Original subtitles

I used to puzzle a lot over what genre

was. I knew that I was writing sometimes

genre fiction, sometimes not. I knew

that I had a huge advantage in that the

majority of what I was writing as a

young writer was comics was graphic

novels which is a medium comics that

looks to the uninitiated like a genre.

But because it wasn't a genre, it was

just a medium. I was allowed to do

whatever I wanted. I could write

historical fiction. I could write

fantasy fiction. I could write high

fantasy and low fantasy. I could do

science fiction. I could do pure horror.

I could do political fiction. I could do

it all. And because it was all coming

out as comics, people didn't mind.

But what genre was baffled me.

It wasn't until I read a book by a film

professor

in California called Linda Williams um

who wrote a book called Hardcore

and it was a film professor's analysis

of hardcore pornography.

And threequarters of the way through the

book,

she compared hardcore pornography films

of the 1970s

to the musical.

And suddenly the penny dropped for me

because musicals like 1970s porn films

had certain things that have to happen.

You need the opening song by a large

chorus of people. You need the heroine

singing on her own about what she thinks

is going to happen. You need the song

that's the first meeting of our heroine

and our hero. You need the comic relief

song with the three robust people behind

him. You need all of those things ending

up with the final song which the hero

and the heroine sing together that

indicates they have been brought

together. You need the final chorus and

then we're out. And the truth is, in a

classic musical,

the plot exists purely to stop all of

the songs from happening at the same

time,

just as in a 70s porn film, according to

Linda Williams, the plot existed to stop

all of the sex happening at the same

time.

And I thought, actually,

that tells me what the difference is

between a cowboy novel and a novel set

in cowboy times.

Because you can just look at it from a

perspective of reader expectations.

What are they coming to this for? What

will they feel cheated if they do not

get?

They're going to expect the cattle

stampede. They're going to expect the

showdown at high noon. They're going to

expect the fight in the saloon. They're

going to expect um you start listing the

things and you go, "Okay, so the plot

actually needs to exist to keep all of

these things from happening at the same

time."

Or you can do a novel set in the Old

West and none of those things need to

happen. you can go after completely

different things, but you need to

understand at that point you're writing

something that might look like genre but

isn't. And that people may point to it

as genre and it's not. And that if

somebody picks up your novel expecting

genre, they will be disappointed just as

they would be if they went to see a

musical and there were no songs at all.

So

a lot of what you wind up doing then

with genre is going okay what makes

genre genre

what do people what would people feel

cheated

if they didn't get

earlier on we were talking about making

a novel out of that March short story

with Anne Bonnie the pirate and so at

that point you might start making a list

for yourself of, okay, if I wrote this

novel and there wasn't at least one

boarding of a ship,

people might feel a little cheated. I

should I'd like to put one in. It might

not You can always turn things around.

You don't actually ever have to give

people the thing they want in the way

they're expecting it. Actually, always

like it if you give them what they want

in a way that they're not expecting.

If you give them what they need but

didn't realize that they wanted in a way

that's unfamiliar, people like that. But

you're still trying to give them the

moments that are actually going to make

them feel like, yes, this is what I came

for. I'm getting my money's worth. They

are singing all of the songs in in the

order that those songs should be sung.

And actually, it's a musical. It's not a

mysterious musical. without songs.

Or you can go actually those things that

are musicals without songs, they're

called plays. They're okay, too. But

it's a different kind of thing. And you

need to know what you're going into and

what you're building.

I think understanding genre is a hugely

valuable tool for writers. Um, and if

you don't understand genre, you're going

to come across her.

It's very easy to look at fiction and

not quite get what genre is because the

surface trappings of genre are a lot

like the surface trappings of things

that aren't genre.

And yet, there is a huge difference.

There is a difference between a novel

set in the American Wild West and a

cowboy novel. There is a difference

between a novel set in the intelligence

community

and a spy story.

Um,

and if you don't understand that, you

will wind up disappointing your readers,

confusing your publishers, making a

general mess of things. If you do

understand it, then it can be useful for

you and you can use it or you can ignore

it. Many many years ago when I was 9 10

years old, I had an appalling lisp and

was sent to a uh elecution teacher named

Miss Webster. And Miss Webster

um had a number of Scotty dogs. I kind

of borrowed her for Coraline, her and

her best friend as the actresses in uh

Coraline. And she would smoke little

black cigarillos and and rest her arms

on her magnificent bosom as she listened

to me. And I remember once she listened

to my my reading of a speech from Puck.

At the end of it, she said, "Neil, dear,

before you can be eccentric, you have to

know where the circle is."

And I took that as glorious advice that

has always seen me safe.

Um, it's always good to know what the

rules are before you break them. It's

always good to know what the rules are

when you're breaking them. It's good to

know what the rules are, even if you're

going to ignore them absolutely

completely from the word go and just set

off to break them because at least that

way you know how people have been doing

this. You know how people ought to do

this. You know how people think they

ought to do this. And you can set off

and do whatever you like. But know

before you go,

know safely what the rules are and then

break them with joy.

When you're writing fiction,

um, you need to know more than the

reader.

You do not need to know everything, but

you always need to know more than the

reader does.

Now, the great thing about beginning any

piece of fiction is you know something

and that something is more than any

reader knows because the reader knows

nothing about what you're doing and you

at least know something.

But

where and who and how and what these are

all things that you can know and the

reader doesn't you the way you reveal

information

is in a way that suits you. It's not in

a way that necessarily is going to

initially suit the reader. you can know

more, which means that you can hide

things in the text, which means you can

set things up in the text, which means

that um you can play

with things

you can play with things as simple as

the fundamental sexism of language. For

example,

uh, in Sandman,

I took enormous pleasure

in Sandman number one, already having an

idea of who this family was and the

shape of it, um, of mentioning that a a

black magic organization in 1916 had

been attempting to capture Death, but

they had failed, and they had caught

Dream, Death's younger other.

And back in those days, people would

actually write letters to the editor and

the letters would come in. And I asked

the people of DC Comics if they would

mind just sending me the letters to the

editor as they came in. And I took

enormous pleasure

over the next months in seeing every now

and then at the end of a letter people

would say, "You've said that they were

trying to capture Death's younger

brother. When are we going to see

Dream's older brother, Death?"

And I, knowing full well that this was

going to be an older sister, um, just

took pleasure in that. I knew more about

the story that they did. I'd used I'd

built a little little trap

for

the reader. I knew that that was going

to be to my advantage. I knew that

having a reader think that something is

going to happen and actually something

else that will be much more

satisfactory, much more interesting, and

something they haven't seen is going to

be really fun. So, reader expectations

are a lovely thing to play with. and to

sail against. It's like the like the

wind on a little sailing ship. You're

you're using it to power you and it

comes sometimes from the side and it

pushes you forward.

For a writer starting out,

I would tend to push you away from genre

fiction. And I'll push you away from

genre fiction on the basis that you've

probably spent your life reading some

kind of genre fiction and you love genre

fiction and that's what you know.

And I think it's really important for a

young writer and it could be a young

writer of any age to get out of their

comfort zone. Go and write things that

you know

that aren't the fiction that you know.

Because if you write the fiction that

you know, then the best you'll ever be

is a good copy of somebody else and what

you're most likely to be is something

that looks like a photocopy of a

photocopy of a photocopy. and now you're

gray and unattractive and barely

readable.

Be yourself.

And that may involve dipping into genre.

It may involve going to lots of places.

But go explore. There are so many things

that you can do in fiction. Go find what

they are. Go play.