I am currently recovering from a wonderfully exhausting four days at the When Words Collide writing festival in Calgary. If my notes are correct, I attended eighteen different panels and workshops, made new contacts and got to know previous acquaintances better, and had the world of genre publishing in Canada blown wide open for me. It was amazing. I am so thankful that members of my writing group in Edmonton mentioned that they were attending, so that I could learn about this festival and attend too.
One of the overarching themes of the festival, for me, is this question of genre. In the workshop on writing popular fiction I attended with Eve Silver, we were asked, what genre do you read in? The question stumped me. I have always read widely, across genres. Alright, so I rarely read romance or paranormal fiction, so I can broaden my horizons a bit more, but still, the thought of reading exclusively in one genre strikes me as boring.
What about literary fiction, which can be seen as a genre in its own right. If you are a Canadian writer, you want to win the Giller or Governor-General prizes, right? The Pulitzer, if American? Attending When Words Collide, which in some ways was a bit of a culture shock, I realized that my past exposures to literature have mostly been on the literary side of the publishing world. I have a BA in Creative Writing (and Political Science) from the University of British Columbia, which is definitely literary in its leanings. I also spent a year working for the academic journal Canadian Literature, which does review some genre fiction, from what I recall, but is far more in tune with “literature.” Professionally, working in publishing, I primarily work with nonfiction books, but the fiction and poetry presses within the same circles of the publishers that I am familiar with are also all literary. I was surprised that there were Canadian publishers at the conference, like Tyche Books, ChiZine Publications, Bundoran Press, and Five Rivers Publishing, that I had never heard of before. I guess in my arrogance I thought that I already knew who all of the Canadian publishers were.
I also wonder if my childhood in Taiwan had anything to do with my knowledge, or lack thereof, of genre fiction and its fans. I certainly read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and mysteries–whatever the school library had–but I did not have access to the fan bases that these works inspired. Living in Taiwan cut us off, in some ways, from North American culture, or at least made it much more difficult to access, and my parents did not have the inclination or time to pursue and introduce us kids to pop culture trends. Every so often I become aware of blind spots in my cultural vision which I attribute to this isolation. Case in point, beyond an Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon version of Batman, which we could borrow from the school library (the library had an eclectic collection), I did not grow up with the DC and Marvel universes, and so the hype over the superhero movies that have been coming out over the last few years mostly leaves me cold. I will watch the movie if it has a good story, but you are not going to sell me on the nostalgia. Japanese anime, on the other hand, usually makes sense to me in a way that Disney and Hollywood so often fails, because anime reflects a world far more similar to what I grew up with.
But back to genre. As I clarified for myself over the course of the conference, I view genres and their conventions as tools for telling stories. Some characters work better in a mystery setting. Or being on a different planet or a space station makes it easier to explore certain themes. But I am not interested in genre for the sake of genre. I know that some readers and writers love those plot lines, and a good writer seeking to speak to that audience would do well to adhere to the conventions, but that is not my only interest.
As Jane Ann McLachlan forcefully argued at the festival, and others as well, one definition of good writing, regardless of genre, is that it speaks to what it means to be human. Put another way, to quote the late Doris Betts, “Deny the metaphysical and the trivial will triumph.” These are the stories that resonate and make you question your beliefs about how the world works. These are the stories that I want to read and that I want to write.
So it sounds like all of my stories will be in the literary realm, eh? Character driven, idea driven, asking the big questions of life. Well, yes, I want all of that, but plot is important too. I just finished a mystery novel which sucked me in with its characterization and setting, but the plot reveals in the last chapter were a real letdown. I probably will not be reading that author again. As I wrote above, I see genre as a tool, and my favourite genre titles are the ones that marry the conventions with speaking to the human condition.
I also want my writing to be accessible to a wider group of people. This is not to say that literary fiction is never accessible–some of it is and some of it is not–but it does have a reputation for being out of reach. Working at Canadian Literature I could see how some writers, who were also scholars, did seem to be primarily writing for other writer-scholars, and that created a rarified, closed world. That is not the world that I want to be part of. Even if it means foregoing a chance to win the Giller or a Governor-General award, I want to have a wider appeal, and genre fiction seems to be a way towards that. The attendees at When Words Collide were so much fun, out to enjoy themselves and enjoy good literature. I felt like I was finally starting to find my literary home.
Will jumping between or blending genres make it harder for me to sell my stories? Perhaps. Genre is primarily a marketing tool for agents and publishers to sell books, after all, and for readers to find more of what they want. But while it sounds like publishers do not always know what to do with mixed-genre works and authors, readers do not share that problem. I met many authors, traditionally published, hybrid, and indie, who share a similar vision with me and who are doing just fine.
First things first, though, is to hone my writing craft and get those stories written. I’ll keep you updated.