time I moved and I was a bit distracted. I agree – bash out whatever comes and definitely go for a Mary Grant Bruce hat trick 🙂

Congratulations on winning the award for the SECOND time! 🙂

I can understand why ppl would want to write whatever, but I would think becomming known/established in one genre first might be more successful. just my 3 cents worth, 2 plus inflation.

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The Journal of The New School Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program

Cross-Genre

New! LIT Monthly Writing Prompt: April Edition

Happy poetry month everyone!

Here at LIT we are starting a new series of monthly writing prompts. This month’s prompt is from our nonfiction editor Vicky Oliver:

Write about a time when you were lost and how you found your way home.

The hero’s journey is sometimes a parable on the transformation of being: old habits and emotional reactions that are shed out of necessity as they become stumbling blocks to the journey. The old ways are replaced by new strengths or new ideas that have been germinating out of sight, waiting to come into play as fresh discoveries in a moment of crisis,

“A Stranger Named Plague” by Stephanie Dickinson

Above: “Three Horses Tended by Men” by Umberto Boccioni  Stone Pavement

1981, Houston  

& You _ arrive _ in the _ time of _ azaleas _ and heat wave. _ Hungry _ for the high _ yellow _ of _ a _ Gulf _ Coast _ scorcher, _ you _ eat on _ Texas _ Street where oil _ drum _ cookers,

Two Poems by Phoebe Reeves

Part One, Question the Sixteenth: Works of Truth**

and the species vary according to generative power.

that blood and the dead answer. But think—

a witch, just as the images of things

“ode to summer” by Cheyanne Anderson

there’s a bite in the air and it’s gone again _ I keep dreaming of ways to catch it like a firefly in a jar (only temporary) so I can see it up close so I can remember to notice the sweat on the back of my neck and the proof it serves that  I was alive that day so  I can skip down sidewalks so  I can lie in the park so  I can chill another bottle of wine s o I can kiss and kiss and kiss s o I can forget to put on sunscreen s o I can walk until my feet ache s o I can embrace the way my hair frizzes from my scalp like a crown s o I can fall in love in ways I’m not sure I deserve s o I can remember to admire the way the fire hydrant down the street ( somehow always breaking open) w ashes away cigarette butts and receipts and regrets a nd makes a babbling brook on Bushwick streets j ust until the repairman comes on Monday j ust until I can bring myself to open the jar and let it go a nd whisper well wishes into the first breeze of autumn

my heart is too big for this bedroom,

“Social Distances” by L.B. Browne

down ravaged empty aisles.

Want to write about Writing or other art forms?

The Personal Essay Workshop with Marin Sardy is now open for enrollment. Space is strictly limited. (This course usually sells out very quickly.) Learn more and enroll here.

Written by S. Kalekar September 19th, 2022

30 Literary Magazines Accepting Hybrid/Cross-Genre submissions

These magazines publish cross-genre/hybrid/experimental writing, in some way. Most of these journals also publish other genres. Most, but not all, of them are open for submissions now. Some of these are paying markets. They are listed here in no particular order.

Dream Pop Journal They welcome submissions from marginalized voices, and are especially interested in publishing work from emerging writers working in experimental, non-narrative forms. “Please send us your strange utterings, hybrid works, collaborative pieces, visual poetry, collages, and linguistic inventions. We hope that you will challenge the limits of what literature can be and that you will share your results with us.” They publish poetry, a speculative diary, visual art, as well as visual poetry & erasure. They are open year-round. Details here .

Wandering Wave Press: An Anthology of Unconventional Stories This is a fiction anthology. “We’re looking for genre authors who cross boundaries. Authors whose stories twist the tropes to showcase in a cross-genre anthology of stories that entertain, but read fresh and new. Send us the story that you can’t classify: a story that can’t be pigeon-holed into a single subgenre, or that pushes against your genre’s boundaries. We want to showcase authors who write uncommon fiction.” Some examples are: witches in space, romances that flip gender roles, alternate histories set in the near-future, and fairy tales that start after the ‘happily ever after’. Send stories of 1,000-10,000 words. Pay is $25, and the deadline is 1 December 2022. Details here .

