The nature of this thread may seem silly to some, but I certainly can't be the only person out there who has written a novel and been unable to put the darn thing neatly into a genre or subgenre.
Allow me to elaborate a bit.
I have written numerous novels (most of which I deemed quite bad,) but then finally I had my shining star around the age of twenty. I spent the next four years plotting out this story, taking notes, doing the research and ultimately writing the entire thing in a month-long cram session.
Once completed, people began to ask me, "So what genre is it?" and the amazing thing is I often had this vapid look on my face and mumbled that I
really didn't know! I had done ample research on genres and what-not, but I really felt I wrote something
odd that fell into a classification I was not heavily exposed to, and so for the longest time I labeled the piece as "historical fiction," which I still feel is fairly accurate. I certainly did not sit down one day and say to myself, "Alright, I am going to write a high/epic/dark/urban fantasy!" Naturally, I let the ideas take their course.
Now months later, I have laid the matter to rest and concluded that my novel falls under a "fantasy of manners" subgenre, which is often intertwined with "historical fiction," so I definitely feel I have correctly labeled my own work (finally!) Interestingly enough, Teresa is mentioned on the wiki page for the definition of fantasy manners, if anyone is interested in seeing it below:
I suppose the questions that I am wanting to ask out of this thread deal with any difficulties you may have had (or not had) in deciding what genre your OWN works fall into. If so, did it feel embarassing for awhile? Did you wonder if maybe people doubted your own understanding of the piece you wrote? Is it really a matter of life and death if you are not entirely sure what you wrote?
Perhaps my biggest fear was mis-labeling my own novel and then appearing ignorant to potential publishers or avid readers.
cheers,
WD