What Genre Do You Write?
What genre do you write? It’s almost the first question people ask when they find out about my writing, and strangely, it’s also one of the ones I dread most. It should be so simple, but it really isn’t.
If I’m short on time, or I just don’t want to get into a complicated explanation, I sometimes tell people I write “contemporary Christian fiction.” But every time I say it, I cringe inwardly. It just doesn’t describe anything about the kind of Christian fiction I write, or why anybody would want to read it. It just isn’t specific enough.
But the problem is, when I try to get more specific, I have to start explaining why I don’t quite fit this or that category—and I end up feeling that I haven’t really described what my books are about at all.
So what genres don’t I write? And is there any common theme that ties all my books together?
Let’s take a closer look at three genres I don’t quite write and one I don’t know how to define!
Romance
I’ve struggled for a long time to put words to the kind of romance I write, and the reason I don’t categorize my books as “romances” even though some of them contain romance.
One distinction is that romance is never the whole plotline of my books. Rather than a “will they get together” setup, I like to use romance to up the stakes in other plotlines—or simply as a contrasting thread to the story’s deeper themes. Even when the romance takes a front seat (as in Tomorrow Isn’t Promised) the story isn’t about who marries who, but how two people navigate their relationship in the face of life’s toughest realities.
Another thing that characterizes the romance I write, is that it enhances the individuality of the characters instead of stereotyping them. Rather than describing characters in ways that swallow their individual in the general (“he looks like a movie-star”, “her beautiful eyes made me smile”), I like to describe characters in ways that enhance their distinctive traits (“his smile turned up at one corner, like he was sharing a secret”, “the scent of fresh air and sunshine hung around her like a cloak”).
Perhaps most importantly of all, I write romance that is super-clean and focused on spiritual realities. I believe that romance is a sacred type of the most significant relationship we can ever have—our relationship with Jesus. I want to write pure, heaven-focused relationships that turn readers towards God.
Mainstream Christian Fiction
Christian fiction has been given a bit of a bad rap in the last number of years, and I think it’s partially because it’s too broad a category for the differences of taste, conviction and preference across the Christian world. I don’t think it’s wrong to write or to read books that aren’t strongly Christian in flavour, but I think we need more subcategories to distinguish between books that mention Christianity and ones that portray a daily life of faith.
I write books that are patently Christian in thought and lifestyle, exploring challenging concepts and showcasing real people living out their faith in every area of life. That’s where my interests lie, so why wouldn’t I write about it?
My books are written from an Anabaptist/Mennonite viewpoint, but I aim to make them accessible to sincere Christians of many different denominations. I believe that reading books from different walks of life can broaden our perspectives, and I want to express my beliefs in a way that can be relatable even to people of different convictions.
Literary Fiction
I know that literary fiction is not technically a genre, and that one of its defining features is breaking genre boundaries. But I couldn’t leave out the one category that comes the closest to actually describing my books. Literary fiction tends to be character driven and theme driven, both of which are key components of my own writing.
So why I don’t call my books literary fiction? For one thing, I’m afraid of the intimidation factor. Literary fiction has a reputation for being highly intellectual and often inaccessible to the average reader. While my books do explore deeper themes and draw most of the plot from the inner emotional journey of the characters (two hallmarks of literary fiction), I don’t want to scare away potential readers who think literary fiction is “too intellectual” for them.
I also feel that it doesn’t necessarily help me narrow things down much. Literary fiction is still a very broad, hazy label for books that tend to be more on the serious side, exploring deeper themes and breaking many conventions of typical genre fiction. If I’m trying to give readers a better idea of the kind of books I write, I’m going to want a label that is more specific.
The Genre That Doesn’t Have a Name
At this point I’ve pretty much concluded that the genre I write hasn’t been invented yet. Maybe that’s because the biggest characteristic of the books I write is the vibes rather than the themes or tropes. Genre fiction tends to rely on tropes or settings (romances must include falling in love, historical fiction must be set in the past), and literary fiction relies on themes—deep questions to be explored and answered.
While I love to explore themes and I definitely have a soft spot for certain tropes, the things that fuel my writing are the emotions I want to kindle in my readers, and the overarching premise that everyday life can be epic in the light of eternity.
I am passionate about the idea that nothing is small or insignificant, and that every choice, however tiny, is a fulcrum of destiny—the tipping point between eternal life and eternal death, a chance for ultimate victory or ultimate defeat. If readers take only one thing away from reading my books, I want it to be that.
So What Genre Do You Write?
When all is said and done, I still think there isn’t really a short answer to the question. “Epic-vibe contemporary Christian fiction,” is the best label I’ve yet been able to find, and I think it still begs for more explanation—besides being a bit of a mouthful!
But you know what? Even if there are times when I think it would be so much easier to write a simple, cut-and-dried genre that everyone has heard of, I’m starting to think that I’ve been seeing it the wrong way. Because every time I don’t have a good answer for what genre I write, I have a chance to engage in dialogue, to explain why I write the books I write, and what you might get from reading them.
And at the end of the day, seeing a piece of the author’s heart and enthusiasm for her work is going to go a lot further in convincing someone to read a book than any nicely packaged genre. As frustrating as it can be, sometimes the complicated answer is actually the best!
Can I join you in the “writing in a vibe rather than a genre” camp? I have the same problem from a slightly different angle–on the surface, my genres are all over the map, but at the core, they’re really the same kind of story. 😄
Yeah, that is totally the perfect description of your style, Angie! Which is the reason your books give the same feelgood vibe, even when their in radically different genres!