Because of my premise -- everyone is reincarnated -- my genre was chosen for me. Sort of.
INCARNATE's genre is hard to pin down because it has so many different elements by the premise's very nature, so I find myself sneaking into lots of different subgenre groups.
The story is set in another world and has dragons, which sort of makes it fantasy. But the world also has lasers and automated work drones, which sort of makes it science fiction. There's a love story between the only girl who's new and one of the people who's been reincarnated for the last very long time, and that sort of makes this a paranormal romance. Finally, there's eugenics-as-a-good-thing and a perfect-society-except-spoiler, which sort of makes it dystopian.
It's a little bit of a lot of things, which can be awkward to explain, but I've learned to embrace my story's differences and refusal to conform. The truth is, I like things that are different, and things that challenge me to think in new ways. I enjoy mixing genres and seeing where stories take me when I don't try to contain them.
But Jodi, you may be saying, your book is listed under dystopian on this very blog!
That's true, but I have to call it something, and my editor likes calling it dystopian. Individual readers may see it as more one subgenre than another, and that's absolutely fine with me.
It's something that I love about YA - because as a category it spans all genres, it allows authors more freedom to tell a story as it needs to be told. Oh and dragons? Lasers? Reincarnation? SO FUN!
ReplyDeleteYes! No boxes. Not here in YA!
ReplyDeleteDo any of the dragons shoot lasers? Cuz...that'd be awesome.
ReplyDeleteThey do not shoot lasers, I'm afraid. But they do shoot acid!
ReplyDeleteLol, YES, you made an actual venn daigram!! You are, even more, my hero, Jodi!! And, I love the sub-genre creeping!!!
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