Does Crossing Genre work ?

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   Merlin Fraserposted 14 years ago

   When I started to write Crime and Mystery stories I took the time honoured path of trying to come up with a clever WHO DUNIT' type plot until I got about halfway through and went back and read it.  Even as the author I realised it was rubbish and as a reader I personally could have cared less who did it.
   
           I quickly realised that I might be wasting my time; afer all WHO DUNNIT Mysties are all over the place written by some of the greatest crime writers, Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, Collin Dexter and many, many more; how can you compete or even worse try to better their achievements.
   
          So when I started again I came at the story from the point of view of not 'WHO' but 'WHY ?' Add in the most unlikely victim, an even more unlikely murderer and start from there.
        
          For an added twist I took the story into the Paranormal by exploring the hidden depths and strengths of the human mind, a theme I carry forward in to subsequent stories.
   
         Question is; should I have wandered between Genre in this way? Or have I merely added a new diamension to Murder Mysteries ?

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      Moon Goddess1854posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I vote for the former than the latter. Have you sounded it off with other friends and see what they think?

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   wrenfrost56posted 14 years ago

   I think you did the right thing, if the whodunnit was not working for you then why not try something new. IMHO, I really like the psycological element of a story and new ideas keep publishing fresh. Good luck and please keep us posted on how it goes. 

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   lynnechandlerposted 14 years ago

   The main thing you need to remember in any story is how are you going to sell it. Where will it sit on the shelf? That is what an agent is going to want to know so you have to be able to pinpoint what genre the book is and what it sounds like you have now instead of a mystery is the ever present and popular psychological thriller.
   
   Think James Patterson if you will with Along Came a Spider or Kiss the Girls. Also Linda Howard, and many more great writers come in this genre.
   
   I guess what I'm saying is you are still looking at it as a cross when actually you jumped ship and went right into a mainstream that is very popular.

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      Merlin Fraserposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      In the final story I did cross over into Dan Brown territory, not intentionally, in actual fact I was there first but didn't have his publisher drooling all over me.
      I used a few of the better known conspiracy theories as well as the Freemasonry and the Iluminatti as my ultimate bad guys.  Not in the same way of course.  From my research the Illuminatti were never an army nor were they ever in a position to challenge or bring down the Roman Catholic church. It would have made more sense the other way around;   great story though and exactly what Hollywood likes, to hell with truth and facts.
      My wandering into the Paranormal, delve into the power of the human mind, take for instance ‘out of body experiences, ‘  or as they are sometimes called; ‘near death experiences, ’   I play with the what if you could do that at will !  If you were criminally inclined what would you do;  and if you were the police how would you ever know ?   you can see more on my Hub Pages.

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