Young Adult and Romance Genres

There's a pretty big discussion awaiting anyone who challenges the popularity of the Young Adult (YA) or romance genres. There's also a monstrous number of aspects that could be discussed about why these particular story themes are so relevant. For now, however, I want to talk about the important elements needed to write them, other than the key ingredient that comes with their name. In many ways these genres are similar, but split in one very important sense.

The YA craze has actually been around for a long time, but only really exploded once certain people realized how it could be readily exploited to turn that prime demographic - kids - into raging consumers. We have been seeing it for decades starting with the mass-marketing that hit with the original Star Wars movie and just spread to every other movie and TV franchise that could be sold, but books took a little longer. Then here comes bespectacled, wide-eyed and forehead-scarred Harry Potter, and it was on. A book spawned a series of books, movies, plays, theme-park rides and adventures, LEGO sets, and anything else that could be sold. From there, the real YA adventure was born.

The magic of this genre is that it should embody all the elements of growing up, but manifest those elements as characters and challenges. Every teenager goes through the phase where adults do not understand them and mostly get in the way of what the kid really wants, so that appears in the YA novels as obstructive or ignorant parents, angry teachers, clueless older friends, etc. And what better way to describe life's biological changes than through a dip into fantasy where a new, much more exciting world opens up for these youngsters? YA novels are, at their core, examples of kids that teens can relate to, taking on the plights and perils of life through metaphor-filled adventures where they are the vindicated heroes who show the world they were right all along. Tell me what 12-year-old wouldn't absolutely love winning an argument about life with their parents? A good YA novel will leave that pre-teen feeling like they did just that.

In this regard, romance is a very similar creature. The quest for love is universal, so no surprise that it has been turned into an industry - and a lucrative one at that. However, let's see what steps beyond the standard romance novel, which is basically a series of exotic locations, various short-term hook-ups, and at long last the connection that made it all worthwhile. Romance is about searching, about the quest for love, but the really good ones are about becoming, and this is why they fit in with YA nicely. In a standout romance novel, our main character does more than find love, they discover themselves in full. They find what truly brings them the joy and contentment that their life lacked before the book started. In YA romance, this often means immersing them in a world they might not be familiar with but somehow they find out this brings out a part of them they never knew existed. They become the true hero, the character finally victorious in the most difficult game of all - life. The Twilight saga gives us this in a four-book package, appealing to romantics and YA fans alike (though fantasy writers will often tell you their opinion about glimmering vampires). 

There are more aspects to discuss, but these two genres encapsulate the hero's challenge in a simple manner. In YA, the challenge should parallel growing up. In romance, the real adventure is the development of the character into someone truly deserving of love. How tough can that be?        

Genres of Your Making

Well, it's been a fun couple of weeks discussing some elements of certain detail-specific genres. For those who are interested, next week I will explore the Young Adult (YA) and the Romance genres, but for now the big discussion will be on the greatest genre of all. Now, a lot of people might argue what the best one is, given everyone's different preferences and interests. However, for the individual author, the best environment to write in is surprisingly simple and very exciting. In simplest terms, it's the hybrid genre.

Hybrid? Is that really a thing? Most definitely, and it is what most authors use when they find their particular style. Horror authors usually include some form of romance (the violent murder of a loved one is that much more shocking), writers of thrillers and suspense novels often create very intense relationships between their characters (it creates higher stakes when they are in peril), sci-fi and fiction-fantasy often incorporate other environments as major plot elements - it's all a huge blend of many things mixed together like a home-brewed recipe that is never quite the same each time it's whipped up.

Now, how do we discover just what our specific blend is? Well, similar to structuring out a craft brew, homemade chili, or handmade meatloaf, you need to know its foundation. Oats, barley, or wheat for the beer, what kind(s) of beans for the chili, turkey or beef in the loaf - this is your starting line, then build out from there. This is where we pick the dominant genre, all while recognizing that we can add plenty of different things into this personal stewpot that is our writing. From that base point, we begin the creation process and have some fun.

Now are there things that don't mix, or hybrids you should avoid? This can be a contentious point, but let's just say that Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and his similar works should put to rest any worries about things not blending. Taking outrageously different concepts and fusing them together does not always guarantee success, but such mash-ups (as they are called) do gain attention much in the same way that intriguing fusion cuisine can come out of nowhere and take the world by storm. The wild success of YA dystopian fantasy series reminds us that there are many combinations to be tried, and we as writers hold the responsibility of doing so.

Next week will be a frank discussion about YA and romance (and that obvious fusion), but I will be taking Monday off in observance of Martin Luther King Day, so my next post will be on January 23rd.    

