Adventure? Fantasy? Young Adult? Aug!

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>compass<

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Hey hey, all, I'm looking for help defining the genre of my latest MS. Here are the deets:

1) There are two protagonists (a male quasi-Viking middle-aged warrior type and a 12-year-old female god-like wannabe warrior who doesn't yet have a grasp of her god-like powers) but the POV is usually through the quasi-Viking dude. It begins with him and he meets her maybe halfway/less than halfway through and she spends her time in the book going from a powerless kid to an all powerful god-like being who learns stuff about life along the way (how to be strong in the face of adversary, how to have compassion, when not to meddle with nature, stuff like that). The relationship between them becomes father-daughter-like. I don't know it if qualifies as YA since so much of the story is told from the grown-up's POV even though it's a coming of age story for the 12-year-old.

2) It has a lot of fantasy elements, magic, magical creatures, stuff like that and it's an adventure story with the protagonists going on a quest. It's also about 50,000 words long (so kinda short for a fantasy) but I don't know if Adventure is really a genre that agents represent or no.

3) There are elements of sci-fi in it, albeit for only a chunk of the story (spoofing steam-punk, mostly), but I don't think there's enough of it to really call it sci-fi.

4) The MS is a parody of video games, noting and often making fun of common elements found in games (finding money in grass, flashing red when injured, being compelled to do a victory dance while music plays, guards acting like total doofuses, etc.). The games it's inspired most by are Legend of Zelda and Skyrim, so you'd think that would make it easier for me to define the MS but nope.

5) It's comedic. Not slap-your-knees-tears-coursing-down-your-cheeks funny but snort-of-pleasure-brings-a-smile-doesn't-take-itself-too-seriously funny, and it's like that all through the book. So there's that.

6) It does have some rather dark moments. They are few and far between and I don't think they are too dark for younger readers but they might be pushing it a little (for example there's a queen who collects severed heads and litters her grand hall with them, like there are mountains of them). But then again, The Hunger Games is pretty dang dark so I might be okay with this if it is YA?

7) There's a lot of action, fight scenes and the like. It opens with the quasi-Viking dude strung up in a spider-monster's web and fighting for his life. But I don't know if that classifies it as action even though there is hardly any down time.

8) My language choices my also be better suited for YA, because I tended to use simpler words and there's no cursing (not that that doesn't occur in adult novels, I'm just saying in case it helps classify my MS better).

If there's anything else I haven't thought of I'll add it but I think that's all. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)
 

darateague

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Considering the focus on games and the length, it sounds more like YA, or possibly "New adult" fiction which is for slightly older readers (around 18 to the middle 20s).
 

Kerosene

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Sword and Sorcery with video-game influence--which that game influence really doesn't matter, but it is somewhat of a sub-sub-sub-genre.

How much of the story is focused on the 12 year old? Just because it's a coming of age story for her, doesn't make the entire story YA. Nor does the voice; if simple wording and no/few curses constitutes YA, well I've been writing it for the last 9 years.

You can have younger protags in adult fiction, and I can't see how this would be considered New Adult as most new adult is focused on YAs leaving home and finding a life for themselves, dealing with college, young romance and such; not so much adventure, and early coming of age.

But 50K would be flying into novella territory--and that's borderline YA to boot.
 

EMaree

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I haven't read it, but "Ready Player One" might be worth checking out as a comp title. Teen protagonist but classed as adult fiction (the lines are fuzzy, it's won YA awards, but on paper it's adult fiction), heavy video game influence and satire elements.

The dark elements you mention seem like nothing to worry about, middle grade (eg Darren Shan, Neil Gaiman) regularly goes into more gruesome territory than that.

Agreed with WillSauger that the word count seems like the biggest potential issues. Are you sure you've got enough wordbuilding in there? 50k for a fantasy novel, especially one not specifically written as YA, is very low.
 

lbender

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My first thought would be Aug. However, as that isn't a common genre, I'd go for fantasy. Too much magic, giant spiders, etc. to be anything else. The other stuff (comedy, dark, possible YA, whatever) may go into sub-genre, but it's a fantasy.

I do agree with the others about word count, though. It probably needs to be longer. If you want to make it YA, could you write it from the girl's POV?
 

>compass<

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Hey hey all, thanks so much for your ideas, I appreciate it. I know it's way too short to be considered fantasy and I'm sure I could add more to the story to beef it up, yet it does such a good job with what's already in there I'd hate to add a whole nother chunk that comes off as tacked on. I'll consider it anyway, since it's a fairly new MS and I'm not so attached that I can't bear a single change ;)

As for the world building a great deal of it references videogame tropes, so I can get a lot in for a greater word economy.

