What's your genre?

[Gwyndolin]

I'm just curious, what's everyone's genre of choice? Both for reading and for writing.

I like to read Fantasy - either YA or written by women with a female protagonist. That's usually how I pick out my favorites, anyway. Like the fantasy world's version of chick-lit, I guess.

I am writing a YA Fantasy for girls, which I guess is fitting, haha.

I'm just wondering where everyone else's interests lay.

[El902]

I'll read anything. I tend to prefer books which are hinged on a supernatural conflict, but any crime thriller, romance, or sci-fi will do if I can hold it and decipher the words. I'll even read a children's book if the premise is interesting enough.

When writing, I tend to stick to the paranormal. Don't know why. A run-of-the-mill plot can pass through my mind and five minutes through a completely normal story some supernatural aspect pops in to my head. Nope, the cop's not just motivated by his need to avenge the kid. The kid died as a result of a monster that could potentially harm his own child as well. Poor cop must now learn about monsters.

[Redlorry]

I used to enjoy humourous writing such as Bill Brysons observationalist stuff and Terry Pratchett's wacky fiction. Then along came children and I took a huge break from reading. Twilight (shhh, I know how you all feel about it) and Harry Potter got me back to reading as I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

From Twilight I moved on to fantasy romance books with a bit more clout in terms of adult content. These are classified as paranormal romance. I read a huge amount in a very short space of time. But then I also enjoy viking adventures and if something piques my interest I will give that a go to.

As for writing, my novel is paranormal romance.

But the short fiction I write ranges from childrens stories right through to horror and erotic. Basically anything and everything.

[sammo777]

I'll read anything -- I'm not a snob. I can appreciate the merit of most well written or well read books.

I won't buy just anything, though. Not at full price. If I'm in my local charity shop, I often buy books that I wouldn't have paid Amazon prices for... Never mind RRP, but, generally, I won't pay for what I perceive to be dross...

My preference is for contemporary fiction with good, solid characters. I want to read a novel and come away feeling like I've met somebody I'd love to stand at a bar and drink beer with, or somebody who I'd love to punch in the mouth. I want characters to leave an impression on me, week, months, later. I also read crime/thriller and horror fiction, but it's rare I read something that makes my "top ten best books list", and I couldn't provide you with a title of the last one I read that enthralled me.

Even at "best price" (i.e., free!) I have an aversion to... romance... especially corny stuff, and I am not fond of heavy sci-fi... I cannot abide books with handbags and shoes on the cover labelled "chick lit". I find it demeaning, as a woman, to be told in print that I am a vacuous, fluffy bit of stuff whose primary concerns are... sex, finding Mr Right, and/or shopping.

When I write, I write what I call "urban contemporary fiction"; I write about miserable, manic, confused, complex City-dwelling characters, and my plots revolve around either ...paranormal/horror/crime, and/or a smidgen of "sci-fi lite"...

[Dragon King]

Fantasy, I guess, although quite varied within that... As I've said in various other places, I would write historically or write crime fiction, but would be terrified of getting stuff wrong

[Jinjonator]

Most of what I write is comedy, but then again, most of what I write is just for fun, and isn't intended to be particularly amazing (I go to the forum, and write new chapters on the spot, making up half of it as I go along).

Whenever I'm writing something more serious and well planned out, I usually find myself drawn more toward horror and dark romance. I guess trying to write a big story, keeping it both interesting and very funny is outside of my capabilities .

[Gwyndolin]

Originally Posted by Redlorry

I used to enjoy humourous writing such as Bill Brysons observationalist stuff and Terry Pratchett's wacky fiction. Then along came children and I took a huge break from reading. Twilight (shhh, I know how you all feel about it) and Harry Potter got me back to reading as I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

From Twilight I moved on to fantasy romance books with a bit more clout in terms of adult content. These are classified as paranormal romance. I read a huge amount in a very short space of time. But then I also enjoy viking adventures and if something piques my interest I will give that a go to.

As for writing, my novel is paranormal romance.

But the short fiction I write ranges from childrens stories right through to horror and erotic. Basically anything and everything.

RedLorry, I swear it kills me how much we have in common.