Genres of the Past

As promised this discussion explores the different kinds of fiction using the past - and it's a very big category. It's even bigger when you consider its cousin, non-fiction writing about the past, is basically only known as "history." But once we pull away the guardrails of fact and reality, our many pathways open up to an almost unlimited magnitude, and we get to choose which genre we want to pursue and how many other genres we want to overlap. But first, some basic categories to work with.

Historical fiction: In its most basic form, this is a story that takes place in a specific time and place in history - hopefully with good reason, but not necessarily. This fiction does require a little research to make sure you get the nitty-gritty correct. Was this an era where they referred to tuberculosis as consumption? How many states were in the Union at the time (assuming the USA existed)? You don't need to research the details before you know what will be referred to, but once you know your time, place, and purpose, give it an eye for the period. Details serve two purposes in historical fiction: First, it is an opportunity to point out things the reader might not realize or never have heard about, thereby doing some world-building for the reader (mentioning the Chicago Coliseum, which was torn down in 1982, for example). Secondly, certain trivial details specific to the time give the writing a sense of authenticity (before the 1880s, nails were rectangular, not rounded). These bring the past very much to the reader's present-day, and help immerse them in that era.

Old-time fiction: This is like historical fiction but it utilizes the senses and sensibilities of a particular era without getting all tied up in the details of where, when, and how. The same rules apply from historical fiction go as far as immersive details, but these should focus on intimate concepts such as identity, worth, values, and so forth. Without the anchor of a specific time or place, the story can work with moods and character tensions built out from the values of an earlier time. This genre does serve well with romantic fiction, which often fails the time/place detail test, but that's not what the story is about. These stories have a more timeless feel, and are representative of feeling rather than calculating accuracy.

Fiction-fantasy (note the word order): Now we're just throwing out the history book altogether and instead blending in elements of the fantasy genre - dragons, magic, gods and demigods, whatever you wish. This is often a lead-in to just writing pure fantasy fiction, and not trying to write about a dragon hunter in South America shortly before the era of colonization (though that might be a good story idea). Fiction-fantasy (with fiction coming first) uses some historical idea and just runs it into the fantasy world. The Knights Templar, lost civilizations, the last days of Pompeii - all historical anchors for the writer to launch from. Once Fantasy becomes the lead word in fantasy-fiction, then it's just using concepts and ideas from our past and throwing them into a different world altogether. It should not be surprising that a lot of high fantasy writing in mythical world still has royal hierarchy similar to European traditions.

Alt-past: This covers a lot of the same real estate as alt-future writing, but the timeframe for the story is still prior to present-day. The best example of this genre is Steampunk, which should really be more of a breakout genre than it is these days. The idea though is that our history ran a different course somehow, somewhere, and here's how, say, 1910 looks. This, however, comes with the same caveats as tech writing - the story trajectory must intersect with the new reality and be moved by it, otherwise it loses purpose. This, however, is a little easier, since you can definitely show how historical landmarks or waypoints can intrude upon the story or even be avoided.

In Friday's post, we discuss the best genre of them all, and how you get the final say in what it actually is.       

Genres of the Future

As promised, I am continuing my discussion on different genres, what makes them special and how they are driven. Since today is Friday, I am looking forward to all the wonders the future holds for me - the future being the coming weekend. However, this did make me think about genres set in the future (or alt-future), so that's what we will be discussing. And often, the future isn't all that wonderful - which of course has its own genre. But let's start simple.

Sci-fi: Science fiction is the easiest future genre to explore, particularly since this is a pretty broad church. What makes something science fiction is that the advancement of science has fundamentally impacted people's lives and altered the way they typically engage with the world. This could be a few years from now, a generational leap, or a whole Star Trek-leap into the unknown. Sci-fi is the home of space travel, cyberpunk, and all the fascinating tech-studies. The point here is that science has changed the world - for better or worse - and it is a contending part of the narrative. If the story is about a farming family in Kansas facing the world in the year 2110, the story better have a main obstacle be science-driven, otherwise it's just future-fantasy.

Future-fantasy: Naturally, this is a story that takes place in the future, but the characters are motivated and driven by the same things that we in the early 21st century understand. Science may be different, but the main issue is that it's the future, and change abounds. Perhaps global warming has made life difficult, melting ice caps kind of ruined Miami, or overpopulation abounds. These aren't exactly science-driven issues, but challenges brought on by time itself. This is also known as speculative sci-fi, exploring how the world looks after things have changed, which doesn't have to be negative. What about a future where most of the population lives in space and Earth is quite open and free? That's workable as well. There's a lot to work with here, as long as the world is different for a good reason (or a bad reason, as follows).

