Genre, Save the Cat! style

So this probably won’t surprise anyone else out there, but it surprised me. Today I learned that I write Superhero novels. (Yeah, I’ll pause for you to say, “Um, no duh.” Except people probably don’t say no duh anymore.) But the reason you might not be surprised is that you ONLY know of the superhero novel I wrote, and not all the others. You don’t know which ones I loved and which ones I hated and what they had in common or didn’t or whatnot.

I’ve been reading Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! screenwriting books. (LOVE them, btw. And I don’t love a lot of writing books.) He has ten movie genres he’s defined that cover pretty much any kind of story. (Note that I don’t like a lot of writing books, but the ones I do like are about story.) Well, anyway, I’ve been reading the second STC! book and trying to figure out which genre I write, because it doesn’t seem to be any of these, and while I think my books are good, if they don’t fit into a structure, then I’m missing something, whether it’s in the books or just in my inability to figure it out.

I get to the last chapter in the book, which is about the “Superhero” story. Basically this type of story has three things: a “power” or “mission” that makes the MC super/more than human, an equally powerful nemesis, and an Achilles heel or some kind of weakness. Well, even though some people have said Renegade X isn’t like other superhero stories they’ve read, it also IS because it has all these things. But that’s one’s easy, because, duh, it’s a story about actual superheroes (and villains).

But my latest novel, Shades of Rome, which isn’t literally about superheroes like that, is still a Superhero story. It has an MC that’s given both a power and a mission, an enemy made equally powerful by the same power and an opposite mission, and a key weakness the MC has that hinders said mission.

!!!!!

Yeah, I was pretty ecstatic when I realized I have a story type. Because, you see, recently I’ve been trying to figure out WHY I love writing some books, while writing other types of books bore me to tears (even if the end product might come out good for either one). I definitely love combining the real world with some kind of fantasy element. If the fantasy element is too weak, though, I get bored. I like to have everyday family and relationship drama, yet I need something BIGGER (and, well, just plain fun) to give the story focus and keep it interesting for me. (Note that I read all sorts of books that I love, yet would hate writing. I love reading purely contemporary books, yet writing them not so much.)

So, some of the books I didn’t enjoy writing so much were maybe not balanced right. They were too real world, or they were too fantasy world. But they definitely weren’t Superhero stories. And all the books I LOVED writing were. COINCIDENCE?!?! (A clue: No.) (Yes, I make Sheriff of Nottingham references. What are you going to do about it?)

That’s my big revelation of the day. I write Superhero stories. Good to know, right?

One Comment
  1. Liyana

    I like those facts you pointed out. Also that tidbit about Shades of Rome. :D

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