Straylight They publish poetry, fiction, art in both print and online formats. For the online edition, fiction can be flash to novella length, and poetry can be prose-poetry, or a mix of visual art and poetry. Also, “Straylight Online does not mirror the content of the print edition. … We still look for stories and poems with a strong sense of place and moments that are character-centered rather than those that rely on plot turns and literary tricks. However, we welcome submissions that cross genre boundaries as well as those that explore the way that visual art, music, and literature combine to produce new manifestations of story and verse.” The magazine is published by University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Details here .

Chestnut Review This is a print and an online magazine. “We are drawn to beautiful language, resonant images, and we crave narrative.” They have fee-free submissions of poetry, flash, and art; also, “If you have work that doesn’t fit neatly into the below categories, that doesn’t mean we won’t want to see it. Choose the most appropriate and include a note—we’ll figure it out.” Contributors are paid $120. They read throughout the year, with cut-off dates for issues; deadline for the Winter issue is 30 September 2022. Details here .

The Disappointed Housewife They want “fiction, essays, and poetry – along with unclassifiable writings, photos, and drawings – that stretch genre definitions, break the rules, challenge readers, and bend their brains, all while maintaining the highest levels of style and substance. … We’re looking for stories that strike us as different, always with that idiosyncratic touch. Iconoclastic. Kind of bent. Humorous.” And, “There’s so much that can be done in terms of the way readers “read” literature now. Words on a page, sure. But you could construct a short story entirely in tweets or phone texts. Or handwrite poetry on 3 x 5 index cards and photograph them (please write legibly). A photo slide show with enigmatic captions. A facsimile of someone’s job application. The menu of a hip restaurant that’s on the forefront of insect haute cuisine. A story made up of urls that readers click on to go on a virtual journey. … writers who can think of unorthodox and offbeat ways to tell their stories will be highly appreciated here at The Disappointed Housewife.” Send up to 1,500 of prose, or up to 3 poems; and for “items that are harder to categorize (lists, faux official documents, parodic advertising, humorous-text tattoos …), we’ll know the right length when we see it.” Details here .

Sepia Journal They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and cross-genre submissions. Send up to 8,000 words for prose, or up to 5 poems. They also run Staccato , where they publish music and film. They are open year-round. Details here .

Kaleidotrope This is a speculative fiction (250-10,000 words) and poetry magazine. “Kaleidotrope publishes predominantly speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories. Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all.” They suggest writers look through the archives to familiarize themselves with the zine to get a sense of what they’re looking for. Pay is $0.01/word for fiction, and $5 per poem. Details here .

Afternoon Visitor This is an online quarterly publication of poetry, hybrid text, visual poetry, and visual art, and they’re interested in giving space to trans + queer writers in each issue. For hybrid text, send a lyric essay, cross-genre of up to 3,000 words, or up to three short pieces with the total word count up to 5,000 words; for visual poetry, send up to 8 pages. Details here .

Doubleback Review They republish work that was previously published in a now defunct literary journal – you can read about them here . Send poetry (up to 5 poems), prose (up to 4,000 words), art, and multi-genre/hybrid work. Details here .

LIT Magazine This magazine is published by The New School MFA in Creative Writing program. They publish hybrid works of up to 20 pages – “Hybrid prose works generally experiment with non-traditional stylistic forms. This category is not just for works that defy casual interpretation, but also works that include elements generally reserved for non-prose writing. …we are interested in hybrid prose that is aware of the tension between fiction and non-fiction, and wants to exploit, reify, and expand those terms, but not be contained by them. If it’s too prose-y to be a poem, but not clearly a short story or an essay, it might belong here.” They also accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translations, book reviews, and art. Their reading periods are January-May and September-December. Details here .

elsewhere “elsewhere cares only about the line / no line. We want short prose works (flash fiction, prose poetry, nonfiction) that cross, blur, and/or mutilate genre. We publish only six writers quarterly. Give us your homeless, your animals, your lunch money: we’re hungry.” Submit up to 3 pieces of unlineated work, less than 1,000 words each. They accept fee-free as well as tip-jar submissions. Details here .

