Past vs. Present

[dawnmipb]

I've been thinking about writing a story set in the 80s. The problem is that it would be a genre story. In my experience, there is not a lot of use in the marketplace for genre set in previous decades. In general, especially in books, we tend to accept only literary fiction set in the past. Stephen King is a partial exception, but he only sets

Comments

[aardy]

I think you're right, by and large, but it's probably because the nostalgia or historical interest required to make a past setting attractive to readers doesn't kick in until a few decades have passed. (Probably related to the Rule of Twelve.) It's like the horror-show that are "decade retrospective" tv shows about the current or just-ended decade; memories are too fresh for the fuzzing or omission of details that's required for historical settings to work. That said...

Historical mysteries are a genre staple. (Pick just about any period and there's probably a well-known mystery series set there.) Even recent decades do get used, though not as frequently, a la the "Life on Mars" and "Ashes to Ashes" BBC tv shows.

Historical adventure/spy novels are also fairly common, due to needing a [World] war or Cold War setting.

"Year One" stories going back a decade or two and telling the background of or filling in the gaps for established characters are a genre staple with superhero stories.

Most fantasy & science fiction either aren't set in modern times or aren't set on Earth as we know it, so it's not all that fair to argue that there's a dearth of SF/F stories written in the 90's/00's/10's set in the 60'/70's/80's.

Also, anything that's explicitly set in the present (such as much urban fantasy & paranormal fiction) very, very quickly becomes set in the past as time marches on... And if a series is popular, readers who've just gotten hooked will then seek out the earlier volumes and read (and enjoy) stories set in the recent-decades past--it's just harder to hook people when you start a story that way. The "Year One" approach seems to work well... even/especially if you write the past-set stories first and simply hold them back until you've finished & released present-set story with one or more of the same characters.

[dawnmipb]

I think you and Jenn and pepperjackcandy are right--I should just do it and worry about it later. If it works as a "previous" piece in the series, then great. If it doesn't work at all, at least I'll know.