genre-conventions

What this skill does

# Genre Conventions: Diagnostic and Generative Skill

You diagnose genre-level story problems and generate genre-specific elements. Your role is to ensure stories deliver on their emotional promises to readers.

## Core Principle

**Genre is a promise. The story must deliver on that promise or readers feel betrayed.**

Elemental genres are about emotional experience, not bookshelf categories. A story set on a spaceship can be any genre. The setting is not the genre. The emotional experience is the genre.

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## The Eleven Elemental Genres

| Genre | Core Promise | What Reader Wants to Feel |
|-------|-------------|---------------------------|
| **Wonder** | Awe and fascination | "I had no idea that was possible" |
| **Idea** | Intellectual stimulation | "I never thought about it that way" |
| **Adventure** | Excitement through challenges | "What happens next?" (external) |
| **Horror** | Dread and confrontation with threat | "I'm afraid to look but can't stop" |
| **Mystery** | Curiosity about unknown facts | "I want to figure it out" |
| **Thriller** | Tension through danger | "Will they make it in time?" |
| **Humor** | Amusement and entertainment | "That was unexpected and delightful" |
| **Relationship** | Investment in connections | "I want them to work it out" |
| **Drama** | Internal conflict and transformation | "What happens next?" (internal) |
| **Issue** | Exploration of complex questions | "I see this differently now" |
| **Ensemble** | Group dynamics and combined effort | "How will they come together?" |

**Note:** Science fiction, fantasy, historical, contemporary are *settings*, not genres. A fantasy story can be mystery, romance, or thriller. The setting is where the genre lives.

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## The Genre States

### State G1: Missing Genre Promise

**Symptoms:** Story lacks clear emotional contract with reader. Unclear what experience is being offered. Opening doesn't signal what kind of story this is. Readers don't know what to expect.

**Key Questions:**
- What emotional experience should readers have?
- In the first chapter, is the genre signaled clearly?
- Does the opening promise the emotional payoff the story delivers?
- If someone asked "what kind of story is this?" could you answer in one word?

**Interventions:**
- Identify the primary emotional experience you want to create
- Establish genre markers in the opening scene
- Check that your hook promises your actual story

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### State G2: Wrong Genre for Story

**Symptoms:** Story elements don't match the emotional experience being attempted. Thriller pacing with relationship content. Mystery structure with adventure payoff. Material fights against chosen genre.

**Key Questions:**
- What emotional experience are you actually creating?
- What genre would best serve this material?
- Is there a mismatch between what you intended and what you're writing?
- What genre would make this material sing?

**Interventions:**
- Align genre to material rather than forcing material into genre
- Consider whether your concept wants a different emotional delivery
- Reframe the story using the genre that fits

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### State G3: Genre Elements Misplaced

**Symptoms:** Right elements but wrong timing. Mystery clues all dumped at once. Thriller tension before stakes established. Horror dread without vulnerability setup first. Romance obstacle introduced too late.

**Key Questions:**
- Are mystery clues distributed for progressive revelation?
- Is thriller tension escalating or static?
- Is horror dread earned through vulnerability setup?
- Are relationship obstacles preventing connection, then releasing?
- Does wonder build through discovery or dump revelation?

**Interventions:**
- Use genre-specific pacing templates
- Map element placement against reader expectation curves
- Check that setup precedes payoff

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### State G4: Secondary Genre Undermining Primary

**Symptoms:** Subplot genre dominates main story. Romance overwhelms thriller. Humor breaks horror atmosphere. Idea content slows adventure. Reader can't find footing.

**Key Questions:**
- What's the primary emotional experience?
- Is the secondary genre serving or competing?
- When does secondary genre get screen time?
- Does secondary genre enhance or interrupt primary experience?

**Interventions:**
- Establish clear hierarchy of genres
- Contain secondary genre in specific scenes or subplots
- Use secondary genre to deepen, not distract from, primary
- Consider cutting secondary genre if it persistently undermines

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### State G5: Genre Without Required Elements

**Symptoms:** Mystery without fair-play clues. Thriller without ticking clock. Horror without vulnerability. Relationship without obstacles. Adventure without escalating challenges.

**Key Questions:**
- What are the non-negotiable elements for this genre?
- Which are missing from the current draft?
- Can they be added without restructuring?
- Are you relying on setting to do genre's work?

**Interventions:**
- Use genre requirements checklist
- Generate missing elements using genre-elements tool
- Ensure each required element appears before final act

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### State G6: Genre Cliches Unexamined

**Symptoms:** Genre elements feel tired. Reader predicts everything. Nothing fresh about execution. "I've read this before" response.

**Key Questions:**
- Which genre conventions are you using by default?
- Which could be inverted or transcended?
- Where can you deliver the genre promise unexpectedly?
- What would an orthogonal approach look like?

**Interventions:**
- Hand off to cliche-transcendence skill for Orthogonality analysis
- Audit each genre element for freshness
- Deliver expected emotional experience through unexpected means

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### State G7: Setting Mistaken for Genre

**Symptoms:** "It's sci-fi" when asked about genre. Worldbuilding without emotional core. Setting elements don't serve genre needs. Story would have no genre if setting were removed.

**Key Questions:**
- If you remove the setting, what genre is the emotional story?
- How does your setting enhance the genre experience?
- What would this story be in a contemporary setting?
- Is the setting doing all the work?

**Interventions:**
- Identify the genre beneath the setting
- Align setting elements to serve genre needs
- Ensure story has emotional throughline independent of setting

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### State G8: Ensemble Without Genre Assignment

**Symptoms:** Multiple POV characters with no coherent genre experience. Tonal whiplash between POVs. Reader doesn't know what to feel. Each thread works alone but they don't combine.

**Key Questions:**
- What's the umbrella genre for the whole story?
- Does each POV thread have its own subgenre?
- How do the genre experiences combine?
- Is there a dominant POV that sets genre expectations?

**Interventions:**
- Establish primary genre that all threads serve
- Assign compatible subgenres to each POV
- Map POV transitions to ensure tonal coherence
- Use ensemble elements to unify rather than fragment

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## Genre Requirements Quick Reference

| Genre | Setting Needs | Character Needs | Plot Needs |
|-------|--------------|-----------------|------------|
| **Wonder** | Vast scales, unprecedented phenomena | Capacity for awe, can recognize significance | Discovery, revelation, perspective shift |
| **Idea** | Societies built around concepts | Intellectually curious, varied perspectives | Concept exploration, hypothesis testing |
| **Adventure** | Varied environments, physical obstacles | Relevant skills, tested beyond experience | Progressive challenges, geographic movement |
| **Horror** | Isolation, restricted movement, breakdown of normal | Vulnerabilities matching threats, something to lose | Escalating threat, diminishing safety |
| **Mystery** | Controlled environments, layered information | Investigators with skills, witnesses, suspects | Information gathering, progressive revelation |
| **Thriller** | Time-sensitive, high-stakes environments | Crucial responsib