Genres That Don't Exist

Sometimes I fear my imagination might run out. Throughout my life it has been my experience that good things tend to run out while bad things seem to exist in amazing reserves. Imagination is a good thing.

Part of the problem, admittedly, is the ubiquity of work. Trudging back and forth to the office each day drains a writer of energy. At least this writer. When I’m in the midst of a big project (as one of the six novels I’ve finished) I’m full of ideas, ready to write constantly. When I finish, I can go months groping about for an idea that works. Meanwhile I work.

I was glad to read Tod Davies’ The Lizard Princess because it takes place in a fantasy land of ideas. Although I’ve termed some of my stories fantasies, the fact is I don’t really write in this genre. I think “magical realism” might be the more appropriate way to describe my work, or “fabulism.” Genres can be constraining.

The Lizard Princess makes no apologies for being fantasy. The usual tropes of princesses, dragons, encounters with mythical beasts, evil queens—it’s all there. And, of course, a voyage of transformation. We can learn a lot from fantasy.

Writing, it seems to me, is a fantasy. In a surfeit of joie de vivre I recently sent several stories out for publication. The rejections have been trickling in, and I wonder if publishing itself might be a fantasy.

I talked with a much younger co-worker recently. She writes fiction as well, but doesn’t try to publish. I’ve been writing fiction since at least 1976, but I grew up in a town where nobody really knew a thing about publishing. In consequence, I learned to write in genres that don’t exist.

Devoting full time to writing seems like a dream. Living from novel to novel is, perhaps, a fantasy. Still, a little encouragement goes a long way. If a place existed that eschewed genre perhaps I would stand a chance.

Like most writers, I believe in fantasy. If I could only classify myself, I might stand a chance of getting noticed. The price is only giving up how I taught myself to write.

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K. Marvin Bruce

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