IWSG - On Genre

 

    So, I totally have nothing to talk about this month, because I still feel like I'm being put through a very slow wringer by this VN I agreed to write. 😭  Therefore, I'm just going to tackle the month's suggested question instead of trying to dredge up my own topic.

October 5 question - What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

    Alarmingly, a few moments' intense concentration on this question has led me to a question of my own:  "What even is my favorite genre?"

    Pre-contemplation, my instinct would be to say that my favorite genre is fantasy, but I don't actually write all that much fantasy, and even when I do, it tends to be a very splintered section of fantasy that some might not even consider fantasy anymore.  (My Greek mythology-based novels, for example.  Or the series that I initially intended to be steampunk but which morphed into a Victorian-tech-level, animal-powered airship tale with a few magical creatures and magic-like alchemy, but otherwise not particularly fantasy at all.)

    This realization is actually rather alarming.

    In any case, if we assume that the answer really is fantasy, the best characteristic is definitely the flexibility:

• Don't like the laws of physics?  Toss 'em and write new ones!
• Think humans are dumb?  Don't need 'em!
• Ever wanted to be able to fly?  There's a potion for that--or a spell--or maybe all your characters have wings!
• Want a society that's more egalitarian?  Write one!
• Etc.

    It's great being able to invent the entire universe of a story from scratch, not needing to worry about whether you're accurately portraying a time or a place.  (Which isn't to say that you shouldn't research any societies that might be similar to what you're going for.  You absolutely should still do that.)  And it's great to be able to make a world where everyone's nice to each other, or where women have always ruled, or where homophobia/transphobia/racism/bigotry-in-general just plain doesn't exist.  Or where bigotry does exist, but then your protagonist is "the special" and able to defy the whole world to prove their worth despite that the whole world hates them for being whatever it is that the world judges against.  (That trope should, of course, be used sparingly in works you plan to share with others, but it's very satisfying to write.)

    Ironically, I saw a similar question about favorite genres in a VN-dev space not long ago, and my first thought was to ask if LGBTQ+ counted as a genre. 😆  The same flexibility applies there, too, but even more so, since every other genre can be included within it.  So I guess that means I really appreciate a genre where I'm not constrained by anyone else's rules.

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    In a related/unrelated thing, someone posted a link to one of those personality quiz things in discord.  This one is about figuring out the emotion that drives an artist/writer to create their art:  https://uquiz.com/quiz/p0u5c3/what-emotion-do-you-create-from

    My result was "Discontent":

You create from discontent.  Most of your life has been spent being uncomfortable in your own skin.  This body is just another house that's never felt like home.  You don't know how to be at ease in this world or this life.  Art is a way of running away, of forgetting yourself and escaping to a more comfortable place.  To cope with an unhospitable reality, you create more welcoming worlds to consume your work and your waking hours.  But the foundation of your art has always been your discontent with the real world and your life within it.  Lurking behind the inviting scenery you desire to be anywhere but here.  It is a world constructed as a respite from this one.  Such vivid fantasies are the dream of one who considers reality a prison.

    As one of the others in the discord commented, I feel like I'm being called out by these results.

    It's eerie, especially considering how many of the questions left me going "none of these answers apply to me!"

    And it also feeds disconcertingly well into everything I said about why I enjoy working with the fantasy genre...

    (The big lesson here, I think, is probably to stop pre-writing these posts.  I wrote the first half on Monday, then discovered this quiz right before bed on Monday night, and am now adding this second half of the post on Tuesday morning.  Obviously, I should just make it a habit of getting up early on the first Wednesday of the month and writing the post that day, instead of scheduling it from a day or two before.)