I agree it's not new adult at all and is probably a sub- times however much genre. The best comp I know is "Luka and the Fire of Life" because it's a quest story set in a world that heavily references video games, but that book is told from the kid's POV. I'm also reminded of basically every video game with a father-child relationship that's key to the story, but that doesn't help a whole lot either except the games are aimed at adults (so probably mine should be too?)

Also also, I do go into the girl's POV during a few key points but it mostly sticks to his. I can't change that without losing a significant chunk because they don't meet first thing and hardly anything happens to her before they meet. Probably the best I could do is add new material from her POV to what already exists.

I think I may have to call it a novella, but that's okay with me. Does anyone know if it's possible to call a book genre "Adventure" just for simplicity's sake? I read on the query shark blog it's okay to not know the specific genre as long as the overall feeling is conveyed in the query and the agent can come to their own decision but having a better idea of what to call it would ease my mind
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/2013/12/252-first-post-under-new-system.html?m=1 (she says it near the bottom of the entry, fyi)

Sorry if I seem like a dummy, y'all :p
 

Kerosene

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Adventure isn't a genre, it's a sub-genre at best.

I've heard that half of the queries agents get is to a genre they don't represent--and/or there is no genre listed and it's not worth their time figuring out. Taking this into account, I'd at least categorize it under Fantasy, and maybe add in adventure, because I wouldn't want agents dropping me at the first couple lines in the query.

Remember, genre is for marketing. Label your book with a genre where you think its readers are going to be at.
 

>compass<

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I've heard that half of the queries agents get is to a genre they don't represent--and/or there is no genre listed and it's not worth their time figuring out. Taking this into account, I'd at least categorize it under Fantasy, and maybe add in adventure, because I wouldn't want agents dropping me at the first couple lines in the query.

Yikes, that is a very good point! Thanks for the help, WillSauger, I appreciate it :)
 

briannasealock

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Hey hey, all, I'm looking for help defining the genre of my latest MS. Here are the deets:

1) There are two protagonists (a male quasi-Viking middle-aged warrior type and a 12-year-old female god-like wannabe warrior who doesn't yet have a grasp of her god-like powers) but the POV is usually through the quasi-Viking dude. It begins with him and he meets her maybe halfway/less than halfway through and she spends her time in the book going from a powerless kid to an all powerful god-like being who learns stuff about life along the way (how to be strong in the face of adversary, how to have compassion, when not to meddle with nature, stuff like that). The relationship between them becomes father-daughter-like. I don't know it if qualifies as YA since so much of the story is told from the grown-up's POV even though it's a coming of age story for the 12-year-old.

2) It has a lot of fantasy elements, magic, magical creatures, stuff like that and it's an adventure story with the protagonists going on a quest. It's also about 50,000 words long (so kinda short for a fantasy) but I don't know if Adventure is really a genre that agents represent or no.

3) There are elements of sci-fi in it, albeit for only a chunk of the story (spoofing steam-punk, mostly), but I don't think there's enough of it to really call it sci-fi.

4) The MS is a parody of video games, noting and often making fun of common elements found in games (finding money in grass, flashing red when injured, being compelled to do a victory dance while music plays, guards acting like total doofuses, etc.). The games it's inspired most by are Legend of Zelda and Skyrim, so you'd think that would make it easier for me to define the MS but nope.

5) It's comedic. Not slap-your-knees-tears-coursing-down-your-cheeks funny but snort-of-pleasure-brings-a-smile-doesn't-take-itself-too-seriously funny, and it's like that all through the book. So there's that.

6) It does have some rather dark moments. They are few and far between and I don't think they are too dark for younger readers but they might be pushing it a little (for example there's a queen who collects severed heads and litters her grand hall with them, like there are mountains of them). But then again, The Hunger Games is pretty dang dark so I might be okay with this if it is YA?

7) There's a lot of action, fight scenes and the like. It opens with the quasi-Viking dude strung up in a spider-monster's web and fighting for his life. But I don't know if that classifies it as action even though there is hardly any down time.

8) My language choices my also be better suited for YA, because I tended to use simpler words and there's no cursing (not that that doesn't occur in adult novels, I'm just saying in case it helps classify my MS better).

If there's anything else I haven't thought of I'll add it but I think that's all. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

Comedic action adventure suitable for young people and adults.
 
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