Let your imagination be your guide as you traverse the landscapes of your mind!
One of my favorite Japanese sayings is “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” It mirrors a truth about perception. We only take notice when things don’t fit the expected pattern. We’re constantly making predictions about what we are going to see and do, and it’s only when something doesn’t fit the pattern that we take notice. When writing in a particular genre, an author has to meet readers’ expectations while still differentiating themselves from other writers. Without that differentiating factor, no one will ever notice the author’s stories.
Strategy:
This writing exercise encourages writers to analyze a genre's expectations, identify its invariants and common variations, and then develop a unique selling proposition (USP) to differentiate their story within the genre. By deeply integrating the USP into the story or inverting an invariant, writers can create a fresh and engaging take on the genre while still meeting readers' expectations.
Instructions:
Expectations: Choose a genre you want to explore and list some expectations that come to mind when you think about it.
Invariants: Either from your list of expectations or , identify at some elements that are essential to the genre, without which the story would no longer fit within that genre.
Variations: List three common variations within the genre that you find interesting or enjoyable.
Differentiation: Develop one key point that will serve as your unique selling proposition (USP). This could be an interesting character trait, an unusual obsession, or the incorporation of elements from another genre.
Leaning In (optional): Consider how you can deeply embed your USP into the story. Brainstorm ways to make it an integral part of the plot, character development, and world-building, rather than just a superficial element.
Inversion (optional): Choose one of the invariants you identified in step 2 and consider how you could turn it on its head to create a fresh and unexpected take on the genre.
Tags: genre, expectations, invariants, variations, differentiation, USP, storytelling
Category: Manage Projects > Product Design
Example:
Expectations:
Spaceships and advanced technology
Alien species and planets
Galactic conflicts and politics
Exploration and discovery
Futuristic settings
Invariants:
Presence of advanced technology
Story set in the future or an alternate universe
Variations:
Space opera (grand-scale adventures and romances)
Hard science fiction (focus on scientific accuracy)
Cyberpunk (high-tech, low-life settings)
Differentiation:
The protagonist is a sentient spaceship struggling to understand the human emotions of its crew.
Leaning In (optional):
The spaceship has a limited viewpoint and can’t always see what the crew is doing when they are away from the ship.
What if the story explores the spaceship deciding what to do when its crew asks it to perform actions that seem dangerous?
The spaceship could refuse orders based on incomplete information, and then strive to fix the problems it caused as the crew and ship learn to trust one another.
Inversion (optional):
Instead of being set in the future, the story takes place in a universe where advanced magic leads to space travel.