Do You Expect Certain Things to Happen in Genre Fiction?
Though things are changing, there have always been certain “requirements” of a particular genre of fiction. In romances, the hero and heroine ride off together into the sunset, otherwise called the HEA or Happy Ever After. If the book doesn’t meet that criterion, it is no longer considered a romance. Now, Romance Writers of America has a mystery sub-genre in their contests called Romantic Elements that releases the author from the hard and fast HEA. Sometimes a couple needs time to develop their relationship because relationships can be complicated. (See my book Hooked.)
Many readers don’t like graphic romance scenes mixed in with their mystery and suspense novels, even if they’re classified as romantic suspense. I always have at least one romantic scene in my books and some language that fits with the characters and the situations, so after a bunch of negative comments, I now have a disclaimer attached to all my book blurbs clarifying a reader will find both. Enough with lowering my book rankings because I have a cuss word or two. Readers, you know who you are.
Mysteries have a crime, usually a murder, and the sleuth, who’s either an amateur or a professional, must find the killer by the end of the book. Exceptions take place in a series—think Sherlock Holmes’s ongoing nemesis, Professor Moriarty, or Kyle Craig/The Mastermind, in a bunch of James Patterson’s Alex Cross books. Jeff Lindsay and Chelsea Cain have popular books with main characters who are serial killers who get away with their crimes. Cozy mysteries have nothing to offend anyone. Murders aren't gory, romance is behind closed doors. Sometimes the heroine (usually) has a craft or profession or culinary skill. There's an animal or two. Or three.
The plots of thrillers are usually a race against time, and the hero or heroine has to thwart the evildoer’s plan to destroy or control the world or to kill a bunch of people. Ian Fleming’s books, Goldfinger and Doctor No are two examples. Frederick Forsyth, and just about any book by Robert Ludlum are others.
So what if these things that classify a particular genre don’t happen? What if the evildoer’s plan isn’t thwarted at the end of a thriller and there’s semi-destruction? What if the villain succeeds in crashing the economy? What if a murderer gets away? What if the hero of a series isn’t a hero this time?
Backlash While writing Backlash, the third book in my Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, I decided I didn’t want to do what the reader expected: put Diana in mortal danger so that the hero could swoop down and rescue her. Don’t get me wrong, she is put in danger, twice—sorry, predictable—but that’s not the crux of the story. This time the hero is in danger. Very serious danger that could affect his career―he’s a New Orleans police lieutenant―his relationship with Diana, his life. Though he’s a big part of the book, he’s effectively taken out of her part of the story, unable to help her, unable to help himself.
I gave great thought about deviating from the expected, but there’s nothing more irritating than reading the same book by different authors over and over again because they adhere to formula.
Diana’s life is put in danger, and she doesn’t do anything “to stupid to live” to wind up under the villain’s control. (I’ve been guilty of writing one scene like that in another book. Once is enough.) She is neither Wonder Woman nor Lara Croft. She’s five-two and weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet, and the bad guy is a tough cop (that’s not a spoiler, by the way). There is no hero to help extricate her from the bad guy’s clutches. Brute force won’t work, so whatever happens has to be realistic, believable, and, hopefully, clever.
Writers need to take chances with their storylines, need to do the unexpected. It may not always work, readers might be disappointed, but I think it’s worth a try.
Next time: Major surgery
Many readers don’t like graphic romance scenes mixed in with their mystery and suspense novels, even if they’re classified as romantic suspense. I always have at least one romantic scene in my books and some language that fits with the characters and the situations, so after a bunch of negative comments, I now have a disclaimer attached to all my book blurbs clarifying a reader will find both. Enough with lowering my book rankings because I have a cuss word or two. Readers, you know who you are.
Mysteries have a crime, usually a murder, and the sleuth, who’s either an amateur or a professional, must find the killer by the end of the book. Exceptions take place in a series—think Sherlock Holmes’s ongoing nemesis, Professor Moriarty, or Kyle Craig/The Mastermind, in a bunch of James Patterson’s Alex Cross books. Jeff Lindsay and Chelsea Cain have popular books with main characters who are serial killers who get away with their crimes. Cozy mysteries have nothing to offend anyone. Murders aren't gory, romance is behind closed doors. Sometimes the heroine (usually) has a craft or profession or culinary skill. There's an animal or two. Or three.
