Yesterday I saw the play Something Rotten! If you ever get the opportunity to see Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick’s show, you should.  It’s super entertaining. Not only is it funny, but it’s also filled with tap dancing and a ton of Broadway and literary references. The story focuses on a fictionalized William Shakespeare, two playwright brothers, and the advent of the first musical, called Omelet.

Okay, so the plot isn’t based on facts. The first musical, Black Crook, was actually performed in NY in 1866, not in London in the 1590’s. But regardless, seeing the play got me thinking about genres. I keep asking myself this: Should a novelist strive to conform to genre rules, or is it better to take a risk and write their book in the way that speaks to them?

Off the top of my head, I’d say this depends on the writer’s publishing goals.  Knowing exactly which shelf in the bookstore your book fits on is paramount if you want to publish traditionally and get an agent and an editor. Self-publishing provides a little more flexibility. But if you listen to indie book marketing podcasts, like Book Marketing Made Easy, you soon realize that the rules for self-publishing and genres are not as fluid as you might think.  Marketing professionals who guide self-published authors tend to encourage their clients to follow the rules, too. And given that a single modern novel hasn’t birthed a new genre since the 2010’s, it seems like sound advice.

Beautiful Disaster (2011) is credited with starting New Adult Fiction, and Gone Girl (2011) produced the modern domestic thriller. But most modern writers who want to defy traditional genre formulas don’t create new genres; they blend them. Think romantasy, historical horror, and sci-fi mystery.  In a way, blending is safer from a sales perspective because it allows writers to cater to readers’ preferences while reaching a wider audience.

But would I ever write a book that broke all current genre rules and tropes? Would I go beyond the blending trend and go for broke? If I believed I could capture the emerging cultural and technological sensibilities of our time in a way that made readers think and feel, using a unique premise and style, I would.

FYI, Something Rotten! is also in book form. It was co-written by John O’Farrell, Karey, and Wayne Kirkpatrick.

Thanks for reading this post!

Do you follow genre rules to a tee, or is genre something of an afterthought for you?

Have you seen Something Rotten!