Survey: What is your genre?

I don't want to derail the "Fantasy Focus" thread that has recently appeared with further subjective speculation about how many writers there are of any given genre compared to any other, but I am genuinely curious. So I've decided to try starting up a thread solely to asking what genres people here like to write or have written.

Note: Please do not derail this into discussion about the results' significance, the value of any given genre, and so forth - I simply want to get some actual numbers on an issue that's been nagging me for a while, not start a debate.

For my part, I am currently entirely a science fiction writer. I have previously written fantasy, but I've lost interest in it, and while it would have been easier to list what genres my comics didn't include, they are now completed. So right now, I'm purely a SF writer.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:16:33 PM by nrjxll

Let's see...

Knightfall, Soul, Crossover, Innocence Lost, Midas, American Armor.

...

Science fiction, fantasy, science fiction, science fiction, fantasy, science fiction.

Assorted genres. Endless Conflict is Military Science Fiction and Space Opera. My other work in pre-production Towards the Valley of Flowers is a classic adventure tale. (Also audience wise it's a kids book by comparison) One of the ideas I had called The Hotel was a macabre horror inspired by Hotel California. Another idea I have is a kid's book re-telling of the old folk tale The Hare of Inaba from Japan.

I've also had spur of the moment ideas for other things too but nothing concrete.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:23:28 PM by MajorTom

The Chaos series: All stories are Action, Adventure, Humor, Suspense, and Friendship.

Well, the two things I'm working on right now are a Great Detective + Gaslamp Fantasy in a Constructed World and one that is what I call Science Fantasy, because it's softer than soft sci-fi in that the science might as well be magic but its treated like science in-story, with a hint of Crime Fiction and Diesel Punk. All Adult literature.

However, I have written fan fiction that is straight up romance or drama with no fantasy or science fiction elements. And perhaps an odd thing about my stories is that the fantastic elements aren't really given as much emphasis as most fantasy and sci fi gives them.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:33:16 PM by NoirGrimoir

All Young Adult. Currently, Manifestation Files is Urban Fantasy.

Most of my works (okay, ALL of my works) fall either under Fantasy, Sci-fi, situational comedy, or some combination of the three.

I originally meant this more about the whole "is everyone on here a fantasy author" debate, which is why I didn't go into more details on the more general nature of my works. Since people are doing that:

• My comics were largely an affectionate parody of the various genres involved, with a bit of postmodernism that increased towards the end.
• My current project, a spin-off of those same comics, is space opera with a fairly humorous tone, though it's more serious in nature then the original comics. There's a lot less postmodernism, partially because I've considered making this into a webcomic and want to avoid typical fourth-wall gags, and partially because I've grown less interested in it.
• I don't aim for specific demographics.
• The other project I've considered is also space opera, but it's scientifically harder and adopts a fairly different, more melancholic, tone.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:44:20 PM by nrjxll

Mine used to be fantasy, but I've largely lost interest, and now I'm more interested in writing realistic fiction with a couple pared down fantastic elements.

Military Fantasy (think military scifi except using mages), Military Fantasy, Sci-Fi with a mid-to-mild dose of cyberpunk ideas but lacking their typical execution (it's closer to Shadowrun than anything else, if you get late-'90s tabletop references).

Those are things that are out, and hence I'm somewhat committed to. The things I'm not committed to are below.

Ten Years Late has stacked genres on me like it was going out of style, and currently incorporates elements of both conspiracy thrillers and spy thrillers and conventional sci-fi on top of its origins as a deconstruction of Super Robots. But from my point of view the genre of it is "as if the setting had not been designed by idiots/people who intended it to fail".

Stand By To Crash is so young neither it nor I really know what it's about yet.

EDIT: For completeness I should probably also add a couple other works, which while not exclusively written, I did end up writing for.

Cleaning Crew, my released Free Space campaign. Military Sci-Fi obviously. Its unreleased cousin Unfinished Business recently resurfaced from the depths of my hard drive.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:59:39 PM by Night

My main project is, to be brief, Speculative Fiction. It's a little bit of everything, yet not quite anything. As for my other writing, I have worked on...

• A surrealist comedy comic formatted like a Sitcom, complete with bizarre "commercials."
• An even stranger work about a man at war with his imaginary friends.
• A horror-mockumentary about the making of a music-mockumentary.
• A fairly unsettling novella about time travel.
• Lots of short horror stories, mainly in a Lovecraftian or Ligottian vein.
• ... and a short film about moving a desk.

So, yeah. I write silly things that make people uncomfortable.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:51:14 PM by JHM

I mix SF and Urban Fantasy in the same world- Country A on one side of the world is uncovering the genetic foundations of magic, and Country B on the other side has medieval-level tech.

So I guess Speculative Fiction.

Coming out of self-imposed hiberation (because I noticed Punkreader made the "Fantasy Focus" thread) to say:

Literary fiction.

Hey there! Except that it's gotten majorly derailed already...

Glad to see you here again, Betsy.

One odd dieselpunk-y fantasy thing in a strange world.

The other is ... actually, I'm not sure where this goes. I'll describe it. More or less present day. Early-30s woman protagonist. A lot of stuff around the BDSM scene and subculture, because of me and my life, but it's really much more around dealing with the (prior to the story's opening) death of a long-time partner, and how one puts oneself back together after that, and how the self that reassembles may not be the one of before; and rediscovering life and finding love once more. And dealing with one rather run-down beach cottage that's part of the inheritance from the deceased partner, which forms a backdrop to the whole thing. Yeah, I know houses as metaphor for life is so done, but I don't care, it works for her.

What'd you call that?

Low Fantasy/Soft Science Fiction — line's a bit blurry, I confess.

It sounds pretty Lit Fic-y to me.

Heh, maybe it is. Who'd have thought?

I seriously think we need a genre called "Science Fantasy" stuff where A) It's hard to tell whether it's science or fantasy and/or B) has a big mix of both sci fi tech and magic.

We have one, don't we?

"Science Fantasy" has existed as a genre term for a while.

Especially back when full-on fantasy had problems getting published. Things like e.g. Cherryh's Morgaine Cycle, Bradley's Darkover, and lots of Andre Norton's stuff fits there.

Mostly Paranormal Romance, but I'll write romance without the paranormal, or sometimes paranormal without the romance. (The specific variety of paranormal is most frequently Science Fantasy, but can be out-and-out fantasy.)

Right now Science Fantasy redirects to Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness, though. That's more of a TRS, YKTTW thing though I suppose.

edited 20th Dec '11 6:00:25 PM by NoirGrimoir

Well, it is the lowest level on that scale, even if that's not the term they actually use (I forget if it is).

But this seems to be violating my hope for a "no-derails" thread...

Ah, sorry.