Five Reason for Writing in Verse

Shari Green is here to tell us more about writing in verse. I've always been curious about this form of writing (we sometimes see these in contests) and I'm glad for a chance to know more about why to pick verse!

And don't forget to enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.

Take it away, Shari.

It seems to me, verse novels are everywhere…although I might possibly have highly-developed verse-novel radar. ;-) I do seek them out, because I love the form so much, and I’ve written two verse novels myself. (The second one is brand new! MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS launches in the U.S. on May 15. Details below.)

I’m often asked why verse? so I’ve given it some thought. Whether you’re a reader curious about the form, or a writer wondering if verse might be right for your next story, here are five reasons why you might choose to write in verse.

1. It suits the story: A story element may lend itself to verse, to the techniques and structure of a verse novel. For example, a bleak setting or subject can be reflected in short, stark lines; or the setting may be enriched by using verse that reflects the rhythm of a culture’s language or music; or the subject matter may be directly related to poetry or writing, making verse a natural fit.
2. It lightens the load: Difficult or demanding subject matter can be more palatable in verse. The economy of words and the abundance of white space may help the reader to absorb what’s happening without being overwhelmed.
3. It gets to the heart: Because verse tends to be intimate, immediate, and often intense, it can be easier to get to the heart of a story by using poetry. This may be partly because of the economy of words, the spareness, but also because things like spacing and alignment—the visual elements of the poems—can become a metaphor for the character’s emotion or state of mind, hitting the reader on a subconscious level and increasing the emotional impact.
4. It helps readers: For kids (and adults) who struggle with reading or who think they don’t really like reading, verse novels can be much less intimidating – readers aren’t hit with a huge block of text when they open the book. And since verse novels often are fairly quick reads, less enthusiastic readers are more likely to finish them, giving them a sense of competence and confidence. Rhythm and repetition can be a huge help to struggling readers in processing & retaining what they read, too.
5. It feels right: Sometimes verse just feels right, which probably sounds a bit vague, but it was certainly my experience when I began writing novels in verse. Verse was not only how I heard my characters’ voices, but also a natural fit for my own voice and style. And I must say, playing with poetry and the musicality of words is a joy!

Have you tried writing in verse? Have you read many verse novels? I’d love to know! Leave a comment and include your email address for a chance to win a copy of MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS.

Olivia has been Macy McMillan’s best friend ever since Macy transferred to Hamilton Elementary from Braeside School for the Deaf. But then their sixth grade teacher assigned that embarrassing family tree project, and Olivia made a joke about Macy’s father, and now neither girl is speaking—or signing—to the other.

It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. With her mother getting married and an ugly For Sale sign jammed into their yard, Macy could really use a best friend right now. But it seems the only person who has time for her these days is Iris Gillan from next door. And it’s not like a crabby, old woman who doesn’t even know sign language is going to be any comfort. Right?

MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS is a Junior Library Guild 2017 selection. A summer read for fans of Sharon Creech and Kate DiCamillo, from Pajama Press.

Shari Green writes fiction for kids and teens. She lives on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, with her husband, kids, and the worst watchdog ever. Visit her online at www.sharigreen.com.

Star Wars: What genre is it?

At first glance it seems obvious where Star Wars belongs if you were to categorize it under a book genre. But if George Lucas had been trying to write a query letter, he might have run into some difficulties.

Star Wars is obviously science fiction, right? It takes place in space with plenty of battles there. We skip from one gorgeous planet to another. The technology is like what people only dream about. Hand held devices that let you communicate over distances. There was nothing like that in the 1970's when the first movie came out. Intelligent robots that are your personal servants. Robots called droids to fight your battles in lieu of actual casualties. The ability to conquer the tremendous size of the galaxy by using hyperdrive and go places instantaneously--or as good as if your hyperdrive computer hasn't been deactivated.

The movies are also populated with aliens of every shape and color. Not only have they conquered technology, but they don't seem to have a race problem. Nobody is really putting down the blue people for instance or picking on someone because they have six legs or no legs if you're a Hutt. It's an equal opportunity universe where plenty of prejudices still exist and even a smattering of slavery. I find it rather humanizing that unlike Star Trek the world here isn't perfect. There are still bad parts and nasty people. Bribery and smuggling still exist. Greed and lust for power are motivations. Money passes hands. People are still imperfect. (Compared to say Star Trek where everyone works hard because they want to? or for the good of society? I was never sure, but they don't seem worried about paychecks.)

