Genre is safe. Genre is comfortable. Genre tells us, as readers, what to expect. As writers, genre gives us guidelines to follow, which can make it a lot easier to plan a story: put the villain monologue here, put the meet cute there, tragically kill the protagonist’s mentor in this part of the story. But do we rely on genre conventions too much? Can genre hold us back? Is genre busting good? In this episode of Rite Gud, we are joined by writer and designer Matt Maxwell.
Recommended reading:
- Jeff Bezos had a 12-step guide for making ‘iconic’ TV shows that Amazon Studios execs had to follow, according to a new book
- The CIA recruited ‘mind readers’ to spy on the Soviets in the 1970s
- Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
- Peter Watts, Blindsight
- Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
- Frank Herbert, Dune
- Matt’s website
Header image by estartee on Flickr
About Rite Gud: Raquel S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes, critiques and more.
The Rite Gud theme is by Surgeryhead. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Soundcloud.
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