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Chapter 003 Genre and Feature
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2020-07-30 17:53:02Now you have a clear idea on your theme, you can start to define your targeted readers. Of course you would want more readers for your story, the more the better, to understand the theme you are trying to discuss in your work, but you have to choose: trying to appeal every readers, is the same as aiming at no target.
Like when you join a Halloween party, no matter how hard you try, or how good your costume is, you can never get everyone to like you, right?
You need to make a clear decision on your genre. Let’s take, again, the example of the theme “true loves matters all”. You can add supernatural features like werewolves, witches, or features like mafia, gangs, or you can just make it a sweet love story about normal human being in our ordinary world where a CEO falls for a cinderella. But there are so many other features available too, like adorable baby, S&M, iron lady or work romance. A choice on genre won’t ruin your theme, it’s more like deciding on a method of how you want to deliver your theme. You need only to choose the one you feel the most comfortable with.
Let me tell you the importance of choicing a genre. After the readers get to know the theme of a work, they tend to have their own expectations on the features and methods the work takes up to a certain level, as in, they would classify your work in their own mind. You need to be aware of their expectations, and fulfill it in the writing process, only then, would your story be falling accurately in a certain genre.
Yes. Writing IS trying to cook according to the taste of the readers. Maybe you, being a ambitious writer, don’t want to make sucking up to the readers your life goal, and that’s totally cool. We encourage innovation with all our support. But, it IS important to take the essence of the successful works existing before you can form your own style. All the successful types of literature, is built on the successful works in those exact types before them. Take The Handmaid's Tale as an example, there is clear signs in the book of the its writer Margaret Atwood taking great influence from Doris Lessing and Virginia Woolf.
Using the words of the famous writer, P.D. James: you don’t choose the genre, the genre chooses you.
Having your theme and genre, now you can start writing.
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