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}