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  • 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!

Welcome to Story Shamans! Hey! How'd you get in here?

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