Welcome to Story Shamans! Hey! How'd you get in here?
Oh! Oh, Animals, it's you. Hello. Come inside. Let's talk about stuff.
This week we're talkin' about Cubby Number 8: Genre.
It's a good one. I'm excited! First thing's first. Let's define Genre, as
this term can be interpreted a few different ways.
We're gonna go ahead and define genre by: tone.
There are eight different genres, eight different tones, that your story can have:
Comedy, tragedy,
drama, farce,
action, horror,
romance, and erotica.
Comedy is happy Tragedy is sad
Drama is serious Farce is silly
Action is exciting Horror is scary
Romance is idealistic and Erotica is sexy
...Yeah... Your story will have one dominant genre, that'll
set the overall tone of your story. And then you can bring in other genres along
the way to deviate from that overall tone. Like adding romance to an action story.
It's an action story first, but there's some romance thrown in there as well.
Or adding comedy to a horror story. It's a horror story, but we've thrown in some
jokes and humor to lighten things up here and there.
Clearly there are many possible combinations of these genres.
But no matter the combination, your primary genre determines what your story is, on its
most fundamental level. And these tones, these genres, give audiences
basic expectations. It's the storyteller's job to meet these basic
expectations when telling a particular kind of story.
Comedies need to be lighthearted and funny or they've failed to meet the basic expectations
of a comedy. Misunderstand or mishandle genre, and your
story'll collapse. The most important concept to remember when
dealing with Genre is that genre is not based on content.
It's about tone. Genre determines the emotional tone and the
emotional context of the content in your story. Genre doesn't determine the events of your
story, it determines the WAY in which the events unfold.
The same event can occur within the eight different genres.
Let's take for example, a train ride: It could be serious, it could be silly, it
could be happy or sad. Exciting, scary, romantic.
Oooo it could be sexy. Or it could be all of these things at different
times. Or at the same time.
But note that the TONE of your story itself, did not dictate that a train ride occur.
The events of the story are expressed through the story's tone.
But the tone doesn't dictate the events. You'll notice that some of these genres are
in direct opposition with one another. You got:
Drama and Farce Comedy and Tragedy
They're opposites, and therefore the hardest to mix with eachother.
There are also complimentary genres: Romance and Erotica
Action and Horror These easily go together because they're in
the same vein. For instance:
Action is exciting, and Horror is scary. Part of "excitement" is that feeling of being
a little scared. One feeds into the other.
Put them together, and you've got the so-called "Thriller" story.
It's just Action plus Horror. When combining genres, you've gotta get the
mix right or you'll ruin your story.
If we're tallkin' about mixing genres: Comedy, action, romance, and erotica all mix
nicely together because they all have a generally positive
tone. Because of this shared overall positive sense,
they compliment each other. Drama, tragedy, and horror all mix well together
because they share a generally negative tone. Just remember ya got one dominant genre,
and you incorporate the others as you can, WITHIN that dominant genre.
Let's take the example of Romantic Comedies. Grammatically, most of them should be called:
Comedic Romances. Because that's what they are - A predominant
romance story, with comedic elements. A good example of a story like this would
be: "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days."
A romance story, with some jokes. On the flip side, a true Romantic Comedy would
be something like "Wedding Crashers."
It's a comedy first, with a lot of romantic elements.
It's always easier to have a set predominant genre and then add comedy to it,
rather than setting comedy as your main genre and then adding a different genre to it.
Take Action Comedies for example. It's a lot more organic to have an action
story, and then add humor, rather than have a comedic story that throws
in bits of action. Action is exciting, and excitement is more
serious than funny. It's always easier to lighten the mood with
a joke, than to turn a baseline comedic situation
serious all of the sudden. You may be asking yourself: "What's the difference
between Romance and Erotica?" Well lemme tell ya.
... This other guy's gonna say it.
Romance is really about accentuating, focusing on, and admiring all of the positive qualities
of something while ignoring all the negative. You could have this outlook toward a person,
a relationship, a city, a sport, anything really.
You can romanticize anything. Erotica, is all about sexually charging a
situation. Ladies...
Celebrating and experiencing the specific sexual and sensual attributes of a moment.
Again, this attitude can be used with anything. You can erotically approach another person,
a city, a job, a lifestyle. You can eroticize anything.
These two genres may seem similar at first glance.
But that's really only because two people who are romantically involved, usually, eventually,
become erotically involved as well. While this may happen with your characters,
remember that genre does not dictate content. It's about tone.
So the genre won't dictate that your characters become romantically or erotically involved.
But the tone WILL dictate how this information will be presented if it DOES occur.
Understanding Genre is really about understanding the differences and the similarities between
the eight different tones: Comedy,
tragedy, drama,
farce, action,
horror, romance,
and erotica. The more familiar you are with them, the more
seamlessly you can weave them together while crafting your story.
Next week we're moving on to Emotion.
Here come the water works!