Genre! genre! Genre!
Why is Genre my first Pathway in Revisions?
The Reader
I read many, many books, and many of them have stuck with me for years after I’ve finished them. One in particular I remember; it was a steamy romance with a bit of an amnesia trope that roped me in. But why I remember it is because when I got to the end, it was all in her mind. She was in a psyche ward and the entire book was made up. She didn’t get her HEA. And if it wasn’t on my phone, I would have thrown that book into the wall.
I can’t even say that the endings are my favorite parts of romances, and I have devoured books with pretty simple HEAs that wrap it up in a page, but the fact that the love story wasn’t real to this woman, well, I felt cheated.
It was wrong. All wrong.
Now, if I was in the mood for a suspense novel, it might have worked. It might even have been brilliant. But this felt cheap. The writer even said in her afterwards, that she thought of it half way through writing the book.
Sigh…
But you get my point. I, the reader, was mad. Disappointed. Furious. I felt like I wasted my time with something I didn’t sign up for.
I do think that it is important that you write YOUR book, but it is also important to think about your reader and the experience they are EXPECTING when they pick up your book.
How do you know what the reader expects? Read! Read lots of books in your genre. And not just today's books. Read what was hot ten years ago. Read the writers that are just coming into their writing journey, and those that have it down. (And if you work with me, I’ll have you watch something in your genre too so we can use it as a shared example for us to talk about).
Then write down the scenes that you loved, that are shared across your genre.
2. Obligatory Scenes
Every genre has a list of the Obligatory Scenes that a reader is wanting in your story. But don’t think of these as cliches or unoriginal thinking. It is part of structure and how you get your Protagonist from A to B.
Lets take Romance for a second. There are many Obligatory Scenes, but simply put, you have:
The Meet Cute - Sets up your Protagonist and Co-Protagonist.
The First Kiss / Hook Up - Establishes that they have sexual chemistry.
The Sacrifice - The turning point where your Protagonist says, I will leave my old life to have a life with you.
The HEA - Well, they better get together in the end! Even if its a Happily Ever After for now. The journey has to show that they’ve changed.
And now that we have the ending, the Happily Ever After, we for sure know that it was a romance you just read. And that is because this story was about personal growth, about finding the person who will help you heal your wound so you can live a more fulfilling life.
3. The Ending
How your book ends is a good exploration into what genre you are writing.
And if you have multiple genres within your book (which most do) you will have to make sure that you have wrapped up and ended each of those threads.
In Crime and Mysteries, the crime must be solved and justice should be served (yes, there are always negative arcs where the positive change does not occur - which could be called the genre: Tragedy). In Romance, there has to be an HEA; in Thrillers, the Protagonist stops the bad guy or bad situation.
Working out the ending, for both internal and external genres, will help you figure out where the story must start. They are bookends.
4. Stakes
The ending also helps you figure out what is at stake throughout your story. What would make it a Tragedy? What does your Protagonist have to lose?
In Romance, the stakes are internal. If your Protagonist doesn’t change their ways, change their beliefs about themselves or the world, they will lose the possibility to live a fulfilled life with their Co-Protagonist. (Internal stakes are always harder to nail down…)
If it is an Action-Romance story, then there is also some life or death stakes in play. Someone is threatening your Protagonist’s life.
So if you know that the stakes are: risk of losing out on love and risk of their lives, you have to make sure these stakes are present throughout your book.
5. What is your Story Question?
And how do all these things come together for you and the reader? They set up a Story Question that drives your narrative.
Will they or wont they get together? (Romance)
Will they escape? (Thriller / Action)
Will they discover who the bad guy is? (Mystery / Crime)
6. Mood / World Building
And now that you know your genre, you can really take in the Mood that your writing creates and how your World Building either has influenced your genre or can be developed to fit your genre.
Horror - Locked house situation, creepy feels all over.
vs.
Romance - Small town romance, fantasy romance, billionaire romance, gothic romance
You can see how each of these listed has it’s own feel to it. How each genre has its own box that you can work within.
Doesn’t this make my writing unoriginal?
Sure, you can think that. Only because EVERY writer thinks that at some point while they’re writing. And I do believe that every idea is grown from another idea that is already out there.
But what it can do is give you the road, the pathway to keep writing and finish your draft. It can give your story depth and it can give your story a feeling of completion.
Whether you are are stuck in the middle of drafting, or feeling like there is something missing in your story, looking at the big picture of Genre will help you get back on the road to the finish line.