Some of my favorite fiction authors are unapologetically genre-defying. It isn’t necessarily why I like them, but I appreciate that they didn’t allow or aren’t allowing themselves to be confined to one category.
Georgette Heyer wrote historically accurate Regency novels before Regency novels were a thing, along with a dozen clever contemporary mysteries. Ann Bridge entertained with her Julia Probyn series of spy intrigues, but also wrote poignant novels. Robin McKinley genre-jumped to fantasy-horror with “Sunshine” after reimagining various fairy tales and publishing two classic heroic adventure novels. Katherine Arden’s recent release is a haunting story set during WWI, very different from her Winternight series or her eerie YA books; Laurie R. King, Jonathan Stroud and Naomi Novik all have genre-jumped to write divergent books I’ve loved. I recently obsessively reread J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series, penned under a pseudonym that allowed her to move from G-rated magic to gritty mystery.
I find this appealing not only because I enjoy the books themselves, but also because I find it challenging to specify a genre for my own work. Most of my novels don’t seem to fit any single category. Crime Fiction, Suspense Fiction, Literary Fiction… On Kindle Direct Publishing, you can choose up to three categories for each title, and each time I wonder if I’ve chosen “right” or totally missed the point. (The categories don’t actually align with the Amazon marketplace; I have no idea why the two are different, but it makes the exercise even more ambiguous.) What’s the difference, exactly, between Crime Fiction and Mystery? (Won’t most mysteries involve a crime?) Does Suspense Fiction have to be about spies, lawyers, police or private detectives? What about Cozy Mysteries — do they require inns, cats, knitting and/or bookstores?
From a self-publishing standpoint, genres have started to seem increasingly oversimplified, arbitrary and subjective.
I recognize that for browsing readers, it helps to have books sectioned off somehow. The big three seem to be Science Fiction/Fantasy, Mystery/Crime and Literary Fiction. Fine — but where does “The Lord of the Rings” fall? Fantasy or Literary Fiction? And who gets to decide? From a self-publishing standpoint, genres have started to seem increasingly oversimplified, arbitrary and subjective. I tend to rely on what other readers have read when I’m browsing online, trusting in those algorithms over the genre or genres a title has been tagged into.
By the same token, I believe that authors don’t need to be designated as “kinds” of writers — mystery writer, children’s writer, romance writer, defined solely by what they’ve published before. We aren’t expected to want to read just one type of book, and people who write them aren’t any different. Of course we all write what we have affinity to, but having multiple affinities is common with authors, just as it is with readers. Why shouldn’t we write non-fiction essays and screenplays and cookbooks and novels like Norah Ephron did, scattering work across genres with creative abandon?
These authors remind me how little genre actually matters in the creative process, how little it matters to me as a reader.
Successful authors who step out of their genres inspire me. It’s brave to try something different that could disappoint readers who want the same thing, even while attracting readers who like the new stuff better. Maybe I won’t love everything an author writes, or follow them into each series or section of the library, but I appreciate that they’re being authentic even if that particular book doesn’t hold my interest.
These authors remind me how little genre actually matters in the creative process, how little it matters to me as a reader. And that’s reassuring on so many levels. Regardless of how large or small our readership is, or what category boxes we check, we don’t ever have to limit ourselves — to one style, to one period or setting, or to one genre.
~ Emily