Pine Hills Review They publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. Hybrid and experimental works are especially encouraged. Send up to 3,000 words for prose, or up to 6 poems. Details here .

Bennington Review This magazine is associated with Bennington College. They publish fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work. “In the spirit of poet Dean Young’s dictum that poets should be “making birds, not birdcages,” we are particularly taken with writing that is simultaneously graceful and reckless.” Send up to 30 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction, or 3-5 poems. Pay is $120-250 for prose, and $25 per poem. The deadline is 9 January 2023. Details here .

Diode They welcome all types of poetry (including, but not limited to, narrative experimental, visual, found and erasure poetry). Send 3-5 poems. They also accept poetry in translation, and collaborative poems. They accept submissions of book reviews, interviews, and essays on poetics, as well, and are open year-round. Details here .

Bending Genres This magazine publishes flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and they like work in all categories that blends genres. Send up to 1,000 words for fiction, up to 1,500 words for nonfiction, up to 3 poems. Details here .

The Offing The Offing publishes cross-genre work, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translations, and art. One of the departments is Enumerate – “Enumerate is our department of cataloging, of naming, of listing. It features work that is hybrid — cross-genre, and work in all genres (fiction, CNF, flash, poetry) — as long as it uses the form of a list (which you may interpret widely). Any length, any subject, any medium (i.e. text, video, photo, music, etc.). The lists should add up to some kind of literary foray, exploration, meditation, commentary, collage.” Not all sections are open for submissions, but many are. The magazine pays $25-100. Details here .

Heavy Feather Review They have a print issue, open periodically, and submissions for the online magazine are open year-round. They publish poems, short stories, flash fictions, nonfictions, hybrid works, visual art, etc. Also, “For us, “online feature” is a loose term/form, and the topics and form are open to interpretation. The final product can be a traditional essay, poem, short story, list, definition, collage, or whatever you can think up”. They have various sections, too – some of these are: “The Future – “ Posing utopic, apocalyptic, dystopic, or superhero solutions to “The Future.” Writers depict futuristic alternative worlds in politics, environment, gender, religion, sexuality, or ethnography’; Haunted Passages – An ominous wind circles you in the middle of an isolated woods. Your friends wander into an empty factory, under the cover of dusk, never to be seen again. These are “Haunted Passages,” new features of unearthly delights; #NoMorePresidents – … HFR  has reaffirmed its mission to elevate … marginalized groups by initiating a new blog feature, #NoMorePresidents, an online space for these communities to publish new writing.” Details here and here.

Scrawl Place This is a journal of place and they publish CNF, fiction, poetry, and hybrids. This is “part visitor’s guide, part literary journal. The audience for this online publication is the guest, the visitor, the traveler, the day-tripper, the out-of-towner, and the in-towners eager to wander. I’m looking for submissions about “places in the places” where you live or where you’ve visited. My only fixed criteria is that your submission be about or connected to or associated with a specific, physical place that someone could visit. The more specific the place, the better. How that manifests in terms of content, style and form is up to you.” They pay $35, and also accept reprints. Details here .

Foglifter This is a journal for LGBTQ+ contributors. They want fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid works; for hybrid submissions, send work up to 20 pages. They are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. They also have a Writers In Need fund to support sliding scale payments for their contributors who opt into the fund. Details here .

The Gravity of the Thing They publish prose – fiction (including micros) and creative nonfiction, including genre-bending works, poetry, including prose poems and multimedia works, and work for Baring the Device column (about defamiliarized writing). Their reading periods are March, June, September, and December. Details here .

The Spectacle This magazine, published by Washington University in St. Louis, is open for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. According to their Twitter bio, they are “looking for writing that crosses genre, discipline, and sensibility.” Pay is $50 and the deadline is 1 October 2022. Details here .

Border Crossing They want micro and flash fiction, and poetry. “We’re especially interested in writing that crosses boundaries in genre or geography, and voices that aren’t often heard in mainstream publications.” Their next submissions period is 15 October 2022 till 1 January 2023. The magazine is associated with Lake Superior State University. Details here .

