I'm sort of writing a horror novel, but I would say it's not a complete work of the genre. Honestly, I don't know the genre super well. I've done some horror shorts. I love everything zombie and dystopian. My novel is dystopian. Now that doesn't make it horror alone, but as I go through the story the second time. It's a little disturbing and I keep adding some sgreusim and just sick things. I believe all of this revision is going to get the story where it needs to be. But I want it to be literary fiction and not genre. All of my publications have been for literary works and my contacts (including agents and publishers) all work pithin the literary scene. I think this book is going to be what I want it to be. It's better than I remember from when I first wrote it. I know literary just means without genre. I want to just not mention genre when I query even if it will be quite obvious what the story is about. Can language in the writing save me here? Or do you think my literary contact won't be interested because, well... this is probably genre. I don't know. What do you guys think?
No wonder you fit in here. Seriously, I would suggest researching the various tropes of the horror genre, and looking for ways to put your own twist on them. The vegan zombie perhaps.
Oh, that's probably it. For some reason I was seeing it the other way, as in "I keep adding some (something) and some sick things." Gruesome wouldn't work if it was structured that way, but it does work the other way.
I like the word sgreusim, and was hoping it was a real word. I don't agree that literary simply means without genre. Literary work can encompass horror or any other subject usually classified as genre. The way the story is expressed is what makes it literary. From an essay by John Oldcastle: "So literary writing, having creative and artistic intent, is more carefully structured and uses words for the rhetorical effect of their flow, their sound, and their emotive and descriptive qualities. Literary writers can also employ tone, rhyme, rhythm, irony, dialogue and its variations such as dialects and slang, and a host of other devices in the construction of a particular prose work, poem, or play... Perhaps we should also consider the motivation of the writer as a factor which distinguishes literary from other forms of writing. The writer's motivation is the energy that pulls together the strands of his creativity in the shaping of the finished work." People fear tacking "literary" onto their work for fear they'll be taken for snobs, which in some circles they will be. Too bad, because it's just a descriptive term. Stephen King writes horror. Shirley Jackson wrote literary horror.
I'm on the second draft now. I like my story, but version two is going quite dark and maybe even uncomfortable at times. I think that's okay. I'm just seeing a lot of things that amplify the story. The story I like and I trust the story. I'm not going to look up tropes or anything. Fitting into the mold of any genre horror was never my intent. I guess I just feel like I'm heavily burrowing. This is already a dystopian story, but I would say it is something I could still reach out to may literary contacts with. But if it gets too horror, that would be out of the question.
I play with language so munch in writing and think it's quite powerful. In fact language is to blame for making my story go a little more horror.
I hear what you're saying, but I did the MFA, I publish in some well-established literary journals. I got a small grant last year because I'm a literary writer. These are the people I read too. I want to know who my competition is and then I read their novels and they become my new favorite author, but for some reason, I still submit to The Paris Review. But on the side I've gone a little genre with things like magical realism. Lately, the world is ending in a lot of my stories But the novel is the baby, right?I fill a pull to make it all more morbid which I could easily do. I feel like to the level I'm going it's at least touching hour. ****The second draft is more fun than I remember. I think I usually dread it, actually. But this one's coming together because I'm going to make it work. I'm dedicating time each day to my novel.Have any of you been open to big changes of the sorts on round two?
Another literary writer here with pretty decent chops, but no problem with agreeing to disagree about a definition. Last year, some forum folks jumped me for saying my novel has overtones of magical realism. They contended that one can only write magical realism if one is from Latin America, and anyone else using the term is guilty of cultural appropriation. One person was offended enough by my demurral to put me on ignore. Shrug. She invited me to hit the ignore button on her as well, but I gave up snubbing people in grade school. I love rewrites. That's when I discover, "Holy cats, so that's what really happened?" and adjust the story accordingly. Covid derailed my steady progress on book 2 in late January, and this month I've been tied up with business on book 1, including the (to me) onerous tasks of establishing a website and social media presence. Yuck city, especially on the second, but it is in the contract, so... I had to cancel teaching my class today because of mobility issues (it snowed and I'm on crutches) so will use that set-aside time to work on book 2. Usually I head for the library or somewhere to write. I also write at home, but it's easy to get distracted. Going out feels business-like, even if I sit on a bench by the river to write.
Since when is creativity bound by geography? There are too many people on social media who have nothing better to do than try to drag others down with their comments. I can understand not wanting to use the ignore button, but it is a useful feature for the trolls and idiots out there.
I don't like that ignore option either. I'd always have considered ignoring something as an active thing. Not knowing it's even there? That's not ignoring it. That's just ignorance. There's wisdom in the rest of your post as well. These genre conventions demand more conformity than the most fundamentalist religions, it seems to me. Just write the story. If you want to make money out of it, make it instantly cinematic. Otherwise, write the story you want to write. There's still some readers who like to be confounded by their reading material, but might not make you rich.
I'm more wondering how this might play out when I try to publish. I think that's making this a little tricky for me. I really have no interest in doing a deep dive into the horror genre. I here and there read some short fiction of it in the big genre publications. But, it's just not that regular of a thing at the moment. I do have some sort of comparable titles in mind as far of the level or style of horror, but they were books I read in the 90s and they might not even classify as horror, but I'm guessing they did. Some were pretty fucked. Well, I think I might have taken it a little further. This book offers no break, no breathing period, no downtime. And before anyone says a story needs these things, I don't think all stories need these things. My book in not an action-packed thriller, but it is about every second being difficult to breathe. This is the third novel I have written, and I'm hoping thins will be the first I have published. I've still got a super long way to go just through the revision process. It's just that this process is exciting to me with this story. I wasn't so excited about revision with my last book and as a result never sent it to anyone.
