Why is genre important in writing

The thriller is very malleable. It can be used as a sort of honey to attract readers and then be circumvented by its underlying Internal Content Genre to become a much more symbolic treatise on contemporary life than one would expect on a first read. As such, it is embraced by both the commercial and literary publishing cultures. These are realistic threats of the highest order, crime antagonists at the peak of their strength. With outstanding action set pieces filled with derring-do to thwart the plans of the villain, the thriller must make the antagonism personal.

That is, the protagonist of the Story must be revealed, usually by the middle of the novel or the end of the second act, as the victim. The victim in horror is the everyman protagonist. While Horror stories also take the lead character to the fate worse than death, the thriller does so in a terrifyingly realistic way. Plus, the lead character has a deep inner life, filled with all three levels of individual conflict, inner, personal and extra-personal. When done well, thrillers push all of our buttons.

As you can use one or more of the sixteen plot devices in horror as you do in action, so can you use the same sixteen for the thriller. As most thrillers adhere to realism genre within the REALITY leaf of our genre five-leaf clover, the variety of thriller is often determined by the setting. The core emotion can be anything from excitement to fear to intrigue. And of course the core event is the big battle.

These are stories that are most driven by big ideas. There are a number of varieties that hinge on the core values inherent in their choice of setting or character. As society has many different strata, these stories usually have multiple protagonists.

The core values at stake are dependent upon the subgenre and the core events are also sub-genre specific. Love stories are extremely effective as sub-plots in the other popular external content genres of writing. These stories are very popular because they concern the core value dynamic of respect versus shame.

Will the big fight, performance, or presentation go well or will it result in dishonor? The core event, of course, is the big game or big performance. Understanding and knowing your genre drives everything in your story. This is how you know what value your story is driving towards! Your email address will not be published.

What they want. What they need. External conflict is the sizzle that gets bottoms in movie seats and books on bestseller lists. Genres of writing are fluid They morph and combine and adapt to the tenor of time. That is part and parcel of genre fluidity.

Jaws The Environment Plot: The villain is the actual global setting. Gravity The Doomsday Plot: The victim is the environment. The hero must save the environment from disaster. Independence Day 2. Conspiracy Plot: The hero is up against an invisible tyrant. Enemy of the State, The Bourne Identity.

Vigilante Plot: The hero is up against a criminal organization. Above the Law. Savior Plot: The hero is up against someone who wants to destroy society. The Dark Knight. Hunted Plot: Villain chases the Hero. Troy 4. Countdown Plot: A deadline superimposed by circumstance.

Andromeda Strain. Holdout Plot: Hero has to holdout until others can rally. The Genre analysis is meant to help readers and potential readers understand how the presentation of information maximizes the perception of the content and form of the text.

The two should be closely related, especially amongst a single genre. The texts within that genre may have conventions that are common, providing identifiable elements. Common questions to consider include: 1 How is the text written and designed? While doing some reader, one may find a text with an unclear genre.

The first thing to do is to determine what genres it resembles. If you have never heard about the genres of writing before, then this article would be a great place to start. Below you will find six basic genres and some of their characteristics. Descriptive Writing.

This type of writing assumes careful choice of words. Students have to utilize literary devices, such as metaphors, similes, etc. Description is in the core of this writing genre and although it doesn't seem like a difficult task at first, engaging descriptions can be created by those who know how to use precise language. The examples of texts in this genre are: descriptive essays, comparison texts, character sketches, etc. Expository Writing.

This is where one has to collect and synthesize information prior to undertaking this kind of writing. An exposition of events, theory, other things is to be in the focus of this writing genre. It means that the entire paper is to be objective without any references to personal opinions or views. Most essays written by students are good examples of what expository writing is all about.

Expository essays are very similar to descriptive essays although they have some distinctive features. Autobiographies, reports and summaries are written following the expository writing principles. Narrative Writing. There is not much we should say about this writing genre really because if you understand what a narrative is then you should understand the concept of narrative writing.

Usually, every story has a plot and characters which are somewhat central in this writing genre. Original short stories, personal narratives, sequels to stories and retelling of stories could be all narrative writing assignments if you are a student.

Persuasive Writing. This kind of writing is meant to persuade readers using appeals to logic, emotion or even moral character.

It is important to not only present one's position but to back it up by offering some examples and evidence. A persuasive essay is the most common piece of this writing genre. Poetry Writing.

Creating rhyme, using stylistic devices and developing images through the means of words — these are all essentials of poetry writing. The use of poetic language becomes the primary activity when engaged in a poetry writing. You can say that almost all poems are a part of this writing genre. In order to develop an effective poetic piece of writing one has to master the language first.

Don't assume it is a no-brainer. Many people struggle with this type of assignments. Twenty minutes later the waiter brings you a tofu burger.

This is award-winning tofu, prepared by a top chef. As readers, we love science fiction and so when we become authors we want to write science fiction. Fair enough, but what kind of science fiction? Are the characters trying to survive on a desert island Lord of the Flies , William Golding? Life would be so much easier if we all had the same menu of Story types to choose from. We have to look at it from different angles.

Other books, like Outlander , are a complete conundrum. This begs the question, if the genre of Outlander is unclear, why is it such a roaring commercial success? The answer is that at some point, everyone agreed to call it a historical romance. Its publication has since spawned the sub-genre of Scottish historical romance. The bottom line is this: genre in writing refers to the kind of Story that is being told. For a book to be successful the author, marketer and reader must all have the same understanding of what kind of Story is being told.

Sometimes you can do this accurately at the beginning of a project. Other times, you might need to crank out a first draft before you figure it out.

Both ways can work. The point is that you must make a choice. Unless we are crystal clear about what kind of book we want to write, we will get confused and lose our way in the middle build.

The first thing I want to know — in fact, the only thing I want to know — is, was it comprehensible? Did [the audience] follow the Story? If you put confusion into the mix, even the tiniest bit of confusion, the audience is going to be apprehensive.

An audience needs to feel, when they sit down in that chair, that the storyteller has them by the hand and is leading them through the Story. Shawn spent 25 years grinding on this. He listened to writers explain the Stories they wanted to tell.

Then he figured out a way to categorize it and explain it to the art and marketing departments so they could target the book to the appropriate readership. More on that later. The clover has five leaves; time, reality, style, structure and content external and internal.

Choosing a genre in writing means making a choice about each of these leaves. Note that the clover considers literary to be a style. The beauty of this system is that any kind of Story we can conceive, can be mapped out using the clover. Even LitRPG, which is an evolving genre, has a home here. Since we started as readers, we call this science fiction. And it is.