How Combining Genres Will Help Your Screenwriting Career

Creating a script that rises above the rest is no easy feat. Agents, managers, producers and development executives get sent dozens if not hundreds of scripts every week. If you want your screenplay to make it through the “Hollywood filtration system” it needs to not only be blazing hot, it needs to serve up something fresh and unique.

More and more screenwriters trying to break into the industry are combining genres to create stories that stand out from the crowd. Don’t get me wrong, familiar “single genre projects” still get made all the time but they generally come from established writers. If you’re an unknown and want to make an impression, you’ll need something original. Horror-comedy, fantasy-adventure, romantic-sci-fi — any and all genres are fair game to be ‘blended’ these days — and if you can do it well, it can have huge payoff. You might create the next great script this industry didn’t know they always wanted.

Here are some tips on combining genres, and why writing a blended-genre script might be your ‘Hollywood Golden Ticket’:

1. Be a leader not a follower

Hollywood isn’t looking for the same script they’ve seen a hundred times, they want to find one that breaks away from the pack - and with so much content available these days, that’s hard to do. Modern audiences know every horror trope, they’ve seen every flavor of romantic movie, and they can reenact every sitcom ‘situational joke’ under the sun. If you follow genre rules to the letter, chances are higher you’ll wind up with a predictable story we’ve seen before. But if you create a genre hybrid - your script will  instantly be different from every other “single genre” script out there. When done right, this can equal a script that has familiar tropes of two or more genres we know and love, but serves it up in a way that feels exciting and new. So, what genre mash-up inspires you? Maybe it’s zombie-romance or surreal-comedy - anything is possible if done well.

2. Double the genre can equal double the audience

If you create a blazing hot script with more than one genre, your movie or TV show has the potential to entice more than one demographic. Hollywood loves blended demographics. Why? It usually means more revenue. For example the movie, Happy Death Day blended comedy with horror. The movie attracted fans of horror as well as fans of comedy. The award winning film Pan’s Labyrinth blended war drama with fantasy and horror. Three genres for the price of one. Again, you need to execute a multi-genre script exceptionally well for it to pay off, but if you do, and your script showcases the potential to pull in multiple demographics for a larger box office or viewing audience, chances are Hollywood will pay attention.

3. Know the rules before you break them

You might think writing a script with two or more genres sounds easy because it breaks with convention - there are no rules, right?! Wrong. Audiences have expectations for everything they watch. If they choose to watch a comedy they expect to laugh, if they choose a horror they expect to be scared, if they choose a romance they expect to get those ‘warm and fuzzy feelings’. This means you as the screenwriter need to be aware of what your audience is expecting so you deliver on their expectations. If you write a comedy-horror film and your audience isn’t scared OR amused, they’re going to walk away disappointed. The most successful genre-blending screenplays deliver both genres in near-equal fashion. It’s all about balancing the elements of both genres. That being said…

4. Don’t be afraid to make it your own

Don’t be afraid to add your ‘unique writer voice’ to your mixed genre script. The real magic of a multi-genre screenplay is how you play within the genres you’ve chosen. Yes, deliver enough familiarity that anyone watching knows what genre(s) they’re in, but also surprise your audience by subverting their expectations. Maybe you wrote a comedy-horror and in a moment when your audience expects a terrifying jump scare, you serve up a laugh instead. If you can successfully marry the expectations of two or more genres and put your own spin on it you will have a wholly original script on your hands. And that’s something Hollywood loves - a story that feels fresh and familiar all at the same time.

Have you written a genre-blended screenplay? What are your best tips and tricks? Let me know @CaroleKirsch!