: Re: Series: How can I get my reader to not expect any one genre? Background: I'm planning on writing an extensive series of fantasy books. I plan on writing quite a few of these books, and while

@Sherry594

Allude to the other stories as you go.


Today, we are telling the story of [dystopian country]. It is not a particular happy country, not like we were talking about [utopian country] where they had a functional, working government. That's another story. Here, the government...


You can then explain why this country is dystopian. And you could likely get more poetic in your description of the utopian country, but I didn't want to try to make real prose for this. The basic idea is "That's another story."

Now, when you subtitle a book, "A Tale of [utopian country]," people will be expecting it to be utopian because you set your expectations properly.

A similar approach can help with romances. I'm not telling a romantic story today, but someday I may tell you about...

Also consider embedding other genres in your story. For example, your protagonist may leave the dystopian country and spend a chapter or two in the utopian country. Write that as if it were a short story, with a different feel. Perhaps have the protagonist participate in a farce or a mystery. Then, when your story is genre switching, it won't be a surprise. Establishing this early is better.

Incidentally, particularly in the earlier departures, try to stick to the cliches. Your dystopia can transcend cliches as the main story. These departures want to clearly set a different tone. Sticking to the cliches can help that. Later, when you are writing books in the alternate genres, you can have the books transcend the cliches. So save your cliche transcending ideas for those books. Write them down, but outside your stories. Because you can pick the best for your books, that will make the books stronger. The short departures can handle relative weakness.

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