Is it time for a new genre?

[Taylor]

happy books.....harry potter goes to benidorm....

Sounds like someone is craving a Mediterranean holiday!

But that's a good point. I could see the demand from readers who crave the travel experience. I wonder if Covid will create a new escapism genre, based solely on characters going for exotic vacations. Maybe that already exists. It would be pretty easy to write a series. Each time the characters get into trouble by not knowing the local customs or something like that. Romance wouldn't be the best fit, because the timeframe is not really long enough, but I guess for some it would work...lol!

[escorial]

what about happy from start to finish....no escapism

[Taylor]

what about happy from start to finish....no escapism

Yeah for sure! I was thinking that the escapism, was the reader escaping from being cooped up at home. Even if they did get into difficulties because they didn't know the customs...that could be happy and funny. I know when I travel with my family (use to), we always have a lot of fun and laugh a lot at the odd things and characters that we experience. Never in front of them of course! I can remember a certain RV rental guy (in a very clean country), who we still joke about to this day. After getting explicit instructions on how to clean out the holding tank before returning it, we still didn't get it right. He pointed at us tersely and said, "someone forgot to clean," with a heavy accent of course. We still imitate him at appropriate times and it still always gets a laugh.

[MistWolf]

True, but I guess most of the ones about things like that don't make it into my relm. I think it originated with social causes no?

And justification of heinous criminal activities

Are people sharing novels on facebook? I thought about doing that. Just posting a section each week. And then allowing people to comment and have discussions online. You could alter the plot based on people's opinions. I know soap operas do that now, with respect to the fan-driven plotlines. But you could only do it once. Then what would you do with it afterwards. I guess you could self-publish then. Or maybe it never ends like a soap opera. Hmmm...I like that idea. Could be a bit demanding in time. Would your fans complain if you took a week off?

Larry Correia published a book of short stories that the first draft was written collectively on one of his social media sites. it his Tom Stranger, Inter-Dimensional Insurance Agent. It's off the wall, unapologetic, satirical and has a lot of inside humor. Whether the stories are your cup of tea or not, it was drafted collectively online.

I had never heard of 4Chan before, but at first glance, I didn't see fiction or stories on there. Seems more like a discussion site. Or did I just not go to the right section?

4Chan has a lot going on. It's kinda like social media anarchy. It explores many subjects with deep dark rabbit holes.

Yes, they are apparently on the decline now. But still a discussion forum, not fiction or story related.

Many IRC channels were about collective story telling and roleplaying. Vampire chat channels were filled with Goth Vamps, Capri-Suns (characters that begged vamps to drink from them) and stank of teenage angst.

I got in trouble once because I stumbled across one channel and entered as a clueless, normal human. (Remember, all interaction is text in a Chatroom.) I acted if I didn't know the room was about V&V (Vampires & Victims). I started flirting with one girl and had my character; fat, dumb and happy; sit in her lap. We went back & forth with suggestive dialogue for a bit and when she leaned in to "nuzzle" my neck, I buried my face in her bosom and bit her.

Of course, she jumped up and started cussing me out.

I said "Oh, woe is me! Once again, I loved and lost. Parting is such sweet sorrow. As painful as it is, I shall always cherish this moment- Fangs for the mammaries..."

That's a good point! I never thought of it that way, but story-driven video games could be considered a new genre. There is a huge studio(?) in our area that employs people to design these games. But are the authors and the illustrators the same person, or does it take a team of people to produce the game?

Most successful games are created by teams. However, a lot of dialogue takes place between players (and watchers) on Discord.

In any case, Discord gets your foot in the door

[escorial]

im sure there are books that fall into happy from start to finish but i have never read one...maybe as a kid

[Taylor]

im sure there are books that fall into happy from start to finish but i have never read one...maybe as a kid

I'm sure you are right, but it seems to me we had a similar thread that discussed whether there were pleasant reads with no conflict and forum posters all seemed to agree it didn't exist. But you could be onto something. Maybe as writers we have it so engrained in us that we need a character arch and tension and a resolution, etc. I could see a new genre of stories that are just happy -- thank you very much!

What type of stories would you tell? How would you label the genre?

[escorial]

some massive musician once said miserable songs will always out do.. silly love songs....possibly humans are not wired to feel happy all the time...

[Taylor]

And justification of heinous criminal activities

True, I guess it may have orignated in bad neighbourhoods where people knew no differently.

Larry Correia published a book of short stories that the first draft was written collectively on one of his social media sites. it his Tom Stranger, Inter-Dimensional Insurance Agent. It's off the wall, unapologetic, satirical and has a lot of inside humor. Whether it's your cup of tea or not, it happened.

Great, I'll check it out!

Many IRC channels were about collective story telling and roleplaying. Vampire chat channels filled with Goth Vamps, Capri-Suns (characters that begged vamps to drink from them) and stank of teenage angst.

I got in trouble once because I stumbled across one channel and entered as a clueless, normal human. (Remember, all interaction is text in a Chatroom.)I acted if I didn't know the room was about V&V (Vampires & Victims). I started flirting with one girl and had my character; fat, dumb and happy; sit in her lap. We went back & forth with suggestive dialogue for a bit and when she leaned in to "nuzzle" my neck, I buried my face in her bosom and bit her.

Of course, she jumped up and started cussing me out.

That is so funny. Do you remember Second Life? I got on there for awhile before it crashed my computer. I was doing really well buying real estate and stuff, and then one day I let someone lead me to let's just say to a strange place involving hot tubs and other recreational stuff if you catch my drift. It's like oops! How fast can I get out of here!!

Most successful games are created by teams. However, a lot of dialogue takes place between players (and watchers) on Discord.

In any case, Discord gets your foot in the door

Not sure I want to become a gamer, but I will check it out...

[MistWolf]

I'm sure you are right, but it seems to me we had a similar thread that discussed whether there were pleasant reads with no conflict and forum posters all seemed to agree it didn't exist. But you could be onto something. Maybe as writers we have it so engrained in us that we need a character arch and tension and a resolution, etc. I could see a new genre of stories that are just happy -- thank you very much!

What type of stories would you tell? How would you label the genre?

No conflict? No way!

Happy from start to finish? Maybe

Light-hearted? Yes. How would I label it? Seussian
I would read it anywhere, Sam-I-Am

[Taylor]

some massive musician once said miserable songs will always out do.. silly love songs....possibly humans are not wired to feel happy all the time...

I believe this to be true! I think we strive for happiness all the time, but once we get there we find something else not to be happy about. I often wonder why, when things are going very well for me, I often go throught a period of having nightmares. Is that my brain trying to balance things out?