Harry Potter got me reading again, too, and I liked Twilight. Not enough to obsess or anything... I've read them each once, and I may read them again someday.

I think you'd like Anne Bishop. You aught to check out her stuff. It's kind of dark fantasy for women. Although I have known guys to like it. Her MC's are always a mix of both genders. I also recommend you read Maria V. Snyder. They're both fantastic authors.

[addygryff]

I will read most anything, but of course I have my preferences as well. I’m not very interested in romance, though I will give it a go if it’s well written or not the entire focus of the story.

What I like is (sub)urban fantasy or science fiction, because I’d really rather read about our world secretly being more wondrous than it appears, than about other worlds being exiting and wonderful. Also, comedic stories. I’m a huge fan of authors like Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Jim Butcher.

The only type of crime story I usually enjoy is a good old hardboiled detective story. I don’t really care ‘whodunnit?’, I just want some good first person narration and brooding.

I have to admit that I’m not very fond of vampires. In fact I can only think of about two or three that I enjoyed reading about, and none of them were from real vampire stories.

I don’t trust myself to be funny, so I don’t really dare to write comedy. Like my tastes in general, the genres I write in tend to be all over the place as well, though I tend to come back to horror and... well, urban fantasy. Sorry for sounding like a broken record, there.

[Chazzhart]

Okay I am admiting it... I used to read a lot. But when I had my son I never found the time to read. I still have a book mark in the same place of the 5th Harry potter book that I was reading a few weeks before giving birth 5.5 years ago.

I bought Twilight because everyone told me I HAD to read it. It sat under my couch for 6 months and I finally did read it.
I do not believe it makes for good literature but I did get me back into reading. I generally read a couple of books a week but its slowed down since I have started writing again.
I mostly read paranomal fiction type books. I enjoy Rachel Meade's books, she has the Vampire Academy ones as well as a Succubus series and the Dark Swan series.
I have been reading the J R Ward, Black dagger brotherhood books. Very cool Vampire series. Full of sex and violence. But now on book 7 its appeal is starting to deterierate.

Really I will read anything fiction. If it has a supernatural theme even better. But I don't like to limit myself just to that.

Thats what I write too.

[Danny]

I write poetry and plays mostly.

I read more fiction and drama than I do poetry, which is odd because I mainly write poetry. Though I am starting to read poetry more heavily.

As for specific "genres," I don't really have specific one I favor over others. I do have a guilty obsession reading crime fiction.

[Ravenius]

Ohhh, this is so easy for me. Dark Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, and more Dark Fantasy. I also include Depressing Fiction in this (since Fiction and Fantasy aren't counted as the same).

If it'll make me cry my heart out because someone I love dies or nearly dies or wastes away or gets horribly wounded in the story it's my kind of story...unless it has a sad ending, surprisingly I don't like sad endings...just realistic ones, or ones that involve sacrifice. I desire sacrifice, and if the main character has to die for that sacrifice or someone close to them whether it be a child or...then so be it! <My only exception to that is when a mother who is very important to the character dies...it's my soft spot/weakness>.

I don't like 'sad' endings though. It can be depressing but it has to symbolize growth or lead up to it, or there has to have been a lot of growth from it...thus I would have to have learned something valuable from it. So I guess not Depressing Fiction/Fantasy so much as Hardships that lead to growth without romance in them. Good Fantasy like that is pretty rare to but good 'fiction' like that isn't so hard to find, I find dark fiction all the time in Young Adults section (or used to when I used to go to the book store), dark fantasy the kind I like...harder to find.

If you look up Dark Fantasy it will say 'horror' and the sort. But I hate horror in books or in movies...I guess a world where females own male slaves could be considered horror ...but when I think of horror I think of blood and gore and scare me into keeping the light on kind of stuff (like Steven King and Edgar Allan Poe who has successfully succeeded in scaring the crap out of me with his stories (but I do enjoy his dark poetry)). I'd say for me dark fantasy tends to be more gloomy, maybe have some melancholy elements to it but always has growth and self discovery in it (unless it's dark poetry, sad poems don't need happy endings).

