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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38466
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38466
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You seem to be looking at picking a genre as signing up to follow a very tight straight-jacket on your writing. I don't believe that's what genre is at all. Rather, genre is a very loose set of related tropes and expectations, and as long as you don't break too many of those tropes and expectations without good reason, there's a ton of room for innovation.

Harry Potter is an interesting example. In terms of genre, it is an extremely straightforward fantasy young adult series. In fact, by going out of its way to incorporate as many sterotypical depictions of magic as possible, it leans into its genre very heavily. However, within that genre, it still does several things that are innovative and fresh. One major example is that the books start out very light-hearted but become darker and more mature as the series progresses. As a result, as the children who were introduced to the series grew up, the franchise continuously matched their level of maturity. I sometimes hear people talking about the books "growing up" with them as they got older. This is a genuinely artistic and unique structure for the franchise to take on. And it was completely possible even within the limits of following the expectations of genre fiction to a tee.

And no one is requiring you to adhere closely to a genre. There are many stories that don't fit neatly into genres or push their genres' boundaries. Artemis Fowl seemlessly mixes young adult, fantasy, sci-fi, and heist fiction together. Frozen and Kingsman: The Secret Service are strict genre movies that knowingly deconstruct their respective genres. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Rimworld franchises are deeply irreverent takes on sci-fi and fantasy that avoid the serious gravity that those genres usually strive to attain. Avengers: Infinity War hits every single blockbuster superhero movie trope in the book while still having a genuinely experimental structure that manages a cast of characters so expansive that it would normally be a huge impediment to a story and a plot that thematically treats the antagonist as the hero.

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Ultimately, the individual tropes you use are not going to be what makes your story artistic or samey. It's the intelligence and depth of your characters, plot structure, and themes. These elements are what are emotionally resonant - and they are completely independent of genre. Consider that Romeo and Juliet and Westside Story have almost exactly the same characters, plot arc, and theme but wildly different genres.

If you focus on writing an excellent story by getting the narrative elements solidly nailed down, your story will be artistic and powerful whether it strictly adheres to genre or not.

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In the end, as with any other element of a story, how you choose to relate to your chosen genre is a decision with no straightforward answer that changes from story to story. I suggest you don't look at it as a straightjacket where you have to fulfill certain reader expectations. Rather, it's a tool where many different approaches are valid, and finding the right approach for your story is the goal. And whatever you ultimately go with, your decision is still largely orthogonal to the other decisions you have to make with your story, leaving you with plenty of artistic freedom regardless of genre.

Original score: 5