No Niin No Niin publishes writing (various genres, including manifestos, letters, reviews, interviews, and hybrids), video, photography, podcasts, comics, and memes. They pay €50–300. Details here .

Half Mystic Journal: Presto Half Mystic a publishing project dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms, and you can read about that here . The journal publishes poetry, prose, creative nonfiction, translations, and experimental work. They want work on the presto theme for their next issue. “We’re looking for vanishing points, beat drops, bar hops, glow stick raves, impulsive haircuts, disco ball suncatchers, man-made magick, glitter in the shadows, blurred vision, sleight of hand, immaterialism, songs half-lucid and bewitched by the myth of movement. Presto is a musical direction indicating that an artist play a piece at a rapid tempo, and also an English adverb meaning “suddenly, as if by magic.” … We ask that each piece pertains in some way to music and the presto theme.” Apart from the journal, they also have other opportunities listed. Details here .

Air/Light Magazine This literary magazine wants “new and innovative works of literary arts”. They publish cross-genre work (original work that blurs the lines of genre and form, whether text only or incorporating images and other multimedia elements), fiction, nonfiction (including collaborative essays), poetry, visual art, music, video, as well as digital, multimedia, and interactive works. Length guidelines are up to 4,000 words for prose, and up to 10 pages for poetry. Pay is $50 for poetry, $100 for responses and department pieces, $200 for fiction, essays/nonfiction, visual art, music, and multimedia. They are scheduled to reopen for submissions on 15 November 2022. Details here .

Deep Overstock: Hacking They’re reading submissions on the ‘Hacking’ theme. The magazine publishes “fiction, poetry, comics, art, images, medical reports, plays, essays, philosophies, sculptures, sounds, mushroom dataset analyses, magic spells, fairy tales, folklore, riddles, jokes, horoscopes, death-predictions, and more. Surprise us!” They have a strong commitment and focus on those in the book industry, but they do accept work from writers and artists who work in any field; you can read about that here . They’re reading on the current theme until 30 November 2022. They read throughout the year, with cut-off dates for issues. Details here .

ctrl + v This is an online journal that explores the intersection of poetry and collage. Send “all forms of collage—digital, scissor-and-glue, mixed media, fabric, sound”. Submissions are open year-round. Details here .

Ghost Proposal They publish poetry, essays, images, multimedia, hybrid, cross-, multi-, and post-genre work. “We are interested in work that does not sit comfortably inside genre labels—–work that bends or pushes against traditional limitations; that mixes, blends, and steps outside of the normal bounds.” Watch for their next reading period. Details here and here .

EastOver Press: Cutleaf Cutleaf is currently open for nonfiction submissions, both in standard and hybrid forms. “Cutleaf is interested in essays of many forms but we prefer a narrative and literary approach to the essay. We do not limit our point of view to the merely factual, but welcome new approaches such as speculative nonfiction, essays based in metaphor, essays in verse, and other re-imaginings of the format. We welcome work about literature, travel, music, food, visual art, and film. We welcome humor. We invite collaborative work. We are not interested in polemics, position statements, or editorials.” They generally publish work from 1,500 to 6,000 words, and pay $100-400. The deadline is 30 November 2022. Fiction and poetry were closed at the time of writing. Details here and here .

Bio:  S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached  here .

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Writing Cross-Genre Novels: Trends, Marketing & Insights

by Kevin Tumlinson | May 15, 2019 | Author How-To & Mindset | 0 comments

Imagine literary genres like a massive rainbow with each genre branching out into a lush color of its own, each with its set target audience. For too many years the novel section had been divided in: Science Fiction, Romance, Thriller, Mystery, Fantasy, Horror, Erotica and so on. But can we mix genres and double, maybe even triple our readership? Can we even market our cross-genre novels properly afterwards?

Yes we can! And today we’ll be looking into achieving that successful blend gracefully and since we’re at it I’m also going to give you some insight about growing trends and preferences.

Cross-genre novels are simply a sign of the times, a creative revolution that cannot be kept inside a box a second longer, and especially thanks to the self-publishing industry, there’s a new world of brave writers out there just waiting to be discovered.

