Name that tune

John Petersen · Aug 10, 2012

Hi, hello.

What genre is this?

Multiple characters die and don't realize it until the end of the story. A chapter or so worth.

There are several instances throughout the story that make them question what is happening or what they saw.

There's a bit of a Scifi nature added to it with alien like creatures, but not sure it's enough to actually call it Scifi.

I can lift the Scifi and paranormal out of the story and there will still be an underlying story.

Thanks
John

onesecondglance · Aug 10, 2012

I remember hearing someone say once something like "if a story with fantasy elements still works without those fantasy elements, take them out".

I've always taken this to mean that if they're just background and don't fundamentally affect the plot, then they're going to feel tacked on. Goes for SF and paranormal as much as fantasy in my book.

With regard to characters dying and not realising it, it sounds vaguely like magic realism, but without knowing more about the story it's very hard to say.

John Petersen · Aug 10, 2012

Yeah, can't take the paranormal out, it's the whole point of the story. It plays out a little like Jacobs Ladder except they are in their own form of heaven.

A couple dies on the way to their dream vacation spot that they consider heaven. The audience doesn't know this. They experience a few weird things like seeing people who they know are dead and consider it a coincidence, no communication devices work properly, people around them act strange.

When the two main characters realize they are dead they go through an adjustment period and come to terms with it.

A follow up book will go into detail about how they make contact with their family and certain other people.

I guess it's sort of a ghost story that explains how they become ghosts and what the rules are. It's hard to explain.

John Petersen · Aug 10, 2012

Little digging

Ok, been looking around. Since I don't want to call it Supercalifragi- listicexpialidocious, I'm trying to pigeon hole it a bit. Here are some of the categories it falls under.

And forgive me if none of this makes sense, I'm trying to make sense of it by writing it out.

Speculative fiction- Characters tell a story of how certain things happened in a certain place and time in history (Based on true accounts, but not entirely true)

Supernatural drama- Ghosts and creatures that are either neutral or good.

Fantasy- Creatures that help. The avoidance of horror in the story, and folklore (stories passed down, "As the story goes").

Science Fiction- The use of real science. Such as sound and earth's gravitational forces. But doesn't do the same in real life.

Pyschological- Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind

Mystery- The unraveling of secrets. Not really a secret, they just didn't know they are dead. They do finally figure it out and cope with it.

Romance- Relationship and romantic love between two people, and has an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending

victoriakmartin · Aug 10, 2012

To me, this sounds very much like both The Lovely Bones and What Dreams May Come, aside from the fact that the characters aren't aware of their deaths. The former was always just in fiction general, while the latter seems to be considered fantasy/weird fiction (if Wikipedia is to be believed, I'll admit I haven't read that one, only seen the movie).

Given that they interact with people who they know are dead and have other strange things happening, I would probably go the supernatural route with this one.

lastlittlebird · Aug 11, 2012

If I recall correctly, What Dreams May Come reads more like a non-fiction, sort of spiritual book, even though it's meant to be a novel (it does say on Wikipedia that the author considered the characters to be the only made up bit).
To me, depending on how it's handled, OP's example sounds like magical realism, or maybe paranormal.

It does depend on how it is handled though... what is the emphasis of the story on? The love between the characters? The humour in their situation? Their religious interpretation of what's happened to them? The strangeness and exploration of their condition? Each of those would place it in a different category imho.

John Petersen · Aug 11, 2012

Yes, it is part supernatural. Alot supernatural, then it crosses over.

The emphasis is their state of mind which is serenity. What they think heaven is, and that happens to be their location.

Here's an excerpt that might help

Upon realizing she has passed on, Su tries to come to terms with her situation.

Su says, "Why can't harm be done?"

John says, "Because this is your heaven. Deep down in your soul you don't want harm to exist. If you did you wouldn't be here."

Su says, "I don't understand."

John says, "At the very moment of your death, that is what you chose."

Su says, "I don't remember that."

John says, "None of us do, because it's not a thought, it's a deep rooted feeling, the very essence of your soul."

Holding back her tears Su says, "Whe, where do the people who do harm go?"

Holding her hand John says, "Not here."

