Thursday, October 3, 2019

Genre Mashups: A Tolkien whodunnit


Hey everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, as you’ll know if you were here on Tuesday, we’re talking genre. We’re discussing the many different sides of genre, and the ways we can mash those genres together to develop something extra creative and extra fun—and I’ll be sharing a short writing prompt at the end of the post, to get your creative juices flowing! (no, I don’t expect you to do all the writing prompts… but I will be)

Today, I have a really fun mashup for you.

Genre Mashups: A Tolkien whodunnit


Okay, so we’re talking fantasy and mystery. Maybe not so uncommon a concept, but still, not one that I’ve seen a massive amount of on the market. I’m not just talking about having a little mystery in your fantasy novel—I’m talking a fantasy novel that’s based entirely off a mystery. Two genres, mashed together to make something really cool.

Let’s define!

Fantasy, especially high fantasy, is the genre we think of when we think of The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, and a whole lot of other popular stories in today’s world. It’s one of the most popular genres I know of, and just so happens to be the one I love writing the most. It’s the genre that’s generally either set on another world or on a past version of Earth (but not always past), wherein elves, dwarves, dragons, gnomes, orcs, and a plethora of other creatures exist and are a part of everyday life. Because it’s more of a concept than a real, full genre, it mashes well with others.

Mystery, on the other hand, is just that. It’s a story that’s based around a mystery, around a whodunnit or crime that must be solved. It usually (but not always) involves a detective who’s trying to solve this mystery, for some purpose set forth in the beginning of the story. Sometimes it's a detective who does this for a living, sometimes it’s just an average joe who’s trying to find the answer to some important question. Whatever the case, mystery is really more of a theme than a full-on genre, which means it mashes super well with concept genres like fantasy.


Like I said, this is nothing new under the sun. None of these mashups will be, if I’m being honest. Everything’s already been done. What I want to do is get your creative juices flowing. I want to get you thinking about genre, about concepts and themes, and considering a little bit more of what you’re doing, while you’re writing.

The way I see it, there are two ways to go about mashing these two together. Really, there are a lot more, but I’m just going to mention two of them. ;-)

1: A classic mystery, maybe even a Dickens-era mystery, set in a fantasy world.
2: A standard, medieval fantasy world, in which the protagonist must solve a mystery.

I like the first option better, personally.

So let’s try that, for our writing prompt! Here’s what I’d like you to write:


Focus your story in a London-esque city, in Victorian era. Start either in the middle or the beginning, whatever your personal preference. And have your protagonist, your detective, be anything but human. They could even be a half-breed (I don’t see enough of those, in fantasy). What’s the mystery, you ask? The mystery is human. Make of that what you will. I have lots of ideas, myself.

See what I mean? Mystery and fantasy can create a very unique play on genre, and one that perhaps isn’t seen as often as it should be. That’s why I think we should play with it, at least a little bit.

Let me know what you come up with! I’ll share some of the stories I’ve gotten out of these writing prompts, if they turn out any good. You know how it goes. ;-)

[love]

{Rani Divine}

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