They take chances, break boundaries and blur the conventional lines that the traditional publishing industry had set in stone for so many years. And their readers are exactly the same.

This is just another trademark of evolution, another industry entering the makeover stage that both Millennials and Generation Z have inflicted upon brands of each and every kind.

And like with every other industry, the transformation is imminent.

Much like an alchemist, a writer is used to playing with words to strike that special chord but beware, just like mixing one too many colors on your canvas, one too many genres crammed in the same novel will result in a brown wish-wash that is very likely to attract unwanted criticism. Either that or you might be way, way ahead of your literary time.

I’ll bet my left eyebrow Lewis Carroll didn’t concern himself with the technicalities behind Alice in Wonderland when he wrote it. And I’ll bet my right eyebrow he didn’t have a clue his work was possibly deemed as the first in the Literary Nonsense genre. It was only toward the end of the 20 th century when critics started taking this genre seriously.

Naturally, we’re not Lewis Carroll. We have to approach the industry of our time, the readers of our time and make our own nook in the #writingcommunity dealing with current demands in the writing industry of 2019.

What Is The Difference Between Cross-Genre And Subgenre?

Imagine going to your local supermarket and picking up an apple. Ahh, but if that apple also happens to be the Granny Smith variety? That’s how main genres and subgenres work as well.

• Fantasy (Main Genre) – Urban (Subgenre: action is set in a city)
• Romance (Main Genre) – Paranormal (Subgenre: one or more characters have supernatural abilities)
• Thriller (Main Genre) – Political (Subgenre: Political affairs, government, etc.)

And the list may go on. Returning to your local supermarket, if instead of an apple, adventurous you goes for a Pluot (a genetic mix between a Plum and an Apricot) then you’ve picked yourself a delicious hybrid.

Cross-genre novels are exactly that: deliciously intriguing hybrids branching out from previous literary limitations. And they’ve been around for quite a while, sometimes nestled in the closest literary category and subcategory.

Although blending literary genres is not a new affair, for a novel to be a perfect cross-genre, it’s mostly a question of proportion. When creating a perfume, you add the base notes (long-lasting), heart notes (mid-lasting) and top notes (initial impression). Imagine the base notes as the core of your story, your main genre.

If the base of your novel has the best of both worlds and you can’t decide whether it’s more a Mystery novel than a Thriller, you may have achieved your very own Mystery Thriller.

That’s how it works. Of course your Mystery Thriller can have a developing romance or a dash of forensic involvement, but that doesn’t automatically turn your novel into a Mystery Romance Forensic Thriller.

Defining the main genre of your novel has everything to do with proportion. A sprinkle of romance doesn’t translate in a literary mutation toward the Romance genre. You can have plenty of nuances or elements from other genres without overshadowing your base.

When in doubt, trust your beta-readers and make sure you ask them plenty of genre-related questions before moving your manuscript on to your editor.

Growing Trends In Cross-Genre Novels

Science fantasy.

Now merely represented as a subgenre in most libraries and on most publishing platforms, it is my firm belief that in a few years Science Fantasy will have its own genre in the literary world.

If your novel has a strong base of both Science Fiction and Fantasy, use this to your advantage to market both fields accordingly and appeal to readers of both genres.

From motion picture to the writing industry, Science Fantasy is ever present. Think Star Wars and the novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (published in 1963 no less), Marisa Meyer’s Cinder (a retelling of Cinderella featuring a cyborg).

Think both DC and Marvel ’s wave of superheroes with abilities ranging from enhanced scientific skills (Iron Man, Batman) to magical abilities (Wonder Woman, Thor).

“Distinguishing between science fiction and fantasy, Rod Serling claimed that the former was ‘the improbable made possible” while the latter was “the impossible made probable’.”

Science Fantasy as a literary cross-genre is on the rise and statistics show a growing preference for this genre among readers in 2019.

Mystery Thriller

If you don’t know who’s the author of the mischief in the novel you’re currently reading, yet there’s enough suspense to keep you on your toes in a graceful balance of apprehension, anticipation and downright anxiety, you might hold a Mystery Thriller in your hands.

The broader definition is of course a lot more complex, but my aim here is to simplify things as much as possible.

