On Writing: More on Genre

Women Writers, Women's Books recently tweeted a 2017 article on writing by author Maddie Dawson.

Article name: Oh, You Write Fiction? What Kind?

An excerpt:

“Oh, you write fiction? What kind?”

I sighed. I’ve had six novels published, but I still don’t know how to answer this question.
I usually start out by saying what the publisher calls my books on the contracts. “I write women’s fiction,” I say.

The trouble is what happens next.

“Ohhh!” the person invariably says, bright-eyed with understanding. “You mean romance novels! Chick lit!”

And then I get all shifty-eyed and fast-talking, explaining myself like a crazy person, and making the situation even worse.

Ms. Dawson shares bittersweet stories of how richly textured so-called women's fiction is.

She ends with this statement: "So what about if we didn’t try to pigeonhole novels, give them a category to belong to? What if we just called them—for lack of a better word—fiction? And let it go at that. Would that work?"


I can relate.

O wishing well, wishing well: What genre is my book? 

Image: “A Young Woman at a Well” by Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) (Spanish, Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0