For me Dark fantasy are stories like The Black Jewel Trilogy, or stories where they turn traditional faery tales with 'villains' into the protagonist, stories where the antagonist becomes the protagonist....or where something unexpected happens like a sister is stolen goes on this long journey and doesn't find her at all, like when they go on this journey with one thing only to mind only to discover that isn't what they were looking for and they'll never find it, and she'll never see her family again, etc.

Those are also the kind of stories I both write and read, I write them because I don't believe there are enough out of them and I think most stories that call themselves dark fantasy do focus a bit on the romance side (I'm not against romance per se, dark jewel trilogy for instance did a great job at that). I just wish there were more variety some that existed without it some with it, an even balance.

[Night Wanderer]

Write: humor, contemporary fiction, urban fantasy. Read: I'll try anything at least once.

...hah, my answer doesn't look short at all after Ravenius's...

[Gwyndolin]

Originally Posted by Night Wanderer

Write: humor, contemporary fiction, urban fantasy. Read: I'll try anything at least once.

...hah, my answer doesn't look short at all after Ravenius's...

Lol!

But it does say what you were looking to say.

[Winterbite]

Writing: Fantasy, Historical, Steampunk, Humour, Science-Fiction.

My main novel gig is Fantasy, but I'm also into writing historical and steampunk novels. I do a lot of humour short stories, and that's usually the extent of my sci-fi as well.

I write poetry about anything.

Reading: I'm not picky. Fantasy, light fantasy, dark fantasy; science-fiction; historical fiction; steampunk; humour; thrillers; horror; cross-genre; mysteries... frankly, everything but romances and westerns.

[Dragon King]

Originally Posted by Ravenius

Ohhh, this is so easy for me. Dark Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, and more Dark Fantasy. I also include Depressing Fiction in this (since Fiction and Fantasy aren't counted as the same).

If it'll make me cry my heart out because someone I love dies or nearly dies or wastes away or gets horribly wounded in the story it's my kind of story...unless it has a sad ending, surprisingly I don't like sad endings...just realistic ones, or ones that involve sacrifice. I desire sacrifice, and if the main character has to die for that sacrifice or someone close to them whether it be a child or...then so be it! <My only exception to that is when a mother who is very important to the character dies...it's my soft spot/weakness>.

I don't like 'sad' endings though. It can be depressing but it has to symbolize growth or lead up to it, or there has to have been a lot of growth from it...thus I would have to have learned something valuable from it. So I guess not Depressing Fiction/Fantasy so much as Hardships that lead to growth without romance in them. Good Fantasy like that is pretty rare to but good 'fiction' like that isn't so hard to find, I find dark fiction all the time in Young Adults section (or used to when I used to go to the book store), dark fantasy the kind I like...harder to find.

If you look up Dark Fantasy it will say 'horror' and the sort. But I hate horror in books or in movies...I guess a world where females own male slaves could be considered horror ...but when I think of horror I think of blood and gore and scare me into keeping the light on kind of stuff (like Steven King and Edgar Allan Poe who has successfully succeeded in scaring the crap out of me with his stories (but I do enjoy his dark poetry)). I'd say for me dark fantasy tends to be more gloomy, maybe have some melancholy elements to it but always has growth and self discovery in it (unless it's dark poetry, sad poems don't need happy endings).

For me Dark fantasy are stories like The Black Jewel Trilogy, or stories where they turn traditional faery tales with 'villains' into the protagonist, stories where the antagonist becomes the protagonist....or where something unexpected happens like a sister is stolen goes on this long journey and doesn't find her at all, like when they go on this journey with one thing only to mind only to discover that isn't what they were looking for and they'll never find it, and she'll never see her family again, etc.

Those are also the kind of stories I both write and read, I write them because I don't believe there are enough out of them and I think most stories that call themselves dark fantasy do focus a bit on the romance side (I'm not against romance per se, dark jewel trilogy for instance did a great job at that). I just wish there were more variety some that existed without it some with it, an even balance.

Have you seen the Night Angel trilogy around? I'd recommend that, as it seems to tick the boxes you're looking for and is a great series to boot

[Gwyndolin]

Maria V Snyder's Study books, too.