And can we have a little aside about Princess Leia. A princess who is kickass with a blaster. A no-nonsense girl who favors serious subjects. She's in the heart of every battle, withstanding torture and riding speeders with the best of them. But she can still look like a woman as she swings across a chasm. There's a role model! 

So in Star Wars the inventive and imaginative settings and use of science and technology make it obvious this is science fiction. Until we come down to the heart of the plot and the Force.

The real center of the movies is a duel between two sides of the Force--the Sith and the Jedi.

As Han Solo calls it, the Force is a hokey religion that makes use of ancient weapons. It's a power no one can see that allows certain people to manipulate it and have lightening fast reflexes, jump incredible distances, and sense things before they happen. Not to mention change the minds of the weak. In other words, it's magic.

Oh, the later movies tried to classify it as science, talking about the Midichlorian levels and microscopic beings who live in our cells for our mutual benefit. The Force pervades all life. The Midichlorians continually speak to us of the Force. It's still your dressed-up magic system however you rationalize it.

  



However you want to explain it, try and write a query letter about the heart of the plot of Star Wars and you have to include the Force. And what is the Force but a key aspect of the fantasy genre.

What does the story really come down to. A spunky princess, a roguish smuggler, a hero-to-be fighting the evil dictator. It has themes of honor and valor like most fantasy. It speaks to redemption. All typical themes of fantasy.

Star Wars is mix of science fiction and fantasy. A common problem that faces many writers when they try to classify their work. It's a blending of the two--a hybrid! And like any good hybrid it takes the best of both worlds and brings them together to make something greater! 

So take heart everyone who has trouble classifying their manuscript. If your story has a little bit of this genre and some of that genre, you just might become the most popular story of all time! 

Finding Your Genre

Here is a list of Sci-fi/Fantasy subgenres thanks to Joyce Alton who introduced me to Chuck Sambuchino's the 2009 Guide to Literary Agents: 

Alternate History: speculative fiction that changes the accepted account of actual historical events, often featuring a profound "what if?" premise. 

Arthurian Fantasy: reworkings of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the round Table. 

Bangsian Fantasy: stories speculating on the afterlives of famous people. 

Biopunk: a blend of film noir, Japanese anime and post-modern elements used to describe an underground, nihilistic biotech society. 

Children's Fantasy: a kinder, gentler style of fantasy aimed at very young readers. 

Comic: fantasy or science fiction that spoofs the conventions of the genre, or the conventions of society. 

Cyberpunk: stories featuring tough outsiders in a high-tech near future where computers have produced major changes in society. It typically has countercultural antiheroes who find themselves trapped in a dehumanized future. 

Dark Fantasy: tales that focus on the nightmarish underbelly of magic, venturing into the violence of horror novels. 

Dystopian: stories that portray a bleak future world. Stories where the apocalypse occurs, whether in the form of a nuclear bomb, asteroids, disease, or even a political regime, fit this genre. 

Erotic: SF or fantasy tales that focus on sexuality. 

Game-Related Fantasy: tales with plots and characters similar to high fantasy, but based on a specific role-playing game like Dungeons and Dragons. 

Hard Science Fiction: tales in which real present-day science is logically extrapolated to the future. 

Heroic Fantasy: stories of war and its heroes, the fantasy equivalent of military science fiction. 

High/Epic Fantasy: tales with an emphasis on the fate of an entire race or nation, often featuring a young "nobody" hero battling an ultimate evil. 

Historical: speculative fiction taking place in a recognizable historical period. 

Mundane SF: a movement that spurns fanciful conceits like warp drives, wormholes and faster-than-light travel for stories based on scientific knowledge as it actually exists. 

Military SF: war stories that extrapolate existing military technology and tactics into the future. 

Mystery SF: a cross-genre blend that can be either an SF tale with a central mystery or a classic whodunit with SF elements. 

Mythic Fiction: stories inspired, or modeled on, classic myths, legends and fairy tales. 

New Age: a category of speculative fiction that deals with occult subjects such as astrology, psychic phenomena, spiritual healing, UFOs and mysticism. 

Post-Apocalyptic: stories of life on Earth after an apocalypse, focusing on the struggle to survive. 

Romance: speculative fiction in which romance plays a key part. 

Religious: centering on theological ideas, and heroes who are ruled by their religious beliefs. 

Science Fantasy: a blend in which fantasy is supported by scientifc or pseudo-scientific explanations. 

Social SF: tales that focus on how characters react to their environments--including social satire. 

Soft SF: tales based on the more subjective, "softer" science; psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. 

Space Opera: a traditional good guys/bad guys faceoff with lots of action and larger-than-life characters. 

Spy-Fi: tales of espionage with SF elements, especially the use of high-tech gadgetry. 

