Author Topic: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres  (Read 2413 times)

Tom Wood

Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« on: February 25, 2019, 07:53:18 AM »
Although this article is about movies and screenplays, I think it has some ideas that can be applied to books as well.

https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/9773-5-ways-to-reinvent-genres-in-your-screenplays/

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1. Create Genre Hybrids and Crossovers

Alien is a conventional monster horror film wrapped up in science fiction — the perfect hybrid.

...

 
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Bill Hiatt

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Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2019, 01:54:33 AM »
I'm one who likes to work across genre boundaries. Unfortunately, readers who want books that fit into particular pigeon holes aren't always happy with that. Promoters also tend to want to advertise books by one singular genre and don't seem to leave room for labeling hybrids in a sufficiently descriptive way.


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bardsandsages

Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2019, 02:01:28 AM »
I think it is a matter of huge hubris to think one should "reinvent" a genre. I don't understand this obsession with "changing" genres. Genres exist for a reason. They are a form of shorthand that helps readers/movie goers identify the key themes and expectations of the story.

Alien is a classic sci-fi film because it asks the quintessential question of all great sci-fi: What if? It takes a rational approach to the science. Sci-fi isn't necessarily scientifically accurate per se (though hard sci-fi will certainly strive to be as accurate as possible). But it does approach science rationally and ask "what if": in this case: what happens when we finally do figure out space travel and come across lifeforms that may not actually be friendly, and how woefully unprepared we are.

Yes, it is scary. Good sci-fi often is (for different reasons). But the presence of scary elements no more makes a film "horror" than the presence of a romantic relationship between two characters in a film makes it a romance.

This obsession in certain circles to make every...single..book a "hybrid" is one of the reasons why you can't find good genre fiction with a search on Amazon. Because everyone claims they are writing sci-fi/fantasy/horror/mystery/romance crossovers and put their work in ALL those categories.

Sorry, I get twitchy on conversations about genre. I'll get off my soapbox now.
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Tom Wood

Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2019, 03:10:29 AM »
I don't think the point of the article is about creating mashup hybrid genres. I think it's more about adapting the tropes of one genre to another. Alien is a 'monster in the house' horror trope that was adapted to science fiction. That's not the same thing as a mashup hybrid.

The movie Outland was reportedly pitched as High Noon in outer space. It has the same trope - the one good man on the frontier who is forced into standing up to evil people while being abandoned by those he is there to protect.

Wasn't Battlestar Galactica pitched as Wagon Train through the stars?

It's a reinvention of an existing genre by importing a trope(s) from another, not by mashing the genres together.

That was my takeaway from the article.
 

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Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2019, 03:24:19 AM »
I think it is a matter of huge hubris to think one should "reinvent" a genre. I don't understand this obsession with "changing" genres. Genres exist for a reason. They are a form of shorthand that helps readers/movie goers identify the key themes and expectations of the story.

Alien is a classic sci-fi film because it asks the quintessential question of all great sci-fi: What if? It takes a rational approach to the science. Sci-fi isn't necessarily scientifically accurate per se (though hard sci-fi will certainly strive to be as accurate as possible). But it does approach science rationally and ask "what if": in this case: what happens when we finally do figure out space travel and come across lifeforms that may not actually be friendly, and how woefully unprepared we are.

Yes, it is scary. Good sci-fi often is (for different reasons). But the presence of scary elements no more makes a film "horror" than the presence of a romantic relationship between two characters in a film makes it a romance.

This obsession in certain circles to make every...single..book a "hybrid" is one of the reasons why you can't find good genre fiction with a search on Amazon. Because everyone claims they are writing sci-fi/fantasy/horror/mystery/romance crossovers and put their work in ALL those categories.

Sorry, I get twitchy on conversations about genre. I'll get off my soapbox now.
The tendency to label a book with every possible genre label is indeed unfortunate, and yes, genre labels can be useful to readers. However, there are occasionally true hybrids, or at least books that contain such large elements of two different genres that they are on the borderline somewhere.

We do allow for that a little. Put comedy and romance together, and you have romantic comedy.

Horror is a special case in that it can appear in many different guises. One of its purposes is always to provoke fear, but the way in which it provokes fear can be suggestive of other genres. Fear of vampires or other mythological creatures connects it to fantasy. Fear of aliens connects it to science fiction. Fear of serial killers connects it to mystery or thriller genres.

