Genre Mashups: Scares in space

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by! It’s finale week, as it’s the last week of the month… and I am, as always, a little sad to see this series go. I’ve been enjoying it. Don’t I always? I’ve had a lot of fun coming up with writing prompts, and discussing many of the different facets of genre, before we get into the amazing month of November, for NaNoWriMo. Do you all have ideas of what you’re going to be writing, this November? If you do, drop me a line and let me know! I’d love the chance to encourage you along the way!

But for now, let’s get into the final week of our October series! This month, as you know, we’re talking genre. We’ve been discussing some genres that aren’t often seen together, and discussing a writing prompt for how to mash those two genres together. And while last week we talked about one half of my wheel house, today, we’ll be talking about the other.

Genre Mashups: Scares in space

That’s right; today, we’re talking about science fiction and horror. Two genres that I get a great deal of enjoyment from. In fact, I have a whole full-length novel series in science fiction, and I’ve written a few short stories in horror. They’re both great ways to really let out that creative energy, for me.

But let’s define our genres, shall we?

Horror is, as we said last week, just that. It’s a genre that’s focused around horror. There’s usually jump scares, heart-pounding tension, blood, guts, gore, creepy-crawlies, monsters, thrashers, serial killers—the list goes on. It’s a categorical genre, defined mostly by the fact that anything in horror must have elements really designed to freak people out. We want to be scared, when we read horror. And only sometimes do we want to really feel better, by the end of the book.

Science fiction, on the other hand, is a little harder to define. It’s a genre that often takes place in the future, because it’s often defined by levels of science that we haven’t achieved yet, in reality. Things like hover cars, laser blasters, space travel as a common occurrence, even aliens and other worlds, exist in science fiction. It’s a genre that is, again, very categorical. Science fiction is really defined by things that exist within the genre, rather than the theme the story takes within the genre (like mystery, for example, which is defined by a thing taking place, but not by anything else within the genre).

For me, I think science fiction and horror mash together quite nicely. And if I’m honest, there are zillions of authors out there who are already messing with these two, already throwing them together every chance they get.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play with these two—because, again, just because other authors are doing it, doesn’t mean we’ve done it.

So, write me a story. Write me a story that takes place in the future, where space travel is a common occurrence. Write me a story where there’s a ship on a pilgrimage to a new world, a better world (they don’t necessarily have to be from Earth). While they’re on that pilgrimage, disaster needs to strike. What’s your biggest fear? That’s the thing that manifests, for every member of the crew. But why? And what dangers will that bring, along the way?

Just some questions, for you to answer. As always, I have lots of ideas for this one. Let me know if you write something off this prompt! I’d love to see what you come up with!

[love]

{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: The horror of dragons

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, as I’m sure you all know, we’re talking about genres—and mashing them together to get our creative juices flowing, to get those ideas going, just in time for NaNoWriMo! See?! I finally remembered to do a NaNoWriMo based series the month before! It had to happen some year, didn’t it? ;-)

Today, we’re talking about one of my favorite genres to read and write, and one of my favorite genres to watch on television. And they also happen to be a pair of genres that mash really well, really beautifully, and often turn out really fun, together.

Genre Mashups: The horror of dragons

Yep, you read that right! We’re talking about horror and fantasy. And yes, if you didn’t know, I actually really enjoy horror movies and horror television shows. Mostly because I don’t actually scare that easily, and I enjoy the suspense.

Let’s define our genres, shall we?

Fantasy, as you’ll well know if you were here on Tuesday, is a genre that’s really a category, one that mixes well with others because there’s no specific theme to the stories within it—just specific things. It’s a genre that’s focused around the existence of elves, dwarves, dragons, and what have you, alongside the frequent use of magic in one form or another. It’s also one of the most popular genres around, these days—which I think makes it a fun genre to hang out in, when it comes to writing.

Horror, on the other hand, is a genre that’s focused around just that: the scares. It’s a genre that’s often defined by blood and gore, by jump scares and frightening sequences, by paranormal, by aliens, by serial killers, and any number of other things that any people might find frightening. Personally, the only thing I can’t stand is when they throw in bugs. I hate bugs. But in any case, horror is a thematic genre, which means it also blends extremely well with genres like fantasy, science fiction, history, or really any other genre under the sun.

