Reading Outside Your Genre & Artistic Evolution

Michael asks:

“In a post/podcast months ago, when talking on a similar theme, you gave some advice that authors should read outside their genre, and said something like, “you can tell when a sci-fi author has only ever read sci-fi”. I was pondering this to work out what you meant! Have you ever elaborated on that in another post somewhere?”

I have not ever elaborated on that, but let’s do it now!

Having read only inside one genre is a problem that tends to be faced by newer or younger writers who haven’t read very much outside their chosen genre and haven’t really developed their own voice yet. There are generally two signs to this problem 1.) A  heavy over-reliance on the cliches of the specific genre, and 2.) Real World things that intrude on the book tend to be outlandish and not developed very well.

What do I mean by this?

1.) Over-reliance on genre cliches. Like a science fiction novel that’s very obviously a pastiche of STAR TREK and STAR WARS, or a fantasy novel that’s clearly THE LORD OF THE RINGS but with a lot more romance. In romance, you have a heroine who is a adorably clumsy and describes herself as average, yet draws the attention of the brooding troubled billionaire with stormy eyes and a tragic past who somehow has time to maintain 6-pack abs while running the largest corporate conglomerate in the history of the world. In mystery, you have the divorced alcoholic detective whose superiors want him off the case, and it turns out that the case goes all the way to the top. In Young Adult, the main character is the Chosen One who will overthrow the dystopia or is the most special student ever at an incompetently-run Wizard School. (I’m just imagining the education accreditation inspectors I’ve met in previous careers reacting with horror to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.) Or in literary fiction, the protagonist is a middle-aged alcoholic creative writing professor who is having an affair with a graduate student (or students).

The characters themselves will be exaggerated. The villains will be really villainous, and the protagonists really heroic.

Now, this can actually work, because a significant readers love genre cliches and don’t like to read outside them. Very famously there have been successful romance novels that started off as either TWILIGHT fanfiction or Kylo Ren/Rey STAR WARS romance fanfiction, and then the writers changed the names and were able to sell them.

However, these writers tend to struggle to write more books after that, because they’ve become sort of locked within their genre cliches and have a hard time writing outside them.

2.) Real World things that intrude on the book tend to be outlandish, or not developed very well, or handwaved away, causing a lack of verisimilitude.

This tends to be simply a function of insufficient life experience, which usually resolves itself over time, or failing to recognize that a little research is necessary at times.

Like, I read a book where a protagonist’s elderly relative had to pay her property taxes to the city government in two weeks, despite having never missed a payment before, or she would be immediately kicked out of her house and become homeless. That makes for dramatic tension, but it’s not at all how property taxes usually work in the United States. First, in the US property taxes are usually paid at the county level, not the municipal (though to be fair to the writers, there are exceptions). Second, you have to be behind on payments for several years (normally two), and then the local county issues a notice of foreclosure, and then the county will sell the house and you get evicted. This, however, tends to be a long process with a lot of lawyers and court summons, and a lot of potential off ramps and compromises before an actual seizure and eviction happens. Additionally, some states and local areas may have laws that specifically govern or restrict home evictions – it’s typically easier to foreclose on a commercial property than a residence where someone is actually living. (As is often the case throughout history, in foreclosures the poor and those unable to navigate bureaucracy are more likely to get the short end of the stick than the wealthy and those who understand which forms to file and who to talk to.)

But the writer overlooked all of that, and set up the situation where the sheriff was waiting to shove the elderly relative on the street in two weeks. It was clear from the text that the writer didn’t actually know how property taxes worked, and more to the point, didn’t actually know that she could have done research to find out.  I’ve written before how you need verisimilitude in fiction, just enough details that it feels real, and a small rewrite could have improved the situation quite a bit. Like, the protagonist could have realized that her elderly relative had been behind on property taxes for years and had been lying about it out of embarrassment, and had been hiding the notices from the county on the topic. That would have added quite a bit more verisimilitude to the situation. Another possibility would have been that the local sheriff was corrupt and taking kickbacks from a bank that wanted to buy the house (sadly, there have been similar cases in Real Life), but that wasn’t the case either.

The problem with the lack of verisimilitude is that it can shatter the reader’s suspension of disbelief.

It’s not possible to maintain suspension of disbelief for all the readers all the time, but you do want it as much as possible. Like, there are some readers who would not have their suspension of disbelief broken by this, but quite a few would.

So I think those are the two tells for writers who are just starting out and haven’t read very much outside their favorite genre – an overreliance on genre cliches and Real Life situations that don’t make sense or are not well-researched.

But that’s fine! It’s all part of the development process of a writer or another creative person.

I suspect that writers and other creatives go through a five-step process in their development.

1.) Inspired to create.

You see or read something amazing – THE LORD OF THE RINGS, STAR WARS, Sherlock Holmes, Pride & Prejudice, The Bourne Identity, whatever – and have the urge to create your own version of the thing that you thought was amazing.

2.) Practice and fail.

You try to create something amazing and similar to the thing you like, and it doesn’t go very well. Like, you can never quite finish, or you realize you’re only writing fanfiction of the thing you like. Many people get stuck here and give up. Those who keep trying will eventually improve, and jump to step three.

3.) Realize that you can do better.

A major milestone in the development of any creative person is when they read a book, see a painting, or watch a TV show that is successful and think to themselves “this is no good and I could do better than that.”

This is a necessary step in building confidence.

4.) Struggle to assimilate influences.

Any writer or artist is going to have influences, and it’s often a struggle to integrate them. Like, you can tell when a beginning fantasy writer is heavily influenced by Tolkien or Martin or Robert Jordan or whoever. Again, there is nothing wrong with this, and it is a necessary step. Eventually, you can be inspired by something without having it dominate your style.

5.) Settles on their own style.

Finally, if you persist long enough, you settle on your own style and voice. That’s where you have your own voice, but are confident enough to assimilate influences without being dominated by them.

The only way to reach this final step is through enough time and practice.

Now, where does reading outside your genre help with this? This allows you to draw in other influences that will strengthen your writing within your chosen genre.

For example, I don’t usually write mystery novels, but I’ve read a lot of them. I think that has strengthened both the GHOSTS and CLOAK GAMES/MAGE series quite a bit, since every other book is “Caina or Nadia have to solve a mystery for somebody.” GHOSTS is epic fantasy/sword & sorcery and CLOAK GAMES/MAGE is primarily urban fantasy, but by adding mystery elements into the series, I think the books are strengthened for it.

If you read widely enough, you can also approach genre cliches from a fresh direction or with a twist. Like, the brooding billionaire is an actor hired by the actual billionaire, to provide a public front while the actual billionaire gets on with the business of making money. Or a STAR WARS pastiche with Space Wizards who are less illogical than the Jedi. Or a brooding alcoholic genius detective who suddenly becomes a lot better at his job once he gives up alcohol and cigarettes.

So these five steps of writer evolution are only a theory, but this is my current theory of development for writers.

-JM