Every story is a genre, and every genre has its rules. A genre helps readers know what will happen. Find the genre you love to read. Once you know what you love to read, choosing to write a story in this genre will sustain your passion and energy during the many days and nights of writing.
Once you have decided on the story and know the genre, you will understand what the reader expects to happen. Knowing this will help you subvert the genre and throw in a few surprises.
Next, know the argument in the story. Crime pays vs. crime doesn’t pay? This must be argued backwards and forward, and the opposing arguments must be strong. Don’t slant one side against the other. No matter how inventive, writers are never strong on self-examination. Usually, they write to express their prejudices, not to explore them. So make sure you are fair to all sides of the argument.
Follow the texture of the genre, whether it be horror, comedy or action. A thriller must get personal. In comedy, no one gets hurt – buildings may fall, but the character always picks himself up. In action films, the simple premise is that life is better than death. Put the character through physical and emotional hell. There are no haunted houses in horror stories as the terrible spectres are already in your head, waiting patiently for the door to spring open and let them out.
Misc Notes
All stories need love. Romance is important, even as a subplot.
Pierre Boulle, who wrote Bridge on River Kwai, also wrote ‘Monkey Planet’ or, as we know it, ‘Planet of the Apes’. He preferred the term ‘Social Fantasy’ to Science Fiction.
Ivan Turgenev, who developed ‘realism’ in his Russian short stories, was influenced by how photography caught sudden, vivid moments and worked at bringing this effect to his stories.
In Autofiction, the fictionalised autobiography does away with traditional novel elements such as plot and character development. In ‘Kudos’ by Rachel Cusk, ‘Faye’, a novelist, travels around Europe absorbing stories told to her by strangers and acquaintances.
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