Mystery is all about the brainpower, trying to solve the puzzle as a goal (who performed the mischief). In your typical Thriller , we usually know the author but not the motive, so digging for the why sets the premise of a fast paced novel sprinkled with tension.

Double the stakes, double the fun! And this cross-genre is on the rise among readers in 2019 as well.

Magical Realism

According to Wikipedia, Magical Realism is “a style of fiction that paints a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements […] with magic or the supernatural presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane setting.”

But isn’t that just another to say Fantasy ?

Really, it’s just another branch. As far as my research goes, if it happens in the real world, with supernatural elements integrated as a routine, it’s Magical Realism (with resounding literary voices both for and against it).

Fantasy – magic sprinkled as a surprise factor to a world that we are familiar with.

Magical Realism – magic embedded in the story and accepted as an everyday fact (the sky is blue, the water is liquid, magic is real in this world). In the past, it was written to make political statements.

A close subcategory of Magical Realism can (sometimes) be Urban Fantasy.

Gabriel García Márquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude , a perfect example of the genre. When reading a work of Magical Realism , the reader must shed ties to the conventional, immersing themselves in an intense journey where magic emerges as an everyday accepted reality.

“If you can explain it, then it’s not magical realism” confirms Mexican critic Luis Leal.

Literary genres are often tricky, fickle beasts, yet considering the volume of Magical Realism novels, this genre should have its own category instead of being simply described as a “style of fiction”.

Science Fiction Romance

We usually find Science Fiction as a subgenre of Romance , or Space Opera in Sci-Fi when in fact, the amount of novels with a strong base in both Sci-Fi and Romance should dictate the existence of a genre in itself. If the focus is as much on the Science side of things as it is on the Romance, there should be no doubt.

If you watched the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror on Netflix, you probably know the story of Yorkie and Kelly, two elderly women who happen to fall in love once their consciousnesses have been uploaded to project San Junipero – a virtual town set in the ‘80s where their younger selves meet.

Since in real life, Yorkie is dying and her conscious self will be permanently uploaded to San Junipero, despite her initial resistance, Kelly decides to join her in the simulated reality and live an eternal honeymoon. Her body though, remained buried next to her former husband and daughter.

The episode touches several delicate issues with the same intensity: the use of technology as a vessel for consciousness immortality as well as developing and maintaining a relationship in a virtual reality.

From symbiotic relationships to surreal technological development and societies high up on the Kardashev scale, this category appears to be on the rise. Until we get a proper genre, we’ll have to settle for close subgenres.

Getting To Know Your Readership

Identifying your target audience (age & interests) is key to market your book to the right crowd. MG, YA, NA or Adult, profiling your readers is the first step in doing it right.

For me personally, there are two kind of readers in the world (and yes, you can be both):

• The Reality anchored reader: Even when reading works of fiction, this reader seeks real-life experiences through the written word. No flying unicorns, no glittery vampires, no magic wielding creatures. Just life unfolding in its realistic layers whether it’s drama, romance or comedy.
• The Fantasy anchored reader: This reader is looking for a way out of real-life, wanting nothing more than to escape in a world where nothing is impossible: supernatural creatures, life on other planets, worlds hidden in plain sight.

Are Cross Genre Novels Marketable?

Most certainly. Cross-genre novels have been around for quite some time and while the closest denominator remains the ever-transmogrifying subgenre, that shouldn’t refrain you from pitching it in your favor.

Luckily, all publishing platforms offer the possibility of choosing multiple categories when publishing your novel, so that comes in handy.

Knowing where your novel fits in is the first step in promoting it properly by joining the compatible groups on Goodreads, organizing giveaways and ultimately running a paid promotion targeting your readers according to their preferences.

Until your perfect category springs up on the publishing platform of your choice, focus on profiling. And yes, sometimes you’ll feel like a misfit and doubt yourself endlessly, but without breaking these boundaries there will be no evolution. It’s finally up to you, the writer to be a pioneer in this ever-evolving field.

