Manor Mysteries and other genre projects.

[ilthit]

I found myself plotting a manor mystery yesterday, and continued it today, and I am having just so much fun.

How do you feel about writing genre fiction, especially fiction in a very specific niche like the manor mystery or gothic romance? When you have a narrowed-down genre, do you want to keep within the tropes of it, or mix it with another genre, or subvert those tropes? Or do you prefer not to think about genre at all?

Since manor mysteries are all about messing with your expectations (as long as it doesn't ruin the brain teaser) I expect this will be the most genre-loyal of any of my subgenre-specific stories. If it was a sword & sorcery story, I would not be able to resist making the lone barbarian warrior into the villain.

Comments

[leia_solo]

I like to mix it up a bit. I try to keep the tropes, but I would like to surprise the reader somewhat.

Sui generis

[revolutemind]

I like genre for its sandbox application; where some critics might not like being handed all their ingredrients up front; it hands you a whole bunch of toys off the bat to play with whether one wants to ham it up to the maximum of the genre's tropes, or turn the whole business on its head. It can be doubly delightful if you're a diehard consumer of that genre's products versus something less genre-specific (example: one of my guilty pleasures is sword-and-sorcery, and to read a tale with a villainous lone barbarian would be quote entertaining; roiling force of terror and chaos across the Holds and whatnot).

[starflower]

I am a big fan of genre-specific books but when it comes to writing them I lack the ability to stick to the guidlines of a cirtain type of story. The closest that I have ever come to writing genre fiction is a series of young adults stories that I am working on at the moment. I supose they could be classified as comedic manor mystery but even then it is somewhat a parody of that genre. Generally my novels tend to be a mix and mash of various types. Many of them include action, mystery, adventure, scifi/fantasy, and occasionally a hint of romance all within one book.