Real Life Not Genres

Austin Macauley have placed Out With Time in the romantic genre and I am not particularly arguing with that. At its core is the relationship between Bumble and Nancy and if romance means you get to cry at the end then I suppose romance is the name of the game. No, my beef is with the very idea that any novel should slot neatly into a single pigeon-hole. If writing is about exploring creativity without constraints, then surely the first wall to come down is that separating the “genres”!

I remember a few years ago hearing an interview on the radio with an author who described a novel of his that crossed one of these divides – it might have been a comic-detective story. Since he considered a hybrid of comedy and crime to have feet in two markets, and therefore unsellable in either, he decided to lock his work away in a literary vault. It was only when he discovered that another author had already busted the barrier between the two genres that he decided to go ahead and publish his anyway.

Frankly, I was shocked. It was yet more grist to my novel avoidance mill, confirming yet again that authors often prefer to toy with their readers rather than share a great story. It is often said that the best writers draw their inspiration from real life. Just imagine if a friend asked you how things were going and you responded, “At the moment it’s a comedy but next week I am expecting it to become a drama before ending up as a Greek tragedy before the month is out.” Life doesn’t have genres so why should novels?

Well alright, romance is a big part of life so there is every reason for it to occupy a lot of space in a novel. Alongside, it though, we can allow humour, mystery and controversy. Out With Time may have a love affair at its heart, but there is also modern social commentary, satire and murder. Just a regular life, in other words!

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