
If you asked me what is the most important thing an author needs to know to ensure they will have the best chance of success with their novel, I could sum it up in one word: genre.
You have to know what genre you are writing in. And, on top of that, you have to do your homework to be completely “fluent” in that genre. That means learning to identify the markers for that genre.
Readers have specific expectations that they bring to a genre. So that means you, the author, must identify your niche genre, write to those expectations, and be sure that all marketing materials, including cover design, perfectly reflect that genre.
That might seem like a no-brainer, but, sadly, I see a lot of writers clueless about the genre they are writing in and haven’t done their homework.
Let me give you an example.
Here are the elements of Southern Gothic stories:
- Voodoo and spirituality
- An air of mystery, and/or the supernatural
- Grotesque history, especially focusing on the South’s history of slavery
- Social anxieties represented in racial tension
- Deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters
- isolation and marginalization
- violence and crime
- sense of place
- freakishness and the grotesque
- destitution and decay
- oppression and discriminat
Some Southern Gothic authors include Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers. You have to know not just the markers of a genre but the great authors who’ve mastered the genre. Then you need to study those authors. Continue Reading…