Thursday, April 9, 2015

Name That Genre #26

TITLE: MG
GENRE: Secret

Denny ran out of the trees and into the front yard as rivulets of water streamed down his face. The wind pounded rain into him as he squished across the grass. It was an unusual storm for the Puget Sound, more like what you'd see around Thanksgiving, not like what you see in April. As he ran, Denny looked towards the old gothic mansion, it looked like something out of a horror movie. It was out of place in the twenty first century, even in a back woods place like Manchester, Washington.

Denny burst through the heavy oak door and stepped into the house and dripped onto the slate floor of the entryway. He pulled his wet coat off and hung it on the pike held by the suit of armor that guarded the door. He removed his squishy shoes and socks and set them next to the heat register to dry.

30 comments:

  1. Mystery

    Hmmm, not a lot of clues here, but spooky old house usually is a good set up for a mystery.

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  2. Supernatural

    The old gothic mansion makes me think 'ghosts'.

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  3. Paranormal
    I was torn on this. It could easily be mystery -- with the spooky gothic mansion and the suit of armor -- but the use of 'something out of a horror movie' made me think there might be ghosts in this tale.

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  4. Paranormal.

    The out-of-place Gothic mansion, suit of armor, and horror movie reference swayed this over from mystery.

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  5. Supernatural.

    I'm with 1000th monkey, though its possible this is contemporary and I'm reading too much into the spooky mansion.

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  6. My guess would be mystery because of the gothic mansion.

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  7. Mystery/Horror
    A spooky old mansion sounds like a ghost story or murder mystery.

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  8. Paranormal

    The spooky old mansion. Could be magical realism

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  9. Mystery
    Rain, an old mansion that's described as looking like it came from a horror movie, and the feeling that things aren't as they usually are.

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  10. Mystery
    Rain, an old mansion that's described as looking like it came from a horror movie, and the feeling that things aren't as they usually are.

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  11. Mystery

    This one's tough as there are no strong elements of any one genre. It could easily be mystery, horror, paranormal, or even contemporary but probably not. What makes me side against contemporary is that you're building a dark atmosphere.

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  12. I don't know! For some reason I feel like the mansion and armor are a big fake-out intending to get the reader thinking of horror or mystery. The setting is contemporary, and that's all I've got so far.

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  13. I don't know! For some reason I feel like the mansion and armor are a big fake-out intending to get the reader thinking of horror or mystery. The setting is contemporary, and that's all I've got so far.

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  14. I can't tell

    Aside from the 'it looked like a horror movie' there's not much for me to go on, and I felt that saying it was horror/mystery was too obvious.

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  15. Mystery
    The big creepy mansion, the suit of armor, the horrible weather...

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  16. I can't tell. This, of course, doesn't mean It is an interesting beginning, but the reader may have to wait until further into the story to see where it fits genre-wise.

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  17. I can't tell. This, of course, doesn't mean It is an interesting beginning, but the reader may have to wait until further into the story to see where it fits genre-wise.

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  18. Contemporary Mystery

    Or maybe horror. There's a gothic mansion and a rainstorm, but hanging his coat on the suit of armor pike makes the tone feel too light to be horror. Then again, Goosebumps...

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  19. GOTHIC.

    Castle, mystery, mansion out of an horror movie, maybe a ghost will appear.

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  20. Contemporary
    "Twenty-first century" specifies the time frame in spite of the Gothic manse and its accoutrements. Perhaps he just lives there. or his grandparents do.Too soon to tell about any sub-genre.

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  21. Gothic horror

    I feel a ghost might appear soon. The description of the mansion, the rain and the horror movie reference make me think this is a gothic horror.

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  22. Horror.

    Not many clues, but based on the read I'd have to say Horror because of the storm and spooky old Gothic mansion. Maybe the house is haunted, but if it turns out there's vampires involved, well, then it would be a fantasy.

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  23. Contemporary Mystery or Adventure or Ghost Story.

    Gothic-like mansion; suit of armor; storm.

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  24. Contemporary Magic. Contemporary because we know it's 21st century, and I feel like with the old house, strange weather and suit of armor, there will be something magical happening soon.

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  25. Tough one to guess.
    I'd say either Mystery or Thriller -- because of the mood you're setting up with the rain and darkness.
    This may be an early draft in which case I know you're already on it, but the first paragraphs are repetitive. "ran", "see", "it" -- I think you can smooth that out a lot. Also - careful of lists of actions - they can get clunky.

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  26. I can't exactly tell for all the reasons others have said, especially Almitra, but I'm going with Fantasy.

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  27. Contemporary. Twenty-first century.

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  28. going to go with . . . Paranormal

    Could go so many ways - quite interesting so far

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