For me, these two being paired together makes me think of the Witcher series. I’m sure many of you have played the video games. I’ve read the books—and honestly, I do not recommend them. The writing is bland, though the story is decent. I struggled to get all the way through the main series. But, Sapkowski designed his series to be both fantasy and horror—and that, for me, made it a really fun series to read. I hadn’t read anything like it before.

So let’s use his works, as a base for our writing prompt. In a way.

I want you to write about a gnome. Why a gnome? Because I think they’re often ignored, when it comes to fantasy. So write me a story about a gnome, who’s a monster slayer. Yeah, it can get a little silly. I honestly think that helps, when it comes to horror. It can make the story a lot more fun to write, and really great to read. So let it get silly, if you want it to. But whatever he’s fighting has to be extremely dangerous, and he has to come close to death. You can bring something else in to save him, if you need to.

Vague? Yes. But sometimes we need vague, in order to get our own creativity flowing. And if you thought of something else, while I was describing our genres? Then roll with it!—let me know if you do though, because I really love seeing these two genres together, and I’d love seeing what you come up with!

[love]

{Rani Divine}

Genre Mashups: The fantastical past

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. Have you been enjoying our month of writing prompts? I’ve gotten a lot of really unique ideas out of it—some of which I really do think I’ll be using in some upcoming stories.

As you know, if you’ve been around for the month of October, we’re talking genre mashups—and discussing some writing prompts for mashing those genres together. Why are we talking about this? Well, because we could all stand to get outside our comfort zones, as writers, and because with NaNoWriMo coming up, now’s the time to really get those ideas hammered out, so next month we can power our way through writing a whole book.

Today? I have a fun one for you.

Genre Mashups: The fantastical past

It might seem basic, sure, but like we’ve said all month long, there’s nothing new under the sun. Every single genre pairing has already been done, by someone. To be frank, I’m fairly certain that every story has already been told—but I know for sure that it hasn’t been written by every one of us, and that just like writers are different, readers are different. The same story written by different authors will appeal to different readers, across the spectrum. So don’t let the “but I’ve read this story before” notion put you off from writing the story you want to write. It hasn’t been written by you, so the world doesn’t have that story yet. No excuses. Write it.

But let’s start by defining our genres, shall we?

Historical fiction is, well, just that. It’s fiction that takes place in the past. There are a couple primary ways we generally go about doing this, but essentially, it’s just fiction that’s not set in present day or future. It’s often either centered around a specific place in the past, a specific (often famous) person, or a specific event from history. It’s really more of a category, than a genre. It’s pretty easy to mix other genres in with historical, since historical really just means that as a category, books in this genre take place in the past.

Fantasy, in all actuality, isn’t all that different from historical, as a genre. It’s also more of a category than a specific theme, meaning that it also blends well with others. Fantasy is generally defined by the existence of nonhuman beings, like dwarves, elves, gnomes, dragons, and any manner of author-created beings, often (but not always) alongside the use of magic. Because it’s really more of a category, a genre that’s defined only by a few specific things that exist within the genre, it mixes extremely well with others.

And that’s why I wanted to talk about these two!

To be fair, fantasy, as a genre, often takes place in the past. It doesn’t always, but it’s been primarily associated with medieval times, up through the Victorian era. I’m honestly not entirely sure why that’s the case, but it is.

Because of that, I want to play around with these two genres a bit, for our writing prompt. I think, in some ways, these two can be a bit easy to play with, a bit too easy to really consider a fun mashup… so let’s do something very typical of historical fiction, and put a fantasy spin on it.

Pick one of your favorite events from history. Something big. Something most people would recognize. Now, change it. Change it so that the world is a fantasy one, where all the beings of your imagination exist. Write that event now, but write it with all those beings involved. Write it, thinking about what might’ve changed or been completely different, by the existence of these other beings in the world.

Me? I think I’d write about Henry VIII… and maybe he’s struggling to have kids because his wife is an elf, and halfbreeds don’t exist… I’m not sure, but I think it’s something to play around with.

What did you come up with? If you’ve written anything fun off any of the prompts this month, I’d love to read them!

[love]

{Rani Divine}