Genre-blending is the best-seller standard in today’s market. Romantasy has exploded thanks to BookTok and Bookstagram. But Romantasy isn’t the only genre blend, despite it being the obvious heavyweight. There’s also cozy blend (
Legends and Lattes – Fantasy;
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Horror;
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Sci-Fi (and more)), Sci-Fi Thriller (
Dark Matter, or
Project Hail Mary), and Historical Fantasy (
The City of Brass).
Using these four genre blends in particular (romantasy, cozy, sci-fi-thriller, and historical-fantasy), we’ll discuss how to identify the dominant arc (which genre will provide the inciting incident, climax, and resolution), and how to weave the secondary arc required beats into the timeline of the primary arc. You’ll learn how to stay true to the overarching genre’s mandatory checkpoints while ensuring the secondary genre’s contribution is impactful, satisfying, and marketable.
Attendees will learn:
- The non-negotiable beats of the most common dominant genres and where the secondary genre's beats can be slotted in for maximum impact;
- Techniques for satisfying two sets of reader expectations;
- How to use the secondary genre's beats to raise the stakes or create complications within the dominant genre's framework.