Esther Rabbit is a writer, a content creator for authors and a massive nerd. If you’re curious to know all the tips & tricks surrounding the process  From Writing To Publishing Your Novel , you’re only a click away. For more goodies, articles and giveaways, please consider subscribing to her  Newsletter .

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What Does It Mean When a Text Is Cross-Genre?

Cross- genre text refers to works of fiction that blend or combine elements, themes, and structures from more than one genre. For instance, horror and science fiction are considered distinct genres. A science fiction book that also has a strong element of horror as a theme could be characterized as a science fiction-horror story. A character solving a mystery set in the future would be in the genre of a science fiction-mystery. The possibilities for cross-genre fiction are only limited by the many types of genres.

The three broad categories of genre are poetry, drama and fiction. Within the genre of fiction there are numerous sub-genres. These include, among others, romance, westerns, thrillers, mystery, comedy, and adventure. A genre is defined by its shared features and conventions.

In the conventions of many romance novels , for instance, the two protagonists generally go through misunderstandings and conflicts and may initially intensely dislike each other. In the end they learn to appreciate each other and fall in love. When the conflicts are expressed through humorous events, the work can be characterized as comedy-romance.

There is often a distinction made between literary and genre fiction. Genre fiction is sometimes understood to refer to stories written primarily for entertainment as opposed to some higher purpose, such as to create art. Some writers disagree with this distinction. They point to writers like American author Raymond Chandler, whose detective novels fall within the conventions of that particular genre, but are considered so well written and considered to be good literature. English writer Mary Shelley’s gothic horror novel Frankenstein is viewed in much the same way.

Other types of cross-genre fiction are works that place a story in a particular setting or blend fiction with elements of fantasy or magic. For instance, a romance novel can be set in a period of history where fictional characters interact with actual historical events and people. Adventure-fantasy can involve characters that share their struggles with fantastical creatures and beings. There are literary works containing “magical realism.” The stories take place in the realm of reality, but magical or supernatural forces are at work in the plot.

In an interesting parallel to cross-genre fiction, many young adult aspiring writers are honing their skills writing “fan-fics.” In a fan-fic, the writer takes the characters from popular books or TV shows and places them in new settings and situations. The writer may also invent original characters, “oc’s,” to interact with the established ones. There are also “cross-over” fan-fics, which take the characters from different stories and place them in a story together. Fan-fics are posted on the Internet to be read and commented on by fans of the original stories.

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• What Are the Different Comedy Genres?
• What Are the Different Poetry Genres?
• What Are the Different Horror Genres?
• What Is a Literary Conflict?
• What Are the Different Non-Fiction Genres?
• What Are the Different Romance Genres?
• What Are the Best Tips for Genre Analysis?

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Post your comments.

• By: dariazu A romance novel in which fictional characters interact with real historical people is a cross-genre novel.
• By: Shakzu Many romance novels will be mixed with comedy to create a cross-genre text.
• By: daniaphoto Under the genre of fiction, there are many sub-genres, such as mysteries or historical fiction.

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Jerome Rothenberg, Who Heard Poetry Beyond the West, Dies at 92

His anthology “Technicians of the Sacred” included a range of non-Western work and was beloved by, among others, rock stars like Jim Morrison and Nick Cave.

By Clay Risen

Jerome Rothenberg, a poet, translator and anthologist whose efforts to bring English-language readers into contact with creative traditions far outside the Western establishment — a field he called ethnopoetics — had an enormous impact on world literature and made him a hero to rock musicians like Nick Cave, Jim Morrison and Warren Zevon, died on April 21 at his home in Encinitas, Calif. He was 92.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son, Matthew Rothenberg.

By ethnopoetics, Mr. Rothenberg meant poetry from Indigenous and other non-Western cultures, often rendered in ways very different from the strictly textual, including oral, performance, ritual and myth.

He introduced the idea in 1967 with his book “Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries From Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania,” a wide-ranging anthology that introduced readers to ancient Egyptian coronation events, Comanche peyote songs and Gabonese death rites.

Such work, he said, was just as complex and vibrant as the Western canon, if not more so. He went on to deepen his argument across scores of books, many of them anthologies, in which he wove together different traditions — Jewish mysticism, American Indian, Dada — and then connected and contextualized them with extensive commentary.

