Don't fit a genre? Tell me about it!

liminal-collapse 2023-11-01 20:16:45 UTC #1

I really struggle with fitting Parasocial into a genre. It's not a romance, but it does sort of read like one, and it has LGBT characters, and relationships, but that feels like not the point? Drama sounds so dramatic. Slice of life - I'm not even sure I know what that is. It's definitely not action - so far the most active thing anyone does is run around a park with dogs. If there was a category for friendship fic, I'd probably choose that!

Anyway, genre is hard, and if I had to pick something I'd say it's Alice in Wonderland meets Notting Hill. Maybe.

Tell me about your hard-to-pin down works!

abigaillmartin 2023-11-01 20:20:24 UTC #2

Me: drinks a shot of Coca Cola

I’m with you man. I can’t pin down a genre what Elsie is supposed to be. It’s steampunk which is a sub genre of science fiction but it’s not purely steampunk either. It’s also historical but also Romance. There’s no historical fiction label!

liminal-collapse 2023-11-01 20:26:25 UTC #3

Elsie is super cute. I'm NaNoWriMoing right now but I've subscribed!

abigaillmartin 2023-11-01 20:27:54 UTC #4

Thank you so much. If you ever get to reading it I hope you enjoy it!

AmysGames 2023-11-01 20:51:53 UTC #5

Niji Chikara feels a little more at home in action fantasy, but that didn't exist at the time I started. So it was just fantasy, which felt VERY incorrect, lol.

I usually put it in superhero if I have that option, but technically it's a magical girl comic... but also arguably not really that much about magical girls? I dunno.

morganicfoods 2023-11-01 21:30:50 UTC #6

Saying just "Fantasy" or "Drama" for Light Rising doesn't quite feel right to me. Maybe it's cuz these genres are so broad and vague. Or that there's a specific "vibe" to each that my comic doesn't quute have.
"Fantasy Drama" as its own genre could fit tho, but I think "Political Fantasy" would be the best way to describe it.

sodathecoda 2023-11-01 21:42:54 UTC #7

So I'm not the only one... First of all, my comic has LGBT characters (non-binary, agender, bisexual and aroace) but it's not the main focus of the story. Also despite having romance elements, it's also not the main point of the story. But this is more or less obvious.

What challenged me, is deciding wether it's Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Characters have psychic powers which are based on neurology and psychology (as far a non-professional can do) but it's more similar to a magic system. It's comparable to Jojo or Persona where superpowers are somehow scientifically explained but not very scientifically accurately.

Also I'm not sure if my series could be called action because my comic is rather slow. It's maybe more like adventure but I'm not sure what defines adventure.

sleepykuya 2023-11-01 22:03:19 UTC #8

The Heart Dove, I feel like, isn’t one thing! It’s story revolves around characters on the LGBT spectrum, but it’s not a story just revolving around a gay relationship. It’s based on an alternative modern day universe, but a fantasy world that is heavily influenced by past events. It’s supernatural, but with a character who really doesn’t care about that kind of thing. My MC is a partial human, who just wants to be a human again—but he’s surrounded by spirits and Gods. I had such a hard time figuring out which tags to use, lol.

ArtGremlin 2023-11-01 22:23:21 UTC #9

My comic is technically a sci-fi, but it doesn’t have a lot of “sci-fi aspects” in the beginning. The beginning half feels a little more like a slice of life tbh, after a while it starts edging towards a drama, then it goes full sci-fi.

Stargazer31 2023-11-01 22:36:52 UTC #10

It's fantasy but it's anime inspired but it's ation but it's a Christmas special but it's also social commentary on consumerism?
Also there's a girl with a flamethrower sledgehammer later

UrMom 2023-11-02 01:21:21 UTC #11

Yeaaah, I didn't make my comic with a genre in mind, so it's been a challenge from the start to pin it down. It's definitely not a romance, not a thriller, not a horror, not (imo) what you'd call a normal drama. There really isn't any plot, it's almost all character study and interactions, with some upsetting themes mixed on. Almost all my cast is queer as well, but the queerness... isn't really a big deal? Sure, there are some moments, one of the MC's parents are bigots, but those get put on the backburner for the more urgent story themes.

