McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Vampire Use In Contemporary Fantasy
becroberts:
--- Quote from: Richelle on September 15, 2006, 02:33:02 AM ---Would I be consigning the book to oblivion by having a guy tell it? Or is the market ready for more of that kind of thing (Harry being a success)?
--- End quote ---
I can't speak for the rest of the market but I'm certainly ready for more male narrators. Not that I won't read books with female narrators - I'm not that picky about my urban fantasy, provided there aren't too many gratuitous shoe references - but I simply enjoy male protagonists more. (Notably Harry Dresden and Jack Fleming.) Can't figure out why this is, mind you, unless it's because the men seem to get less sex (or less graphic sex when they do get it) and I prefer tasteful 'fade to black' type scenes.
Dom:
--- Quote from: Richelle on September 15, 2006, 02:33:02 AM ---Would I be consigning the book to oblivion by having a guy tell it? Or is the market ready for more of that kind of thing (Harry being a success)? Of course, the correct answer is to write whatever makes a good story, and that's what I'll do. But still, it's just another example of how mind-boggling it is trying to figure out what this genre's going to do.
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I think it's more than ready for male narrators. All my urban fantasy is actually narrated by males (that's just how it went) and I agree that the bad-ass supernatural chick thing is getting old.
Just be wary and don't give the male narrator a feminine voice. I had that problem in my early work, and the thing I'm working on now I'm looking at sideways, because I can't tell if I'm feminizing Raul, my character, or not.
As a side note, it's interesting to watch how Jim does characterization, vs. how female writers do it. There's a slight difference, and I'm not sure if it's because it's comparing different authors to one another, or if gender plays into it or not.
fjeastman:
I think the overall "image" of the market for these books is female ... and that the impression is all female readers desire a romance novel ... with added content.
I've only "seen" Jim's audience in the population of the boards and the attendance at his talk this year at Dragon*Con ... but at LEAST half of the audience seems to be men.
'Course I could be biased. :) I know what -I- would like to see ... and what I'm not seeing ... and what I want to write, which I'm also not seeing.
Now, the situation remains that the IMAGE of the market may be that it is a majority women who want to see female characters, and that male characters won't sell to publishers. But that's akin to producing only chocolate icecream and saying the ice-cream-buying market is made up entirely of people who like chocolate.
Good fiction will sell. Thus I aspire to write good fiction.
I think I have a good story to tell, and I hope I can do so skillfully.
--fje
becroberts:
--- Quote from: fjeastman on September 15, 2006, 03:19:41 PM ---
I think the overall "image" of the market for these books is female ... and that the impression is all female readers desire a romance novel ... with added content.
--- End quote ---
All the urban fantasy readers I know IRL are female, but yeah, based on the board demographics the genre is just as popular with males. What irritates me is the idea that female readers need romance (or more) in a book to enjoy it. I may be in the minority with this opinion but I really don't enjoy reading romance. Flirtatious dialogue is one thing; watching couples spar in a will-they won't they fashion is good entertainment and I enjoy writing it myself. But when a good chunk of the plot is dedicated to romance in some way, particularly when there's a lot of physical interaction, it bores me to tears.
I get round this in my own books by giving my protagonist a love interest who refuses to date him, as he would have to dismantle his partner first and he's not prepared to do that. This way I get to put in as much fun and flirting as I like, but save the angst for more important things.
(We seem to have lost the vampires somewhere along the way, don't we? This is an interesting topic, though, so perhaps we should start a 'Heroes vs. Heroines' thread or something.)
fjeastman:
Well, my original question was sort of predicated by a "is this what the market really wants?" sort of thing.
I.E. are there so many vampires in current contemporary supernatural (con/sup?) fiction because there HAVE to be? I.E. would a book that didn't contain vampires (or vampire cognates, really) ... I think the same question sort of applies up and down the board to any Hot Sexy Dangerous and Supernatural creature: hotsexy werewolves (as opposed to scary ones like the Loup Garou in Fool Moon), hotsexy demons (incubi/succubi), etc.
Or is this just a trope that happens to be popular with AUTHORS ...
I asked because my vampires aren't hot or sexy. Nor are they monstrously alien. More monstrous in the human perspective.
We could also use a thread on women in supernatural fiction. Check your local listings.
--fje
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