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!
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!