The plots of thrillers are usually a race against time, and the hero or heroine has to thwart the evildoer’s plan to destroy or control the world or to kill a bunch of people. Ian Fleming’s books, Goldfinger and Doctor No are two examples. Frederick Forsyth, and just about any book by Robert Ludlum are others.
So what if these things that classify a particular genre don’t happen? What if the evildoer’s plan isn’t thwarted at the end of a thriller and there’s semi-destruction? What if the villain succeeds in crashing the economy? What if a murderer gets away? What if the hero of a series isn’t a hero this time?
Backlash While writing Backlash, the third book in my Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, I decided I didn’t want to do what the reader expected: put Diana in mortal danger so that the hero could swoop down and rescue her. Don’t get me wrong, she is put in danger, twice—sorry, predictable—but that’s not the crux of the story. This time the hero is in danger. Very serious danger that could affect his career―he’s a New Orleans police lieutenant―his relationship with Diana, his life. Though he’s a big part of the book, he’s effectively taken out of her part of the story, unable to help her, unable to help himself. I gave great thought about deviating from the expected, but there’s nothing more irritating than reading the same book by different authors over and over again because they adhere to formula.
Diana’s life is put in danger, and she doesn’t do anything “to stupid to live” to wind up under the villain’s control. (I’ve been guilty of writing one scene like that in another book. Once is enough.) She is neither Wonder Woman nor Lara Croft. She’s five-two and weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet, and the bad guy is a tough cop (that’s not a spoiler, by the way). There is no hero to help extricate her from the bad guy’s clutches. Brute force won’t work, so whatever happens has to be realistic, believable, and, hopefully, clever.
Writers need to take chances with their storylines, need to do the unexpected. It may not always work, readers might be disappointed, but I think it’s worth a try.
Next time: Major surgery
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Katherine, writing out of the box has it's pitfalls, depending on how you plan to publish. Since I've published all my suspense novels (the erotic romances were published by e-publishers), I've been able to take chances without having to worry about adhering to formula or pleasing anyone but myself and hopefully my readers. Write with your heart and you can't go wrong. I personally love dark. All the best.
I do think publishers/editors expect certain things to happen in genre fiction, which is a shame because I truly believe readers like to be surprised. I don't mean surprised by sex or profanity, I mean by story. Every once in a while a thread will come up on the Sisters-in-Crime forum like, 'how much romance can you have in a cozy?' Or, 'does there have to be a dead body in the first chapter?' I cringe. If a writer is so fixed on genre conventions s/he doesn't feel free to tell the story in the best way possible, published or not, I don't want to read their work.
You and I usually agree on this kind of thing, V.R. This is just another time. All the way.
As long as the unexpected continues the character arc, I agree with you, Polly. But I have been taught that in genre mystery, the bad guy still has to get caught. How that happens can be unexpected and what happens to the MC can be expected, but I think you have to respect any given genre's conventions. Wish it weren't so at times, but that's what the reader expects at the end. The beginning and middle--not so much.
Unless, Elaine, you have something like a continuous bad guy, like Moriarty or The Poet, who makes a return in a subsequent Connelly book. There are others. I wonder if it's readers who expect adhering to the conventions or writers. Readers just want a good story. I'm not sure they dissect a book like writers do.
Funny that you should write about this this week. I'm working on a blog post that should go up later today on http://amberfoxxmysteries.wordpress.comabout "the rules" in mystery. Some of the old ones are so dated they sound funny now, and yet they used to be the conventions. Polly, we're psychic.
My guess is that the rules have changed because writers are changing them. Sooner or later, we can't be ignored. RWA changed the mystery/romance requirement in their categories a few years back because not all mystery romances end in a HEA. I think indie writers are the ones changing them. We're tired of agents and editors who say they don't know how to shelf our books because they don't adhere to the publishers' genre constraints. We hear, we love your book, but we don't know how to market it. So many of us are marketing them ourselves. Change is good. Will now drop by your blog, Amber.
So I love the idea of having the heroine save the hero and the HEA being in question. One of the things that makes the tropes of any given genre fun is playing with them.