This post is all about the genre mashup drawbacks so you can prepare for the challenges before you start writing your own story.
Mixing genres can be a lot of fun and incredibly creatively liberating. But it can also lead to confusing stories, conflicting expectations, and a lot of frustration… for both you and your readers.
In the previous post, we explored all the fun and exciting benefits of writing a genre mashup—and now, it’s time to tackle the not-so-fun side of genre mashups. In this post, I’ll walk you through the genre mashup drawbacks, so you know exactly what you might be facing before you embark on this journey.
If you prefer the video version, check out the YouTube video below to discover the genre mashup drawbacks and what you can do to overcome them.
Genre Mashup Drawback #1: It Can Confuse Readers and Create Conflicting Expectations
Readers often have clear genre expectations
Reading a genre mashup can sometimes be quite confusing for the reader. Usually, people enjoy reading in clearly defined genres. There’s a certain structure, atmosphere, or specific elements they love about that genre, and when something completely unexpected suddenly appears in the story, it can throw them off.
Usually, when someone picks up a Regency romance novel, they expect a charming romantic atmosphere that leads to a happily ever-after ending. But when zombies suddenly show up, you might start wondering whether you accidentally picked up the wrong book. But it’s no accident. It’s actually a real book later turned into a movie, and it’s called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I only watched the movie, and I thought it was fun and a great example of a well-planned genre mashup. But there will definitely be people who might put down the book or switch movies the moment a zombie suddenly appears in a story where it clearly doesn’t belong. And according to traditional genre expectations, zombies are not exactly something people expect to encounter in a Regency romance setting.
So if you’re writing, or planning to write, a genre mashup, this is something you need to be very aware of. Not every reader will enjoy that kind of unexpected genre combination.
Too many unexpected elements can frustrate readers
Sometimes you pick up a book to read, and a few pages in, you start wondering… Is it a romance book, a post-apocalyptic story, a sci-fi novel, or a horror story? Each genre comes with its own expectations, tropes, and specific elements that readers expect to see when they pick up a book in a genre they love.
Not knowing what to expect can feel confusing and mentally exhausting for a reader who’s simply trying to relax for half an hour before going to bed. And when there are too many unexpected elements thrown together, the story can start to feel unfocused and difficult to follow.
Your reader might get frustrated, throw your book all the way across the room, and then immediately jump online to give your book a one-star review. So you definitely want to avoid that. Here’s how you can avoid that:
Study other genre mashups before writing yours
The best way to avoid this is by reading a lot of genre mashups, especially the ones with the best reviews. See what they did well. How did they blend elements from different genres? How did they market the book? What cover, title, and blurb did they use to attract their ideal reader?
But don’t stop at the genre mashups with the best reviews. When you’re done, start looking at the ones with the worst reviews too. Study them very carefully so you know exactly what to avoid. What did readers complain about in their reviews? What made them stop reading? What elements did they feel didn’t work well together?
By doing this kind of analysis, you’ll start to better understand what readers enjoy and what they hate in genre mashups. And the more you understand what works well together, the easier it will become to write the best genre mashup you possibly can.
Different readers will react differently
Just because some readers complained about certain elements in a genre mashup doesn’t mean there aren’t other readers who absolutely loved them. That’s why it’s important to look at a variety of opinions on genre mashups so you can be better informed before writing your own book.
No matter what kind of story you write—whether it’s a genre mashup or a story that fits perfectly within traditional genre expectations—there will always be some readers who love it and some who don’t. What matters most is preparing in advance so you can minimize the chances of frustrating the wrong readers and better connect with the right ones.
Genre Mashup Drawback #2: It Makes It Harder to Market and Position
Genre mashups can be difficult to categorize and sell
When you’re not writing in one clearly defined genre, it can be much more difficult to market and position your book. Whether your book ends up on a physical bookstore shelf or in an online store, you still have to assign it a category so readers know where to find it.
If you’re combining a clean small-town romance with a post-apocalyptic nuclear disaster story, you still need to place it in the right category—or on the right shelf—so the right readers can discover it. But where exactly does it go?
Now, if you’re simply writing for fun and not trying to make a living from your writing, this might not feel like such a big issue. You’re just having fun creating the stories you love, and that’s awesome! And it also gives you a lot more creative freedom to experiment.
But if you’re hoping to earn a living from your writing, then positioning your book correctly and marketing it in a way that appeals to the right readers becomes extremely important. If they can’t find it, they won’t read it.
Covers, keywords, and genre expectations become more complicated
It’s not just the category you have to choose carefully. You also need to think about the keywords, the cover, and the blurb. All of these play a huge role in helping the right readers actually find your book.
With genre mashups, you need to make it especially clear what kind of story readers are getting into, because it’s not always as straightforward as books that fit neatly into a single genre.
One possible way to make things easier could be to choose one main genre and then add elements from another genre into it. That can help create fewer challenges, both with the marketing and with the writing itself.
Genre Mashup Drawback #3: Balancing Multiple Genres Can Be Challenging to Write
Blending Different Genre Elements Can Be Overwhelming
So far, we’ve talked about the drawbacks of writing genre mashups from the reader’s perspective. We’ve seen how challenging it can sometimes be to find, follow, and fully understand a genre mashup. But genre mashups can also create challenges for the writer.
While readers only see the final polished version of your story, you’re the one who has to go through all the messy drafts before anyone gets to see the final version. You have to combine elements from different genres and somehow make them all work together in a way that makes sense. And that’s not an easy job for you. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It just means you need to plan things a little more carefully so the story doesn’t become confusing for you while you’re writing it.
And it’s not just the genre elements themselves that you’re trying to mix together. Keep in mind that every genre comes with its own tone, pacing, atmosphere, and even its own style of ending. In a genre mashup, you need to blend those elements together in a way that feels natural and works well with the genres you’re combining.
The important thing here is not simply to throw different genre elements into the same story, but to carefully blend them together so they actually complement one another. You want them to work together as one cohesive story, rather than feeling like separate genres fighting for attention throughout the book. And there is a solution to this problem.
I think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies does this really well. It doesn’t treat the Pride and Prejudice story and the zombie elements as two separate parts. Instead, it blends them together into one cohesive story where both genres feel like they naturally belong. The result is a story that makes sense and keeps the reader—or, in my case, the viewer—entertained from beginning to end.
Genre Mashups Often Require More Planning and More Drafts
All of this can feel quite overwhelming, especially if you’re a beginner writer. That’s why carefully planning your genre mashup from the very beginning can help reduce a lot of the confusion before you even start writing.
And remember, you can always make things clearer in the next draft. In fact, you may need to go through several drafts to make sure all your genre elements blend well together before you publish your book. But all of this is completely normal. Sometimes genre mashups simply need a little more polishing before your manuscript is finally ready to go out into the world.
Despite all these problems, you shouldn’t give up on your story.
The Genre Mashup Drawbacks Shouldn’t Stop You From Writing One
I shared these genre mashup drawbacks with you today not to discourage you from writing one, but to help you become aware of the challenges that can appear when you decide to write and publish a genre mashup. The more aware you are of these challenges of writing a genre mashup, the better you can prepare for them. And when the time comes to write, market, and publish your story, you’ll have a much clearer idea of how to make your genre mashup connect with the right readers.
And while writing a genre mashup can definitely be challenging, it can also be a lot of fun and creatively liberating.
This post was all about the genre mashup drawbacks. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy this post:
Genre Mashup Benefits for Writers: Unlock Creativity and Fresh Story Ideas
Now it’s your turn. Have you tried writing a genre mashup? What kind of challenges did you face while writing one and how did you overcome them? Let me know in the comments.
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