What's genre got to do with it?

Number of entries received for the 2007 InnermoonLit Award for Best Short-Short Story to date: 56

We get entries from every conceivable genre, especially when it’s Best First Chapter submission time. Sometimes people inquire whether we accept a certain genre (usually children’s or YA). We tell them we’re open to anything.

You may wonder, though, how it’s possible to compare writing across the genres, and whether we favor certain types of stories. Brian and I are both eclectic readers who appreciate a wide range of writing styles.

I will admit we each have one specific genre we aren’t wild about as a general rule, but there are exceptions, and we both enjoy high quality writing, even when it’s in a genre we don’t usually care for. Plus, Brian is a fan of my least-favorite genre and vice versa, so again it evens out, and we try very hard to be fair.

We use the same scorecard regardless of genre, because different types of fiction share some common denominators—theme, plot, characterization, protagonist, dialogue, presentation. We take into account what is appropriate for the genre the author is working under. For example, a literary piece in which very little happens doesn’t necessarily get marked down on plot, whereas an action-less murder mystery does. The finalists are entries that display excellence in whatever genre we think the author is aiming for.