I like her Glass series, but not as much as the first. She's also got a new book out. Unlike the others, this one's YA, but it looks interesting.

[tchoppy]

I love writing thrillers, horror, mystery, pretty much anything but romance and westerns. Also science fiction has to be really good for me to bother, oh and I'll read fantasy from time to time.

My favourite authors are Dean Koontz, Anne Rice (the real writer when it comes to vampires), Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, and many others.

I like writing horror, thriller, and fantasy. I've started writing science fiction just to try it out, but I fear I don't have enough creativity to handle it properly.

[Ravenius]

Originally Posted by Dragon King

Have you seen the Night Angel trilogy around? I'd recommend that, as it seems to tick the boxes you're looking for and is a great series to boot

Ohhh when I saw this I looked it up, it is right up my alley. Thank you! I've added it to my list of books to look into when I get the chance XD (I just had to use that face, it showed up in the side at random ^_^)!

[Dragon King]

You should probably really enjoy it, it's great

[S.R. Hansford]

Is literary a legitemate genre?

[JoeShaff]

As far as reading, anything, provided it's not too chicken soup for the soulish. Okay, or romance Just not into that. I'll read anything from deep literature to trite, formula-crafted nonsense, provided that it's at least entertaining nonsense.

[evilclonier]

For reading I like a lot of Fantasy and Science fiction, as well as humour. But I'm also enjoying Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor as I have a passion for history. For writing it's less straight forward, I'll write anything from Fantasy to humour, depressing rants to poetry (often depressing ranting poetry), standard fiction to Science fiction, as well as whatever else I can't remember now. I'm pretty incoherent when it comes to writing.

[Reddy Dean]

For both writing and reading I prefer whatever seems right. As a writer I don't want to nail myself to any particular genre. I always find myself floating from genre to genre (and in my current project, blending several into one story), so picking a single genre and sticking with it would make little sense. Same with reading. I enjoy good writing, not specific genres.

[Spresso]

I love classics, though for some reason most of my favorite writers are male-Orwell, Wilde, Hugo, King, etc. I've tried Jane Austen, but she bores me. Probably due to the fact that she deals with muggles and I lean towards fantasy and thriller.

As for writing, I like fantasy, thriller, with just a liiiittle bit of romance. And it's usually kind of steamy, too. No ooey-gooey Austeny twoo luv for me, thanks.

[Dragon King]

The Brontes are just as bad...

JANE: Dear Mr. Rochester, we shall be together forever because our luv is so twu!

MR. ROCHESTER *goes into the next room and quietly hangs himself*

[Spresso]

Aww, at least Bronte had that crazy attic lady to provide some semblance of tension. What did Austen have? Mrs. Bennett. Who is pretty crazy, but in an annoying rather than scary way. :P

[lateralus]

As for reading, I like a lot of different genres -- fantasy, sci-fi, realism, etc. -- whatever sounds good from the blurb on the back. I also like to read YA books. Right now, I'm into books that are similar in style and content to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. If anyone's interested, there's a novel called Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer (it's the first in a trilogy, actually). I just read it; it's awesome, very intense and dark.

As for my writing, I write I guess what you could call contemporary realism/minimalism -- Raymond Carver-esque; it is on the whole short fiction. I also like to do flash fiction occasionally. I also write a lot of poetry -- particularly persona poems, which are really fun to do.

[JBStone]

I enjoy reading and writing speculative fiction. I will read and write outside of that, though.

[RoryAnthony]

I mainly stick to both Sci Fi and Fantasy for reading and writing. Sometimes Horror if I'm in the mood but not often. I do read others also at times like Odd Thomas and Dan Browns stuff but really I stick to the first two.

I just like how much you can build and not have to rely on our own world. Even in Sci Fi you can have it set in the very near future but still have things that are not possible in real life. The openness is awesome to work with especially in Fantasy, building a world.

[Writing.Geek.]

Well, I usually read YA books that are either romance or fantasy. I usually try to stay away from sci-fi, but I think I read one book that fell into that category and was really good.

I usually write YA books about romance.

Happy writing.
-WG