I used to call my comic a melodrama just to be an asshole to myself, but over the years I've settled on calling it a psychological drama since that seems to fit best, it centers around mental illness and trauma. Still, kinda hard to categorize it. Lol

Zixixibi 2023-11-02 01:47:38 UTC #12

My series started as action (only for chapter 1, but chapter 1 is pretty long), and then I decided to make it a thriller-mystery-comedy. In the beginning it starts off more humorous, but then at the end things get pretty dark. Which means it's not always all 3 genres at the same time, so I hope it won't let readers down.

kaykitsune 2023-11-02 16:35:57 UTC #13

Mine is fantasy but then it’s also part mystery/thriller but then I also have horror elements too, so many different genre for mine

willmarstudios 2023-11-02 17:38:35 UTC #14

Genre is so difficult!

Originally I was convinced it was going to like adventure based, but then suddenly as I was writing I'm like "this is more drama with a sprinkle of adventure."

THEN as I KEPT writing, it started reading like modern fantasy focused on queer characters. However its also starting to feel just like a therapeutic thing where I'm writing a lot more interpersonal and self-inserting my own experiences and thoughts in it, but its in no way a memior or a biography...

I've given up and left it as a queer drama set withing a modern fantasy world. shrug emoji

2DLenzy 2023-11-02 17:54:08 UTC #15

Hehe, yeah. When I first published Friar Chicken, I had put it into Comedy, but it didn't feature a lot of elements that most mainstream comedies, well, feature (I was told your first ep had to end on a punchline like some joke) well, mine wasn't technically funny, so I put Drama as its main genre. I think it fits better that way, but there are still comedic elements tied into the story, just not always outrightly funny.

"Dramedy" would best fit the series...though...I am planning to do a little more action-related stuff next year (lots of cocks fighting). So, I may add 'action' to the mix when I finally hit that episode.

Sheesh. And I'm still waiting on the appearance of a future character so I can really get into the family/slice-of-life comedy stuff. Then, in the far future, more dark drama! Potential mystery! Thriller? Maybe...
Ugh!
No genre fits this mixed bucket!

sofzeff 2023-11-02 18:54:48 UTC #16

I would also say that my story is a soup of a few genres. It has an investigation going on, but it's also has a thriller aspect since one of the main characters guilty of that investigating crime. Mystic is a big part of the lore as well so...if you enjoy any of those three give it a try

https://tapas.io/series/Bodycolor/info

bulgariansumo 2023-11-02 23:24:53 UTC #17

Pretty much gonna echo what OP said. I have an LGBT+ cast, but the story isn't really centered around how those identities affect their lives, though it comes up sometimes.

It's technically sci-fi, but even though the premise is space travel, I feel like the sci-fi elements are set dressing for a character drama/comedy/slice of life.

Slice of life is probably the most fitting genre for it, though I'm not entirely sure if big dramatic beats fit within that genre. I also figured that the people who would get the most enjoyment out of it would already be combing through the LGBT+ section, which is why I put it there, even though I wanted the LGBT+ cast to be a surprise.

If there was a category for friendship fic, mine would probably fit best there, too. Anyway, here's Galactiquest.

The other series I plan on writing would probably fit into sports, but that's not a category here.

Pixei 2023-11-02 23:35:12 UTC #18

I feel you.

At first, when I was writing BLACK OUT, I was kinda set on it being fantasy, but then one of my readers pointed out that it doesn't really feel like fantasy at all, it's more like an "adventure" but like.... there's no tags for adventure? Sure, there's "magic" and "monsters" and all that, but I didn't think it was good enough for just the "fantasy" tag to be thrown on it.

And action... The plot's moving a bit slowly, so nothing crazy has happened (Aside from a big ol monster appearing and the protags being smart enough not to try to fight it so they back away slowly and just leave it alone but they have to leave someone to die to do it), so is an "action" tag going to be misleading?

At first, I had BO labeled with the "Fantasy, Action, Drama" tags, and then I changed it to just "Fantasy", and now it's "Action Fantasy" because I LITERALLY JUST FOUND OUT THAT TAG EXISTED EVEN THOUGH IVE BEEN ON TAPAS FOR LIKE 6 MONTHS ALREADY AAAAAAAAAAAA.

Anyways... TLDR: I was so confused that I changed it's genre like 4 times before I realized that a tag that properly fits it exists and I felt like a big ol dummy when I found it.

bulgariansumo 2023-11-02 23:39:56 UTC #19

That genre's new here, actually. They split up Fantasy into Fantasy, Romance Fantasy, and Action Fantasy 2-3 months ago, I think.

Pixei 2023-11-03 16:56:54 UTC #20

oh -

welp imma go jump in a trashcan now HAHAHAH