“I’ve expanded my searches into forms of poetry that have been hidden from our view but have much to teach us about the sources and resources of poetry that would allow us to fill out the picture,” he told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2017. “I also believe that the new forms of poetry developed by our own experimental poets can allow us to see a greater range of poetry in places and cultures distant from us.”

“Technicians of the Sacred” quickly found its place on college literature reading lists and has been reissued, with new material, in two subsequent editions. It became a core text for poets and musicians looking to explore ritual and meaning beyond the conventions of their genres.

Mr. Morrison, the lead singer of the Doors, loved the book so much that he was reportedly buried with a copy. When Mr. Zevon moved in with his future wife, ”Technicians of the Sacred” was the only book he brought, relying on its hundreds of entries for ideas.

“For someone always looking for inspiration, they were an incredible resource,” Mr. Cave said in a phone interview. “I could look and find ideas that worked beautifully in rock ’n’ roll.”

Mr. Rothenberg published several books of his own poetry, but he also saw translation and anthologizing as creative acts in themselves. He said that his anthologies were not an attempt to create a new canon, but instead were selections meant to highlight hidden connections among seemingly disparate works.

“He was the ultimate hyphenated person: poet-critic-anthologist-translator,” Charles Bernstein, a poet and professor emeritus of English at the University of Pennsylvania, said in an interview.

Mr. Rothenberg insisted on performance as a frequent part of what he called “total translation,” and even late into his 80s he could be found onstage reading, often in venues far removed from the standard poetry recital. In 2017, he presented several poems during a burlesque-vaudeville show in San Diego sponsored by an organization called the Poetry Brothel.

His parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland, and he wrote several books exploring the enthnopoetics of Jewish mysticism, starting with “Poland/1931,” a collection of his poetry that he published in 1970, and continuing through “Khurbn” (1989), about the Holocaust, and “The Burning Babe” (2005).

“Poland/1931” was a celebration of what Mr. Rothenberg called “Jewish mystics, thieves and madmen,” and he performed parts of it in jazz clubs and other venues, sometimes accompanied by wailing voices.

It was also, he added, an often irreverent look at juxtapositions in his own life, as the son of Eastern European immigrants who spent two years living among the Seneca Indians of western New York State, where his wife, Diane, an anthropologist, was conducting research. In one poem, “Cokboy,” he wrote:

saddlesore I came a jew among the indians vot em I doink in dis strange place mit deez pipple mit strange eyes could be it’s trouble could be could be

Jerome Dennis Rothenberg was born on Dec. 11, 1931, in New York City. His parents, Morris and Estelle (Lichtenstein) Rothenberg, operated a dry goods store in the Bronx, where Jerome grew up speaking Yiddish at home.

He received a bachelor’s degree in literature from the City College of New York in 1952 and a master’s in the same subject from the University of Michigan a year later.

He married Diane Brodatz in 1952. Along with their son, she survives him, as do two granddaughters.

Mr. Rothenberg spent two years in Germany with the Army, then returned to New York, where he began writing poetry and continued translating. In 1959, he published “New Young German Poets,” his first book and the first time the work of Günter Grass, Paul Celan and others appeared in English.

He mixed with other poets in the vibrant New York scene of the 1960s, crossing paths, and sharing influences, with writers in the Language, Deep Image and Fluxus movements.

After teaching at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan in the late 1960s, he lived with his wife and young son on the Seneca Nation reservation from 1972 to 1974.

Mr. Rothenberg later taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the State University of New York at Binghamton, but he spent most of his career at the University of California, San Diego.

He eventually took emeritus status. But instead of slowing down, he used his newfound free time to increase his productivity. Over the course of his career he wrote more than 80 books and recorded more than a dozen spoken-word albums.

At his death he had more titles on the way. In June, Tzadik Records will release “In the Shadow of a Mad King,” a recording of Mr. Rothenberg’s poems about Donald Trump, and in October, the University of California Press plans to publish “The Serpent and the Fire: Poetries of the Americas From Origins to Present,” co-written with Javier Taboada.

Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Clay Risen