Genre. Something that might be your first thought or just come along naturally. A romantic sci-fi or a horror fantasy? Perhaps romantic horror? (Go ahead, I dare you.) Futuristic or ancient history? Young adult or full of steam? Sometimes, it just feels easier to toss this one out the window and hope for the best. Well, be careful. I once wound up with a scientist who gained powers of teleportation in a lab accident only to wake up with an annoyed Chiron staring down at him (don’t ask). Whether you chose to choose it right away or decide to wait, you may want to figure it out eventually in case you’re asked this when you send in your story.

 

As you can likely tell, there’s many types of genres, some that can be mixed and others that cannot. Here’s a list of what I’ve experimented with.

• Fantasy Romance: The cliche ‘vampire love story’ fits in here perfectly - unless your vampire was created through science not magic, or is a robot that lives by stealing the lifeforce of others, or something like that. But this category can also include fairies and wizards, orcs and dragons, or any other kind of being that can only be found in legends and tales of ancient magic. Best keep from making too much steam though if it’s supposed to be young adult.
  Sci-fi Fantasy: This is what happens when someone can leap between dimensions as all dimensions are different in how they function as are the worlds within them. Though do be careful - this is where that teleporter meets Chiron tale comes in.
  Sci-fi Slice-of-life: A scientific creation (mistake or not) whose tale is not strictly fights and detective skills but, rather, a series of important events in their life.
  There’s many more combos but experimentation is better than staring at a screen and reading about them.

So, now onto you. Yes, you, the one who’s been staring for so long. Try your hand at every genre you can find, test them all out, combine them in unexpected ways, figure out what you love and what you hate. Most of all, get crackin’ and grab that pen and paper (or hunk of metal with code or chisel and stone or knife and wood - whichever suits you best).

-- Tyleenia, Weaver of Tales --