What is it? I don't know
I had to think about my stories in a meta way a bit when I started publishing them. I had to choose genres and tags, write a description.
And it’s hard for me. I feel like I am bad at it. It’s funny to me because I like analysing and interpretating art from other people, like music, books, paintings. I can say so much about these things normally, I have opinions. In school I liked doing it, too (interpreting books for example). I was quite good at it.
But about my own stuff… I just stare at the words I have written and am clueless.
Is it romance? Not quite... drama? Low-drama? ROM-COM?? No. Slow-burn? Just a “fiction novel”? A cozy drama maybe? Wholesome? Is it, though?? An easy read? But is it?? (Maybe I should just put these questions into the description...)
Maybe it has something to do with my writing style/habit. I don’t construct a theme (with purpose). I don’t have a message nor moral. I just tell a story. It’s up to the (rare) readers to make something out of it.
I focus on crafting the characters congruently regarding their individual traits and behaviors, finding a feeling for them, shaping them. And then I imagine what everybody would want, do and think etc., putting it somehow together and bending the plot where I want it to go, gently.
Maybe with experience I will get better in analysing my stories, or maybe I need some distance (= time)? Or maybe I should find test readers to help me with these things. Maybe I am too close to my stories to see them for what they are.