Writing Tips for
Story Structure & Storytelling
by Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator StoryWeaver,
Co-Creator Dramatica
The Genre Trap
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A common misconception sees
genre as a fixed list of dramatic requirements or a rigid structural
template from which there can be no deviation. Writers laboring under
these restrictions often find themselves boxed-in creatively. They
become snared in the Genre Trap, cranking out stories that are
indistinguishable from a whole crop of their contemporaries
In fact, genre should be a fluid and organic entity that grows from each
story individually. Such stories are surprising, notable, memorable, and
involving. In this article, you'll learn a new flexible technique for
creating stories that are unique within their genres.
How We Fall Into the
Genre Trap
The first step in escaping
from the Genre Trap is to understand how we fall into it in the first
place. Consider how wrapped up you become in the details of your story.
You slave over every plot point, struggle to empathize with every one of
your characters, and perhaps even grieve over the effort to instill a
passionate theme.
The problem is, you become so buried in the elements of your story that
you lose sight of what it feels like as a whole. So while every piece
may work individually, the overall impact may be fragmented, incomplete,
or inconsistent. To avoid this, we fall back on “proven” structures
of successful stories in a similar genre. We cut out parts of our story
that don’t fit that template, and add new sections to fill the gaps.
We snip and hammer until our story follows along the dotted lines.
And lo and behold, we have fallen into the genre trap – taking our
original new idea and making it just like somebody else’s old idea.
Sure, the trappings are different. Our characters have different names.
The big battle between good and evil takes place in a roller rink
instead of a submarine. But underneath it all, the mood, timber, and
feel of our story is just like the hundred others stamped out in the
same genre mold.
A New Definition of
Genre
Rather than thinking of your
story as a structure, a template, or a genre, stand back a bit and look
at your story as it appears to your reader or audience. To them, every
story has a personality of its own, almost as if it were a human being.
From this perspective, stories fall into personality types, just like
real people.
When you meet someone for the first time, you might initially classify
them as a Nerd, a Bully, a Wisecracker, a Philanthropist, or a Thinker.
These, of course, are just first impressions, and if you get the chance
to spend some time with each person, you begin to discover a number of
traits and quirks that set them apart from any other individual in that
personality type.
Similarly, when you encounter a story for the first time, you likely
classify it as a Western, a Romance, a Space Opera, or a Buddy Picture.
Essentially, you see the personality of the story as a Stereotype.
At first, stories are easy to classify because you know nothing about
them but the basic broad strokes. But as a story unfolds, it reveals its
own unique qualities that transform it from another faceless tale in the
crowd to a one-of-a-kind experience with its own identity.
At least, that is what it ought to do. But if you have fallen into the
Genre Trap, you actually edit out all the elements that make your story
different and add others that make it the same. All in the name of the
Almighty Genre Templates
How to Avoid the Genre
Trap
Avoiding the Genre Trap is
not only easy, but creatively inspiring as well! The process can begin
at the very start of your story’s development (though you can apply
this technique for re-writes as well).
Step One – Choosing Genres:
Make a list of all the Stereotypical Genres that have elements you might
want to include in the story you are currently developing. For example,
you might want to consider aspects of a Western, a Space Opera, a
Romance, and a Horror Story.
Step Two – Listing Genre Elements:
List all the elements of each of these genres that intrigue you in
general. For example:
Western – Brawl in the Saloon, Showdown Gunfight, Chase on Horseback,
Lost Gold Mine, Desert, Indians.
Space Opera – Time Warp, Laser Battle, Exploding Planet, Alien Race,
Spaceship Battle, Ancient Ruins.
Romance – Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl,
Misunderstanding alienates Boy and Girl, Rival for Girl throws out
Misinformation, Last Minute Reveal of the Truth leading to Joyful
Reunion.
Horror Story – Series of Grizzly and Inventive Murders, The Evil
Gradually Closes in on the Heroes, Scary Isolated Location, Massive
Rainstorm with Lightning and Thunder.
(Note that some genre elements are about setting, some about action, and
some about character relationships. That’s why it is so hard to say
what genre is. And it is also why looking at genre as a story’s
Personality Type is so useful.
Step Three – Selecting Genre Elements:
From the lists of elements you have created, pick and choose elements
from each of the genres that you might like to actually include in your
story.
For example, from Western you might want Lost Gold Mine, Desert, and
Indians. From Space Opera you might choose Spaceship Battle, Exploding
Planet and Alien Race. Romance would offer up all the elements you had
listed: Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl, Misunderstanding
alienates Boy and Girl, Rival for Girl throws our Misinformation, Last
Minute Reveal of the Truth leading to Joyful Reunion. And finally, from
Horror Story you might select Scary Isolated Location, Massive Rainstorm
with Lightning and Thunder.
Step Four – Cross Pollinating Genres:
From this Master List of Genre Elements that you might like to include
in your story, see if any of the elements from one genre have a tie-in
with those from another genre.
For example, Indians from the Western and Alien Race from the Space
Opera could become a race of aliens on a planet that share many of the
qualities of the American Indian. And, the relationship between the boy
and the girl easily becomes a Romeo and Juliet saga of a human boy
colonizing the planet who falls in love with an alien girl.
Step Five – Peppering Your Story with Genre Elements:
Once you’ve chosen your elements and cross-pollinated others, you need
to determine where in your story to place them. If you are stuck in a
Genre Trap, there is a tendency to try and get all the genre elements
working right up front so that the genre is clear to the
reader/audience.
This is like trying to know everything there is to discover about a
person as soon as you meet him or her. It is more like a resume than an
introduction. The effect is to overload the front end of the story with
more information than can be assimilated, and have nowhere left to go
when the reader/audience wants to get to know the story’s personality
better as the story unfolds.
So, make a timeline of the key story points in your plot. Add in any
principal character moments of growth, discovery, or conflict. Now, into
that timeline pepper the genre elements you have developed for your
story.
For example, you might decide to end with a massive spaceship battle, or
you could choose to open with one. The information about the Alien Race
being like the America Indians might be right up front in the Teaser, or
you could choose to reveal it in the middle of the second act as a
pivotal turning point in the story.
Because genre elements are often atmospheric in nature, they can
frequently be placed just about anywhere without greatly affecting the
essential flow of the plot or the pace of character growth.
As you look at your timeline, you can see and control the reader’s
first impressions of the story genre. And you can anticipate the ongoing
mood changes in your story’s feel as additional elements in its
personality are revealed, scene by scene or chapter by chapter.
What about Re-writes?
Not everyone wants to start
a story with genre development. In fact, you might want to go through an
entire draft and then determine what genre elements you’d like to add
to what you already have.
The process is the same. Just list the genres that have elements you
might wish to include. List the elements in each that intrigue you.
Select the ones that would fit nicely into your story. Cross-Pollinate
where you can. Pepper them into your existing timeline to fill gaps
where the story bogs down and to reveal your story as a unique
personality.
Summing Up the Sum of
the Parts
Genre is part setting, part
action, part character, and part story-telling style. Trying to follow a
fixed template turns your story into just another clone. But by
recognizing that genre is really a story’s personality type, you can
make it as individual as you like. And by peppering your elements
throughout your story’s timeline, you will create first impressions
that will capture your reader or audience and then hold their interest
as your story’s one-of-a-kind personality reveals itself.
Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips
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