3 Tips for Infusing Historical Fiction With Other Genres

In today’s online literary world of Amazon and Google, a book can easily be categorized in more than one genre and plucked from the masses by an imperturbable search engine. But the most important aspect of categorizing your work remains in the author’s hands: setting a reader’s expectations for the experience of reading your book. While blending genres may be fun for authors, it can be off-putting and alienating for readers if authors have not done their job well.

(7 Things I Learned While Writing Across Genres.)

Genre is the general category that a book falls into based on its form, style, or subject matter. Locating your book within a certain genre tells readers what to expect from the content and places your book alongside similar works so readers can find it. A few decades ago, in the now barely imaginable pre-internet days, the business of buying a book was done mainly by going into a bookstore. The whole layout of the store was based on genre—fiction or nonfiction, with separate areas for historical, literary, sci-fi, horror, mystery, romance, cooking, science, travel, and so on. When borrowing a book from the public library, readers had to navigate another categorization system, with a friendly librarian there to help.

In those days, a book that did not fit neatly into a category was problematic. A book was not going to be placed in more than one section, and there was no section for mixed-genre work, so publishers were unsure how to market it. An author was taking a risk by stepping outside the bounds of a given genre, though it was not unheard of. One notable exception published in the pre-internet days was Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, an unlikely blend of historical fiction, romance, and time-travel fantasy. While readers and booksellers argued about which genre the series belongs in, librarians simply shelved it in Adult Fiction.

When I found myself mixing genres while writing my Jubilee Walker series, I took care to do it in a manner that would add to my readers’ experience, not detracted from it. Here, I offer a few tips to consider if you are mixing genres in your own book.

1) Be sure it’s necessary.

If you can tell a compelling story and remain within the bounds and expectations of a specific genre, then do so. Adding a dash of murder mystery to your historical fiction or spicing it up with magical realism is not going to make the overall experience better unless those tropes contribute in a direct and meaningful way to the story. 

When I began The Powell Expeditions, the first book in my Jubilee Walker series, I set out to write an adventure novel that takes place in a specific historical setting. But as I got to know my protagonist better, I naturally found myself also writing a coming-of-age story that contained elements of romance. I found that I needed the elements of the supporting genres to develop the plot and character arcs and to add dramatic tension.

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2) Identify your core genre.

This is arguably the most important aspect of any mixed-genre book: It still must remain largely one thing or the other, or you risk alienating your readers. In my case, I needed elements of bildungsroman to show my protagonist, Jubil, maturing and facing major life decisions. This genre-specific character arc gives the novel an overall shape. I also wanted the story, in spite of the high-stakes challenges Jubil faces, to have a sense of romantic love and a happy ending, elements found in romance novels. The realistic portrayal of events from a past era delivers well-researched historical fiction.

But ultimately, the core genre of The Powell Expeditions is adventure fiction. What makes the book fun to read is the danger and excitement of accompanying Jubil on his adventures and learning about compelling historical events in the process. The cover art of The Powell Expeditions reflects these tropes through an image of boats riding white-water rapids. When a prospective reader sees this cover and reads the description of the story, they will have clear expectations before even opening the book. And if readers are enjoying the high adventure the book promised, but they keep running into long interludes of bildungsroman, romantic drama, or historical background, they may give up on the book.

Difficulty categorizing mixed-genre fiction almost prevented Diana Gabaldon from ever seeing her novels published. What were they? Historical fiction? Romance? Fantasy? If readers were drawn to the fantasy of time travel, would they stick around through Claire’s romantic involvement with Jamie? If they were interested in a historical fiction period piece about Scotland, would they tolerate the witchy standing stones that act as a portal through time? If Gabaldon had disagreed with her publisher’s decision to market the books as romance novels, they might never have found their way into the marketplace. The books deliver on that promise, yet they also deliver enough of the supporting genre elements to make the series stand out as original within the romance genre. In fact, the real draw of the series is, arguably, this mix of ingredients. The rich historical details and the unexpected use of fantasy make the series more than just another love story.

Keeping your focus on one primary genre not only helps meet readers’ expectations, it helps you find your target audience. Misleading readers into thinking they are getting one thing and then delivering too much of something else is not a satisfying experience for either author or reader, and will not help you build your fan base.

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3) Follow expectations for each genre.

If you decide to use elements of more than one genre in your writing, it is important to understand and follow the rules for whatever genres you choose. If romance adds an important subplot to your historical adventure, then the romantic relationship needs to resolve in some satisfying way—ending either with a ‘happily ever after,’ or a ‘happy for now.’ If you’re adding elements of mystery to your story, then the outcome cannot be obvious from the outset or resolved by some previously unmentioned fact or event. Once again, we are toying with readers’ expectations, and defying them for no good reason is going to push readers away rather than draw them in.

Blending multiple genres in your writing can create a uniquely appealing story, as long as you make sure your story needs those mixed elements, keep one genre to the forefront for the sake of your target audience, and follow the expectations of any genres you use. There is more freedom today to mix genres than ever before. Readers are more open to—and they even expect—variety in their fiction, and the tools exist to market and locate a single book in multiple ways. You can get away with anything imaginable these days, if you do it with forethought and skill.