Genres

Ages ago, years and years ago, when we still lived in the north of England I did an MA in writing studies, which I really enjoyed and found very useful. It was at a time when the academic study of writing, creative writing, and the processes of writing were only just beginning; my MA, although fascinating did not help us as  writers in particular, it certainly didn’t enable any of us to meet publishers or have the profile of our work raised. That’s not a complaint or criticism, just a comment… anyway, having completed my MA I applied to do a PhD at the same University.

I was invited for an interview and I knew as soon as I met the woman who was interviewing me, that I was likely not to be successful; it seemed to me that she had very clear views on what a writer should do and be, and I was neither. I guess I’m a story-teller, and maybe I should have said that , but I doubt it would have made any difference. This was some time ago, and although I had written three and two half novels (none of which will ever see the light of publication!) I didn’t really feel that I was a ‘proper’ writer as I do now.

I had prepared as well as I could for the interview, but when she asked me in what ‘genre’ I wrote I was a bit stumped – actually, I should have thought of this before hand! My difficulty was that I didn’t feel my work fitted into any straight genre. Mystery? well, yes… Police procedural? well, a bit, but I don’t know much about actual police procedure so although there might be a crime the police really only had walk on roles. Thriller? Well, there would always be action, but not a thriller with murder and mayhem… Romance? Family saga? Crime?

I tried to answer truthfully and plainly – maybe I should have exaggerated, or flannelled or made it sound more literary than it was… Whatever, I didn’t get accepted, and I was unsurprised but disappointed, however, since before long I had two small children and the University was an hour away from home if the traffic was OK, I tried to be philosophical, became a stay-at-home mum and wrote in every spare minute that I had!

So genres… these days there seem to be even more than ever and I still don’t really know how properly to pigeon-hole my book… except for the last three which I can say loudly and clearly are genealogical mysteries!

Here’s the basic list Amazon has of fictional genres:

• Adventure Stories & Action 
• Anthologies 
• Biographical Fiction 
• Classics 
• Contemporary Fiction 
• Crime, Thrillers & Mystery 
• Erotica 
• Family Sagas 
• Fantasy
• Film & Television Tie-In 
• Gay & Lesbian 
• Historical 
• Horror 
• Humour 
• Lad Lit 
• Literary Fiction 
• Medical
• Metaphysical & Visionary 
• Myths & Fairy Tales 
• Poetry & Drama 
• Political 
• Psychological 
• Religious & Inspirational 
• Romance 
• Science Fiction 
• Short Stories 
• Sport 
• War 
• Westerns 
• Women Writers & Fiction 

The four novels I had written when I went for my interview were ‘The Man In the Sun’ (English bloke working in France meets brother and sister, goes back to their family farm and a murdered woman is found in a field) ‘Telling All The Truth’ (woman’s cousin confesses to murdering her own boyfriend which seems unbelievable but the cousin never ever lies), ‘Out Of Time’ (young woman falls in love with her fiancé’s father who is a famous poet) and  ‘Silver Screen’ (too embarrassing to confess!)

If you want to check out the books I have published and try to decide which genres they are, follow this link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=node%3D62&field-keywords=lois+elsden