The writer's covenant with the reader

One of the things new writers often forget to ask themselves is, "What is the genre of my story?" Essentially, when someone, including an agent, publisher or even someone you meet on the street, asks what your book is about, he or she is really asking about the genre. They want to know if your writing is something that will interest them. People tend to identify with genres. You'll hear them say, "Oh, I just love mysteries, but I never read SciFi." Or they will say, "I like some mystery books. What kind is yours?" That's because there are tons of sub-genres, each one distinctly different from the other. So the writer needs to understand the story's genre as early as possible in the writing process so he can work within the reader's expectations. That's what understanding genres is all about.

One could argue that writing to reader's expectations means writing to a specific formula. That's true in some cases, but not in all. Say your genre is Harlequin romance. Harlequin novelists are a very hardworking group bound by a strict sets of reader expectations. Their stories require sticking to a unyielding, formulaic set of reader (and publisher) expectations. Don't even think about killing off that muscular, handsome and daring man the heroine meets in chapter one. And don't give him a potbelly either. Make sure he is darkly tanned with a six pack of abs.

The readers expect the couple will have almost insurmountable differences but will resolve them all and set off together with billowing sales reflecting the golden sunset symbolizing their ever-lasting and uncomplicated love. It always happens. The readers expect it to happen, and that's why they buy scores of Harlequin novels at a time.

Of course any story can appeal to more than one genre, but that just means a little more research. Yes, research, because if you don't know who will actually be reading your work, you don't know what they will expect from you. And that's your covenant with the reader. So what does it all mean?

Well, let's say you are working in one of the more popular mystery genres. Take what's called "Cozy Mysteries." That's a real term, and its covenants mean you can have a mysterious murder (always a murder) that, for some reason, the police are not really very interested in solving. It's up to a concerned friend or relative to solve the case. And solving the case is really pretty much all the book is about. What are some of the restrictions of Cozy Mysteries?

Generally, the murder is relatively clean and straightforward: a knifing, suffocation, shooting. Nothing sadistic like you might find in a thriller. A bit of blood and always an overlooked clue of some sort. Cuss words are kept to an absolute minimum and the Lord's name is never taken in vain. The least suspected person committed the crime, and he or she are taken down with a minimum of fuss (after the protagonist experiences a scary danger or two).

This genre may be read at night before turning out the lights, and the reader will not have bad dreams from the book's images. Instead, the reader will experience a comfortable sense of satisfaction at a well-written book that did exactly what he or she expected it would do. Think Agatha Christie, not James Ellroy. A more different set of readers would be hard to imagine.

Ultimately, agents and publishers are the genre gate keepers. They're all about selling your work, and that means fitting it cleanly into one or more "hot" genres. Of course if you want total freedom, you can consider self-publishing, but even doing that will require you to draft a descriptor on Amazon that answers the question, "Just exactly what is your book about?"

How Dark Should a writer go?

How does a writer decide how dark to go with an antagonist? Some novels, like "The Collector," have us wallowing in sadistic, disturbed prose for page after page. Some say we are forced to become way too intimate with the sickness that runs through Clegg's, the protagonist, mind. 

Contrast that story with the category of novels called "Cozy Mysteries". They may not go far enough to create a true sense of suspense and mystery. There is always a murder and a body, but usually not much description of its condition, and the crime itself is usually solved via nice, civilized conversations. They're cozy. Read them in a dark room, and you'll be just fine. 

James Ellroy, on the other hand, spooks us to the core in his "My Dark Places." Just how far does a reader want to descend into the pool of evil? 

As for me...not so far that I might lose my way back.