Steampunk: a specific type of alternate history in which characters in Victorian England have access to 20th century technology. 

Superheroes: stories featuring characters endowed with superhuman strengths or abilities. 

Sword and Sorcery: a classic genre often set in the medieval period, and more concerned with immediate physical threats than high or heroic fantasy. 

Thriller SF: an SF story that takes on the classic world-at-risk, cliffhanger elements of a thriller. 

Time-Travel: stories based ont he concept of moving forward or backward in time, often delving into the existence of parallel worlds. 

Urban Fantasy: a fantasy tale in which magical powers and characters appear in an otherwise normal modern context, similar to Latin American magical realism. 

Vampire: variations on the classic vampire legend, recently taking on many sexual and romantic variations. 

Wuxia: fantasy tales set within the martial arts traditions and philosophies of China. 

Young Adult: speculative fiction aimed at a teenage audience, often featuring a hero the same age or slightly older than the reader. 

And because some people crossover into the Horror/Paranormal genre: 
Horror Subgenres: 

Child in Peril: involving the abduction and/or persecution of a child. 

Comic Horror: horror stories that either spoof horror conventions or mix the gore with dark humor. 

Creepy Kids: horror tale in which children--often under the influence of dark forces--begin to turn against the adults. 

Dark Fantasy: a horror story with supernatural and fantasy elements. 

Dark Mystery/Noir: inspired by hardboiled detective tales, set in an urban underworld of crime and moral ambiguity. 

Erotic Vampire: a horror tale making the newly trendy link between sexuality and vampires, but with more emphasis on graphic description and violence. 

Fabulist: derived from "fable," an ancient tradition in which objects, animals or forces of nature are anthropomorphized in order to deliver a moral lesson. 

Gothic: a traditional form depicting the encroachment of the Middle Ages upon the 18th century Enlightenment, filled with images of decay and ruin, and episodes of imprisonment and persecution. 

Hauntings: a classic form centering on possession by ghosts, demons or poltergeists, particularly of some sort of structure. 

Historical: horror tales set in a specific and recognizable period of history. 

Magical Realism: a genre inspired by Latin-American authors, in which extraordinary forces or creatures pop into otherwise normal, real-life settings. 

Psychological: a story based on the disturbed human psyche, often exploring insane, altered realities and featuring a human monster with horrific, but not supernatural, aspects. 

Quiet Horror: subtly written horror that uses atmosphere and mood, rather than graphic description, to create fear and suspense. 

Religious: horror that makes use of religious icons and mythology, especially the angels and demons derived from Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. 

Science-Fiction Horror: SF with a darker, more violent twist, often revolving around alien invasions, mad scientists, or experiments gone wrong. 

Splatter/Splatterpunk: an extreme style of horror that cuts right to the gore. This subgenre, which first appeared in the '80s, lives up to its name--explicit, gruesome violence. 

Technology: stories featuring technology that has run amok, venturing increasingly into the expanding domain of computers, cyberspace, and genetic engineering. 

Weird Tales: inspired by the magazine of the same name, a more traditional form featuring strange and uncanny events (Twilight Zone). 

Young Adult: horror aimes at a teen market, often with heroes the same age, or slightly older than, the reader. 

Zombie: tales featuring dead people who return to commit mayhem on the living. 


As you can see, the choices are staggering. What that list can show you better than I can put into words is how hard it can be to nail down your subgenre. There are just so many possibilities. And this list only covers the fantasy/science fiction side of things.

Obviously it's much easier to just say fantasy or science fiction in your query letter and leave it at that. But so many stories are a little bit of this and a little bit of that when it comes to genre. A little romance, a little scariness, a little action thrills. A little contemporary mixed with a little of the weird. And suddenly your head is spinning. What genre do I pick?

So a couple of points: First off, other writers can give you pointers. I've learned this writing community is a wonderful place. Trust in friends and friends will help you out every time. Describe your stories to other writers and they can at least get you a consensus.

Next, YA, Adult, MG, and PB are not genres. They are age categories. When someone wants to know your genre for a contest or a query letter, saying YA doesn't answer the question. It's YA paired with Thriller or Horror or Historical Fiction, or whatever your genre may be. MG Adventure, Adult Science Fiction, YA Mystery are examples of the full and complete answers you need to give.

And last, it's not the end of the world if you get the genre wrong. Do the best you can to define the genre of your story, but the agent is the expert. When you sign with them, they can guide you on where your story fits.

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Here's a more complete list of subgenres from Writer's Digest. And another list to muddy the waters from Cuebon.