How much should you focus on genre?

Striking the right balance with genre when planning and writing.

One of the most common questions for aspiring novelists is how much they should focus on genre during the planning and writing process.

Should genre be a rigid framework, with strict rules that define each step of your writing? Or should you write freely, and worry about defining these labels at a later stage?

Well, genre is complicated. The answer is somewhere in between. Genre is an essential consideration in marketing, given how it shapes the expectations of readers and can be important for structure and plot. We’ll take a look at how to balance this properly.

Why is genre important?

One reason that genre is important is because of the specific expectations within them. A romance reader will expect a romance plot and a happy ending - the latter is actually imperative to a novel being called a ‘romance’. A mystery reader will expect a puzzle that is solved by the end of the book. These genres allow readers to find books that they know they will be more likely to enjoy, based on previous experiences.

When you ignore genre, you risk frustrating readers who might start your novel with specific expectations. A romance without a happy ending, for example, will not go down well with romance readers. A mystery without explaining the puzzle will be frustrating (this might be my least favourite trope ever - the unexplained mystery, it’s a cop out!).

On the other hand, strictly following genre rules might make your novel feel too samey or predictable. While the predictability in some genres (romance again for example) is what readers want, you might not want to limit yourself.

Planning the genre

Structure: If you want your novel to follow a specific structure, it makes sense to follow those that have been used within the genre in the past. Patterns exist and are successful for a reason. If you have a clear genre in mind, research carefully how others have structured their novels (and read recent books from the genre too). What percentage of the book does the murder usually happen in a murder mystery? When do the twists usually happen in a thriller? You can use genre to help you structure your novel effectively.