Shouts From Down Under

Can we shoehorn our story into boots of the Great Authors?

My novel doesn't FIT! Does it? I don't fit into society, so what hope has my writing to appeal?

http://writersrelief.com/blog/2009/06/genre-fiction-rules-find-out-if-your-novel...

http://www.novel-writing-help.com/types-of-novels.html

http://www.novel-writing-help.com/mainstream-fiction.html

What about unheard of Genres, and those rejected books of confusing genre- perhaps a genre of their own?

The WTF?! Genre (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot plot made up of the weird, random, non-coincidental / coincidental - a lot like my blog entries)
The Wisdom Genre (Underlying stuff that we nod about as we read, and wonder why we didn't think of something so clever, yet obvious)
The Grief Genre (No happy ending, stuff just gets worse, characters suffering increases and we feel good that someone else's life is so much worse than ours)
The Annoying Genre (We want to shake the author for writing such unadulterated BS, but realise that we have just written some stuff in the same, abrasive, teeth-gritting way).
The Naive Genre (People feel sorry for the author's pristine, but delusional, view of life)
The Self Assured Genre (Readers quickly realise what a git, a prat, a twat and a pompous ass I am, because I think I'm good and it's all about me)
The Rule-Breaker Genre (I don't care if no one reads it or publishes it, it's how I write so like it or lump it)
I Refuse-to-Edit anything Genre (I refuse to edit anything even if I don't sell one copy as a result)
The Constantly High Genre (Wha..?)

Sometimes I feel like a lot of writers are trying to reinvent the wheel. It's ok to have up to the minute education and rules, but do they get in the way of good old storytelling?
The old fashioned campfire ghost stories, or the bedtime Once upon a time's, the It was a Dark and Stormy night tales, or whatever enjoyable live narrative that captivated us, inspired us, and left a lasting impresion and memory where we forgot that it "told and not showed", that it wasn't a story by the "rules", that it wasn't as PC as it could have been, and a story that our Mum scoffed at when she heard Dad telling it.

I saw today someone's response letter to a fearful writer, who was worried about submitting to be published; they were basically full of fear. The response letter sumarised this by stating, in a kind but firm manner, that fears like this, that we all have, are just plain boring. Everyone has them, no one is special, and we all need to move on. "The dog barks, but the caravan passes anyway" was the quoted quote that I've also quoted.

Writing should be enjoyable and of benefit to writer and reader. Eventually. It shouldn't be something to drive us to the depths of depression and regret.

Perhaps that's the thing with genres and all the other publishing optimisers we can tangle with. We don't want it to muck up our inspiration and creative thinking. There must be a balance between writing something original and unique, and getting the work across the line with publishers.

Why don't we do our best to find this balance, make sure the piece is edited well, and then leave it to the publishers to decide? Especially if we already know some very positive feedback from our beta readers and friends...

Sparky