Is the Genre Shift inevitable?

It just seems that in most stories , it alomst inevitable that somewhere along the line it going to shift into another genre and it will stay that way for awhile. Lets Bob was writng a romance comedy fanfic with no real continuity but as soon as a character starts doing something shocking or out of place, it stops being funny and starts being more serious from now on. Bob's fic now has its own continuity now and it effectively retconned any of the funny elements that it started out with. . Is the genre shifting inevitable when you start out with stories like that? Or can you stop it before it happens?

My genres tend to be rather free-form. From steampunk war drama to stylized western to city noir superhero story, all within the general genre of alternate history. That's just my largest project, too.

I don't really worry about it. The object is to tie everything together and make it coherent and likeable, and to make everything work properly. If the genre disconnects from the anchor a bit for the sake of doing so, who am I to complain about it?

Of course, if it's not accomplishing anything other than "this is really cool!" or some other variation of that non-argument that amounts to "it's here because I want it, not because it serves a purpose to the plot, characters, and/or setting," then it's going to fuck everything all up.

I mash genres together into a fine dough. I'll go back and forth from genres all the time. From Slice of Life moments to the Sniping Mission to a Gundam-esque mecha battle and more and back again.

Yeah, I tend to use a lot of genres as well. If I catch something I'm writing changing genre now, I just chalk it up to my Signature Style at work, because everything I write includes at least some elements of about a half-dozen genres.

As far as trying to railroad a story into being one genre, like the OP was talking about? I think that'd probably be harmful to the story in the long run. Especially with the example cited, which sounds a lot like Growing the Beard to me (at least, assuming the shift in tone is handled well).

Neither Genre Shift nor Cerebus Syndrome (which is what you really seem to be talking about) is inevitable. I like mixing up genres, but I tend to do it right from the start rather then over time.

Genre Shift seems inevitable in the two original fictions that I wrote for Na No Wri Mo. They take place in the same world. The first one is more light-hearted fantasy about the protagonist learning to use magic from his new friend and Familiar from a parallel world.

The second one takes place 50 years later, and has the main country, Sentria embroiled in a civil war. Magic and the Familiars are still used in partnership with their human Magicians, but it shows a darker side of how the bond between them could be used as a weapon of war.

So far for me it's been inevitable. I've wondered sometimes though if my second story is too dark to be the sequel to my first one.

edited 6th Jan '12 11:11:29 AM by Misuki

Is Genre Shift inevitable, no, you can avoid it if you really, consciously want to and make the effort. Is it common, yes, because the story evolves and sometimes it evolves into something it wasn't, originally. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

Major Tom and Noir Grimoire pretty much posted everything I was going to say. I don't even really look at genres, I just write/watch as stories evolve naturally. Whether or not it goes in a completely different direction depends, and sometimes the work is all the better for it. This doesn't necessarily mean a retcon on what may have made it good before, either. In fact, the shift in tone could easily be noted in-story, even if only as the characters looking back at how things once were and how they can never go back to those kinds of times.

I've said in the past that I find the commonness of Cerebus Syndrome (which, again, seems to be what this thread is primarily talking about) rather depressing. But in individual cases it certainly can help a work.

I'll give you that. Why do things have to get real, in a sense. Why can't they stay chill? I like chill. I don't believe that it's a requirement that True Art Is Angsty. Every fun thing does not have to be derailed into some epic, serious, gritty problem.

edited 9th Jan '12 9:06:44 PM by NoirGrimoir

I'm thinking particularly of comedic works - the fact that most long-running ones either get serious or suffer from Status Quo Is God kind of depresses me. It's like it's impossible to really combine comedy with continuity.

The reason it's common is that genres exist for sorting works, not for writing them.

I agree. Whenever I write a story, I don't have the genre in mind until I've finished or come close to finishing. The genre is the sum of all the story's events after all.