Sometimes stories can work successfully with combinations of different genre elements. For example, American Horror Story is always horror, but it evokes fear in a wide range of ways. The season set in the insane asylum, for example, used a weird mix of demonic possession, alien interventions, escaped Nazi scientists, and serial killers. That sounds like a mess, but the writers got it to work. Each season also ends with a bizarre happy ending that is unusual in the horror genre.

I suddenly realized I was rambling. I guess my primary point is that I agree with you in general, but I think there is some risk of genre labeling becoming straightjacketing to writers. Sometimes, it's the people who break the rules that push us forward.

(And, for the record, I like it when you get on your soap box!) :clap:


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bardsandsages

Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2019, 05:08:54 AM »
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Horror is a special case in that it can appear in many different guises. One of its purposes is always to provoke fear, but the way in which it provokes fear can be suggestive of other genres. Fear of vampires or other mythological creatures connects it to fantasy. Fear of aliens connects it to science fiction. Fear of serial killers connects it to mystery or thriller genres.

But that is the point, too often people confuse "nouns" with "genre. Vampire doesn't equal connection to fantasy. It doesn't even automatically mean horror. The vampire mythos doesn't actually "belong" to a specific genre. It is how you employ the creature that matters. I, Strahd is a dark fantasy not because it is about a vampire, but because it is in a fantasy setting and employs all the tropes of a fantasy. I Am legend, on the other hand, is science fiction because despite the fact that it includes "vampires" because it is examining "what if" scenarios about pandemics and how humans respond to them.

Jaws is a "classic" horror movie. Deep Blue Sea is Science Fiction. Both use sharks as the catalyst for the plot. But one is a "traditional" monster movie and the other is a "this is what happens when mankind plays god with animals" sci-fi.

And this is where people get messed up when they talk about writing "hybrid" books. 99% of the time when I see someone talking about their "hybrid" book, it is painfully obvious that the book is actually firmly in one genre. But the person doesn't actually understand the nuances of the other genres they are claiming to be a part of.

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I suddenly realized I was rambling. I guess my primary point is that I agree with you in general, but I think there is some risk of genre labeling becoming straightjacketing to writers. Sometimes, it's the people who break the rules that push us forward.

I think that if an author has a decent level of literary literacy regarding the genres they want to write in, there is no "risk" of straight jacketing." If you actually understand the nuances of the genre, then you understand the tools it provides and use those tools to maximize your story. The real issue that I think straighjackets writers is trying to appeal to everyone (which is where I believe this crossover stuff really comes from). People don't want to be seen as "just" a romance writer or "just" a horror writer.

You remember my "genre clinic" thread at the other place? The number of PMs I got from authors who thought they would 'stump' me because their book was "the exception" and after I drilled down the root concept of their book I would just say "Yeah, that's a standard thriller" or "Yeah, that sounds like a traditional fantasy" etc. because once you get away from the noun association and focus on the actual plot and themes of a book, it is easier to find the right genre.
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Jeff Tanyard

Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2019, 10:27:30 AM »
I'm going to quibble with the Alien thing.  That movie was always science fiction.  It was inspired by Black Destroyer, a science fiction story written by A.E. van Vogt and first published in 1939.

Fun fact: If you google "black destroyer," you get search results for giant dildos.   :Hqn66ku:
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CoraBuhlert

Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2019, 12:40:17 PM »
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Wasn't Battlestar Galactica pitched as Wagon Train through the stars?

Nope, that was Star Trek and it was mainly a ploy to get TV execs to greenlight the series. And since westerns were popular in the 1950s and 1960s, Gene Roddenberry used the western comparison to persuade the execs to give Star Trek a chance.

Meanwhile, "wagon train to the stars" actually fits Battlestar Galactica much better. But the show (the original, that is) came out in the wake of Star Wars and at a time, when westerns had long since waned, so no "western in space" workaround was needed to sell the show.

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She-la-te-da

Re: Five Ways to Reinventing Genres
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2019, 07:23:31 PM »
No one needs to reinvent a genre, only to write fresh, new, good stories in it. When I see stuff like that, I think how pretentious some people are. (My old writing books used to say that genre was more for the marketing, the pitch that one used to sell the book and that any story could fit anywhere in its base form.)
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