Writing with Anjali: On Genre: Set in Stone?

There is no such thing as original work, someone said to me, once. As someone who lives on Archive of Our Own, I can stand by that statement…to an extent. There is such a thing as original work, and most of the time, even the most unique work has something that has been done by someone else before.

But the statement my friend made was with regards to genre work.

What is genre work, you ask?

Genre is to writing what niche is to blogging. It is the “type” of story you are writing. Fantasy, science-fiction, detective, and so on are all genres. And each genre has its own rules and tropes.

For example, most romances are often categorized by a similar conflict- whether the lovers will make it to the end and be together when the story closes. In fantasy stories, we often have a world that requires us to suspend disbelief and accept its own rules which might breaks natural laws in ours. In science fiction, we stretch those rules, instead of breaking or disregarding them.

Long story short, works set in the same genres have particular settings where the stories take place, the stories tend to follow mostly similar structures, and often have the same type of conflict.

Yet, like all rules, there are exceptions to this. And a good writer knows how to use these to their advantage.

Now there is no shame in writing genre work, despite what many might say. I would go so far as to say the structure is particular good for beginner writers as it helps them fine tune other aspects of their craft. Plus, readers tend to enjoy the familiarity of knowing how a story is likely to end. It’s truly the journey in these cases. And this journey is where you have the chance to make something unique.

Or you can bend genre conventions to a form that hasn’t been done before or entirely disregard them. It’s your story after all.

So let us look at a few works that do these things.

The Journey

The Mortal Instruments and the Camp Half Blood Chronicle.

Both works are urban fantasy works.

They are set in relatively modern-day cities with a bunch of teenagers who have special powers that are associated with religion to an extent. These children’s “magical” life is hidden or has to be hidden from “regular” folk.

A big bad comes in.

Someone special alone can defeat this big bad. And that someone is usually our protagonist. They defeat the evil and the world returns to its status quo, with some changes to the internal hierarchy of the societies involved.

But would you say they are the same books?

The characters are different, and while there are these same plot beats, the subplots are different. Both Clary and Percy are motivated by a need to save their mothers, Jocelyn and Sally, respectively, but the journey to that saving is wildly unique in each of their cases.

Yes, both have to adjust to the “new” magical world, their worlds are different despite being set in the same city. Percy’s world is filled with Greek Gods and the assorted monsters whom he has to fight. Clary’s world is filled with angels, warlocks, vampires, and more, all of whom she has to decide whether to befriend or be wary of.

These subtle differences make these two series so different that you would rarely mistake one for the other.

Or for Harry Potter, which too has some tropes of urban fantasy.

Or for Narnia, which is portal fantasy.

However, making different choices in similar settings is not the only way to make your story unique. Let us look at some more ideas, shall we?

Bending Genre Conventions

You can bend the rules, once you know the rules, is particularly good advice for many, especially genre writers. And the work I would like to look at to explain my point is the Superhero genre, specifically the Superhero Iron Man. Now while in today’s age, superheroes are not always motivated by goodness of the heart, there was a time when we can argue superheroes being inherently good people was a genre convention.

And in my opinion, that is what made heroes like Iron Man, and anti-heroes like Deadpool, interesting. We got tired of the run-off-the-mill good guy who were either never tempted to the dark side or if they were, they overcame it, making the good sacrifice. They were truly heroes. Their stories might have started in tragedy but they never intentionally hurt anyone.

And then there’s Tony Stark. A womanizer or as he likes to say “playboy.” Sarcastic, apathetic to an extent, and an irresponsible ass. Not to mention, that his billions came from war profiteering.

So, naturally we were interested in him. Yes, he eventually became a hero motivated by the need to save the world- but he retained the struggle we all face. Of being tempted by the dark and almost giving in. He was realistic and different. He was still rude and prone to mistakes, and full of flaws that could not be called noble and in many cases, his flaws were not minor. He was still motivated by his selfishness, his vices, and even his trauma. The fact that he wasn’t the conventional hero motivated solely by good whom no trauma can stop from saving the world, but someone who had to actively choose that, made him special.

And that is how you bend genre rules to keep things fresh.

And build a cinematic empire.

Other stories that challenge genre conventions by looking at the same tales from a different perspective are works like Invincible and The Boys.

Disregarding Genre Conventions

And if we are talking about bending the rules, why not make like Doctor Who and Marvel and mix and match conventions to a point of breaking them? Interested? Well here’s more.

MCU’s genre is Superhero stories but they often venture into other genres too like Spy thrillers and Coming of Age stories like Winter Solider and SpiderMan: Homecoming respectively.

This allows them to tell fresh stories with the same set of characters that people have grown to love.

In my opinion, Star Wars breaks genre conventions too, if we look at the prequels and not consider that they had to be made to set up the previously released Original Trilogy. The Chosen One falling to the Dark Side and becoming the main villain is very different from the pure of heart Harry Potter narrative that fantasy stories with the Chosen One trope seem to take. Add to that the fact that Anakin Skywalker’s reasons can be seen as many as being a result or at least partially driven by a failure of the system that he was supposed to protect as the Chosen One just make this narrative even more delicious.

Basically- genres are important as they help us categorize stories. But they are not absolute, no sir. They are more like a set of guidelines which give you a sandbox to play in. For example, Doctor Who which is primarily science-fiction borrows heavily from tropes of detective fiction. As does Gossip Girl which is a Young Adult show. You can mix-and match them or break some rules and honour the others, or bend the rules a little to make something unique. And if none of them suits your fantasy, you can tell a story that follows your genre beat for beat but has characters, settings, and a journey so different that none can help but name it unique.

As always, let me know what you think of the piece in the comments and feel free to argue these points.

Editor- Anuraag Chatterjee

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