Hi, I did a quick search on genre, and a couple of things came up. Mixing genres and one on a realistic fantasy paradox, which din't reall help me. I would class myself as dark, horror and gothic orientated. An idea came to me the other day, and I just started writing a short story. I've nearly finished it, but I can't identify its genre in order to see which publications I could submit it to. There's no supernatural, vampire or monster theme. So I had a look at what something like 'The long walk' would have been classified as by Stephen King. That comes up as sci-fi and fantasy, and general fiction. This is loosely the same underlying themes with violence in it. It's probably closer to one he wrote about a guy jumping off a building on a ledge (I can't recall the name of that short story, though I think it appeared in nightmares and dreamscapes). How can I classify it better so I'm not wasting my time and the publishers? Thanks for your time.
Don't bother with what genre you're writing. Just write. You don't want to get trapped in the 'but this genre must have this and this and can't have that' idea. Just say YA horror, though. I would.
Second Gallowglass--wait until you've finished your story to bother with the genre stuff. That said, if you are into dark, horror, and goth, chances are high that you are writing stories that fall into that genre.