COPR 2012 by John Petersen

epullins · Aug 13, 2012

Based on the fact that the characters are questioning what is happening and what they saw....I would say more mystery than anything. Ecspecially since they dont find out they die until the end which is quite suspenseful (which falls under mystery I do believe)

John Petersen · Aug 14, 2012

Yeh, I was thinking part mystery after talking it over with the little lady. I'm kind of concerned about that. I'm reading alot about publishers only reading a few chapters to determine whether or not they want it, and they won't get to the juicy stuff til near the end.

It's still a cool story up til then, but then it explodes.

bleeps bloops · Aug 14, 2012

Magical realism?

I struggle to define it well, and it's quite a vague genre as it is, but I'm totally capable of dropping some Wikipedia on you all:

Magic realism or magical realism is a...genre of fiction[1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought. Although it is most commonly used as a literary genre, Magic Realism also applies to film and the visual arts.

One example of magic realism is when a character in the story continues to be alive beyond the normal length of life and this is subtly depicted by the character being present throughout many generations. On the surface the story has no clear magical attributes and everything is conveyed in a real setting, but such a character breaks the rules of our real world. The author may give precise details of the real world such as the date of birth of a reference character and the army recruitment age, but such facts help to define an age for the fantastic character of the story that would turn out to be an abnormal occurrence like someone living for two hundred years.

Dave Hardy · Aug 14, 2012

Slipstream has a certain amount of acceptance as a descriptor for works that blend of fantasy & naturalism & whatever other genre conventions that are lying around in such a way as to defy easy categorization. You might say it's stuff that's too weird to be Magical Realism. That sort of begs the question of what criteria make up the "New Weird" (besides being edited by Jeff Vandermeer).

John Petersen · Aug 14, 2012

After reading your posts I checked Magic Realism. This story differentiates itself from Magic Realism in that some of the magic, "it can be explained."

I checked Surrealism, Fantasy, Science fiction, Expressionism and it seems to continually cross over all those genres, but always has one thing or another that prevent it from sticking into any one category.

The thing about it is, it's not all that weird... It's weird, but not like unbelievable...

I'll Keep searchin' I reckon.

Thanks, learned a thing or two today.

John Petersen · Aug 15, 2012

I think I figured it out. Don't quote me on this, but I think it is a , ready for this?

Supernatural Bildungsroman Hagiography.

))

Wow! Is there a market for that?

victoriakmartin · Aug 17, 2012

John Petersen said:
I'm reading alot about publishers only reading a few chapters to determine whether or not they want it, and they won't get to the juicy stuff til near the end.

I'll admit I've never submitted anything of this length for publication (have to actually finish it first!) but don't you usually send a brief synopsis along with the submission/query? If a publisher had that, they would know about the juicy bits at the end and then use early writing to determine if they wanted to see how you did it, writing-wise.

richcapo · Aug 17, 2012

onesecondglance said:
With regard to characters dying and not realising it, it sounds vaguely like magic realism

Sounds like The Sixth Sense, The Others, and An American Horror Story to me.

John Petersen · Aug 23, 2012

Update: A week ago I thought I was going to have to put the story away because I wrote it by just sitting down and writing it without direction.

What I've done is shortened the story from a novel to a novelette (I think ... it's not entirely complete, but I don't think it'll be novel length).

I shelved the original introduction of the characters and their backstory, and will introduce them just before the story had originally started to amp up. I can use their backstory for book two or three.

I did finally come up with a logline, but I'm not ready to disclose it yet.

I looked around at several movie loglines pertaining to what this story is about and I think it has a unique flavor, the story and all.

Currently editing it to relieve it of some of the backstory elements.

Quiessa · Aug 24, 2012

Did you decide on a genre? It sounds very interesting. Good luck with it

ASC McLaren · Sep 7, 2012

Sounds like Lost.

Name that tune

John Petersen

onesecondglance

pretending to be awake

John Petersen

John Petersen

victoriakmartin

lastlittlebird

avem narrans

John Petersen

epullins

John Petersen

bleeps bloops

musik von harmonia

Dave Hardy

Don't let your deal go down,

John Petersen

John Petersen

victoriakmartin

richcapo

Knight Templar

John Petersen

Quiessa

Still thin skinned

ASC McLaren

Intended for mature audiences