Dystopian: This is the future, but something went wrong. Maybe society turned on itself and went to totalitarianism, maybe Mother Nature had one too many and unleashed something horrible, maybe scientific cataclysm, nuclear war, over polluting, or something horrible really damaged society. Social change is to dystopian stories what technological change is to sci-fi. Now, dystopian worlds can have their fancy tech - 1984, Fahrenheit 451, these are classic dystopian stories where tech has improved, but the big change is what society has become. Tech can also be a non-issue - The Road has a world in its death throes, with food more important than an iPhone (imagine that).

Alt-future: Similar to speculative fiction, this looks at a future world if something in history went different. If Napoleon won at Waterloo, if Columbus didn't stumble upon the western hemisphere, if Pepsi came before Coke - the point is, it explores a future under a different set of ground rules. Imagine if the first country to develop interstellar space travel was the Confederate States of America - start writing. Any tweak of the past, extrapolated into the future, makes for alt-future writing (if the writing is present-day, the is just speculative fiction and leave it at that).

The important part to note about any futuristic writing is why it takes place in the future. Tech changes important to the plot? Perfect. A new political entity in charge? Great. An imagination of the world in the year 3000 during the interstellar era? Awesome. The important part is that some change of the world will impact how the story unfolds. Someone hiking through the outback for two weeks might not be a rich topic for future fiction unless somehow that future finds its way into the plot. Otherwise, the door is open for as much exploration as you can fit on the page.

The next post, in case you hadn't guessed, will be backward-looking genres, and all the fun they can be.        

Let's Talk Genre

Happy New Year one and all, I hope those of you who made writing resolutions are keeping them and the rest of you are writing anyway. I thought a nice way to kick off this year would be to discuss different writing genres, what makes them unique, and how we can blend them into other styles to make our own preferred style of writing. Of course I won't discuss all genres in one post, so this one will start with the category of scary stuff and how there are differences.

On a tangent, one of my favorite horror movies is the original Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis. This movie takes on legendary status when it comes to the horror movie, but too often people jumble it up with Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise, Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street fame, and other blood-soaked movie that dominate the slasher era. And while yes, the Halloween franchise did give in to more blood in the sequels, what makes the original so good was that it was suspenseful rather than gory. Its minimal amount of blood and focus on mood and situation made for a classic movie.

So, now that we are talking about writing, what are the scary genres? In general, we have the horror, suspense, and thriller categories. Don't worry about whether zombies, vampires, werewolves, and so forth should be in one category or the other - that all depends on the story you want to tell. The important part is what each one brings to the table.

Horror: This genre is sure to offer up a pile of bodies who died before their time and in terrible ways. Things like character deaths and dramatic turns are always accompanied by events the reader would not like to experience in the real world, usually explained or demonstrated in graphic detail. To write horror, one must bring out either some of the things that terrify or shock the author, then they get spilled onto the page. The author doesn't need to have experienced these things, just know that they could happen in some dark nightmare. 

Suspense: As mentioned before, suspense novels carry the thread of something horrible approaching the main characters. There should be a looming threat, perhaps with unknown motive, but a force nevertheless that means harm to our focal characters and will bring it by any means necessary. In a true suspense novel, the protagonist(s) are unaware of the threat or do not know if it is real, but the reader knows without question that trouble is approaching. This is the secret of suspense writing - showing the reader the threat but keeping the characters in the dark until some big reveal leads to a dramatic confrontation or two.

Thriller: As opposed to suspense, the thriller places the protagonist in danger from square one, and they know it. Whether the threat is a vengeful killer or an approaching hurricane, the stakes start off high and keep rising. The protagonist may not know why the killer is pursuing them or understand how they can escape the hurricane, but now they need to survive. Close calls, quick escapes, and surprising turns all mark the thriller, and leaving the reader a moment to breathe is not recommended.

Blending these now just becomes the practice of finding the right temperature. Typically, the zombie apocalypse stories are horror-thrillers as the survivors flee for safety and occasionally get eaten, whereas a zombie horror-suspense blend might focus on the first hours of the outbreak where people don't even believe such a thing could happen (then they get eaten). Of course, the suspense-thriller simply means the protagonist is in danger from the first page but does not know why they are being victimized. This is a great genre to work with because everyone loves suspense and a good thriller, but if it doesn't have a high body count, it reaches a bigger audience.

