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How To Meet Genre Expectations And Still Be Creative
Every story has a reader
“Your romance doesn’t feel like… a romance.”
That was the feedback that stopped me cold. I’d spent months crafting what I thought was a brilliant, genre-defying love story for my debut novel. I was so proud of how “different” it was, how it subverted every romance trope I could think of.
My beta reader was trying to be kind, but the message was clear: I’d been so busy being creative that I’d forgotten my readers entirely.
And every reader comes with a set of unspoken expectations.
I remember being torn between following genre conventions and trying to write something completely unique. In my mind, following romance “rules” meant I wasn’t a real artist. Real writers broke boundaries, right? They didn’t pander to formulaic expectations.
I was wrong.
It took that honest feedback, and several more conversations with readers, for me to realize that adhering to genre expectations isn’t about stifling your voice. It’s about providing a familiar framework that invites readers into your world. And then, once they’re comfortable, you get to surprise them.