In future posts I will discuss other genres, how to mix them, and what makes them special. Until Friday, keep on enjoying the New Year, and watch out for zombies (you never know).     

Nobody Likes Happy People

As we prepare to close out 2025, I am sure that more than a few of my readers will be doing so at some sort of gathering - public or private - with a bunch of people, most of whom they don't really know and probably will not see again in the New Year. There will be a wide variety of people in attendance, all there to have a good time, celebrate the New Year, maybe have an adult beverage or two, and just let go for a little bit. This is a great opportunity as a writer to gather information, to people-watch, to note curious little habits they might have. However, chances are these people will not make very interesting characters. Why? At least during this event, they're just too happy.

Intuitively, happiness would seem like a good thing to pursue, and that's not in question. Given the choice, I would prefer happiness over non-happiness 10 times out of 10. Furthermore, I would wish such happiness upon anyone I ever met or will meet, because it is generally a good state of existence. However, I would let all those people be happy on their own, and instead I would pay attention to the people dealing with issues or trying to manage dilemmas. They are usually not happy; all the better, because now they are interesting.

Here are the main reasons we should avoid happy people as our main characters. First and foremost, the main elements of writing any story - from short story to epic series - are conflict, tension, and suspense, and those ideas just don't fit too well with very happy people. A person who is well-adjusted and balanced in their mood so they can happily manage their life is difficult to place into a state of internal conflict. A character who is conflicted doesn't necessarily know what is best for them, or thinks they do but cannot understand why this doesn't fit in with how their world is shaking out. People who are unhappy have minds full of unanswered question, lingering doubts, and conflicting values, all of which make them ripe for conflict. 

The other problem is that readers can't exactly relate to the very-happy-always-smiling person. People like that trigger suspicions, doubts, and that nagging sensation that Mr. Happy-go-Lucky must be hiding something. When you reader doesn't buy in to your character as presented, you immediately have a problem. Self-help books discovered this early on. When people who are now genuinely happy want to show others how to achieve that life, do they offer a bunch of examples of being happy? Never! Instead, they put a bunch of stories of dysfunction out there, then resolve them one-by-one. They draw a crowd by showing an unhappy person that the audience can connect with.

Now, my advice in life is to always try to be happier than you were yesterday. However, as a writer, my advice is to keep an eye out for massive dysfunction, and study it like a textbook. Look at all the ways problems fester, examine how simple activities become complicated. Study their problems, because these things are what we all carry inside, and they are when readers can relate to. I know I sure can.

Happy New Year, and my next post will be January 5th, 2026.     

Feeling Like A Writer

"There is no better feeling than walking down the stairs after having done a couple of hours of writing. And there is no worse feeling than going up those stairs to do a couple hours of writing."

Normally I don't do a blog entry immediately after Christmas, instead choosing to rest and relax a little extra before jumping back into my writing shoes. However, I heard that quote above in an interview and it just got the wheels turning, so I had to at least post a little entry about it and how I feel about the physical process of going forth and writing.

I think a lot of people outside the writer's circle just assume we are these eternally creative creatures who can just sit down and generate written-word brilliance, and often do so just for the sake of doing. I also think that same category of people thinks bankers spend every waking hour counting money and scientists constantly pour stuff into test tubes. You and I, however, know a large part of writing is not about writing but about being creative in our existence, and the time we spend in front of a keyboard is limited. (Note: There are a subset of writers who can spend eight hours a day typing away, and I respect that - it's just not the baseline.) 

Rather, I like to remind writers that any task we do in life may, at times, feel like drudgery. Enjoying a nice walk outside can be wonderful, but sometimes we just aren't in a place to put on both shoes and head to the park. It's even more so with vigorous endeavors like writing. When we create, we do a lot of mental gymnastic that take up energy and bring us a certain amount of exhaustion. The end result is often worth it, an no complaints about the endorphins, but let's just acknowledge that it's hard to get excited about that rush of accomplishment when we are stuck on the front end of a big task.

As I head into my next calendar year, I plan on a few things. I want to get my next book, "Easier Than the Truth," out there - I am hoping the workshopping will done by spring. I am also hoping to get my next work, "Gods of the Gaps," into the rough draft stage. However, those tasks will both require several occasions where I have to face the drudgery of going up those steps to do my writing (metaphorically - my house is a ranch-style). I just remind myself that if I want to reach those goals of publication and completion, there will be that difficult part in between. And for now , that's okay.

I will be putting up a post on December 29th, but I will definitely not be posting on January 2nd because hangovers take time to get rid of. Until then, prepare for the drudgery of a new day, because it's worth it.