# The primitives of specific genres There are certain predictable elements that must always exist in any expected type of story. These domains become "genres", and create conventions and constraints that every creator is required to honor. - Any significant violations of these genres will diverge into a subgenre of comedy or thriller, depending on the whether the creator is aiming for [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) or amusement. ## Comedy Set the character in a familiar setting that most of the audience will relate to. Make the world not work correctly in some way. - This can either be towards familiarity (i.e., relatable to our world) or surrealism (i.e., absurdly exaggerated from our world) Subgenres are effectively commentary on other tropes: - Action comedy (e.g., Last Action Hero) - Science fiction comedy (e.g., Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - Fantasy comedy (e.g., Discworld) ## Action Constantly changing scenes or perspectives that are only intentionally interspersed with calm moments to give a contrast. ## Suspense There must always be an unsolved mystery to both the main character and the audience. - This mystery must be *clearly* obvious that it's not answered. ## Speculative fiction Some genres are difficult to parse separately, and broadly fit into the domain of "speculative fiction". - This is because they all require an unusual amount of [imagination](mind-imagination.md) or suspension of disbelief, so they end up merging together in many ways. ### Horror/Thriller Only reveal portions of the antagonist, but never the full scope of the character, even during the climax of the story - Since we find strength in community, always employ some form of isolation (e.g., remote location, trapped inside something). The main character must be in a situation where the only people they can [trust](mind-trust.md) are in some way untrustworthy. - They can be any variety of unlikable, [narcissist](mind-neurodivergence-clusterb-narcissist.md), incompetent, or overly trusting. If any audio is present, use extremely low-frequency audio (infrasound) to evoke [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) The monster must always be hinted at before being shown, with an approximate order: 1. Demonstrate what the monster can do through the main characters witnessing its destruction. 2. Show a feature of the monster, but without the characters knowing. 3. The characters witness a different feature of the monster. 4. The monster causes more destruction. 5. The characters have their first encounter with the monster. 6. Everything intensifies up until the final conflict. ### Fantasy Every single fantasy story falls into several predictable tropes: - Fixed, predictable races (e.g., pretentious and long-lived elves, subterranean dwarves). - The presence of magic, but some type of explanation over why it isn't endlessly ubiquitous (e.g., needs incantations, drains life force). - An [economic](money-economics.md) structure and [culture](people-culture.md) that borrows heavily from the [medieval period](history-500-europe.jpg). ### Science fiction The dominant difference between sci-fi and fantasy comes in how much the author focuses on explaining the [technologies](technology.md) everyone uses. - If the story focuses on the characters and their journeys, it's often a fantasy with science fiction elements (e.g., Star Wars). - When the story focuses on details that would typically be boring to non-[specialists](jobs-specialization.md), it's a science fiction (e.g., original Star Trek) When interstellar travel is involved and the story doesn't have something like long-distance teleportation, there are specific conventions for spacecraft in visual media: 0. Retro-looking rocket - Looks like a toy rocket ship - e.g., Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon - Old-fashioned story, though it may be deliberate for [comedy](humor.md) reasons - Science may be loosely based on reality, but the form of the technology won't be concerned with actual science 1. Existing space hardware (or close enough) - Looks like [what we presently use](science-space.md) - e.g., Apollo 13, Marooned - Will either be a documentary, dramatized account, or alternate-history version of our world 2. Modular ring - Has a rotating portion to reproduce gravity - e.g., Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey - Implied to be in the near-enough future - Things usually go badly for the crew, and there's a good chance something will smash into the rotating rings 3. Consistent discrete elements - Very distinct elements such as engine and sensors, but relatively uncomplicated - e.g., Star Trek - The simplicity lends to consistency, and the story has many details that create [geek](mind-neurodivergence-geek.md) fights 4. Tons of detail - Complex plumbing, ports, and probes, but with wild variations in size and design - e.g., Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica - Typically will be a space opera, with technical terms but a focus on the story than any coherent working theory - Will be very character-focused, and the science will be closer to magic 5. Space luxury liner - Sleek design that borrows from modern luxury autos - e.g., The Fifth Element, Avenue 5 - A more focused story of wealthy people on a futuristic, gigantic pleasure vessel, potential story elements about [class struggle](classes.md) with the limited number of poor people on the ship 6. Gigantic saucer - A very large saucer, often within the Earth's atmosphere - e.g., War of the Worlds, Independence Day - The whole story will likely be about the saucer hovering motionless over a city, then lots of explosions 7. Simple/biomorphic shapes - Any variety of simple, pure geometric form or biological design components - e.g., Arrival, 2001: A Space Odyssey - A story that asks large questions about [human nature](humanity.md), with some [religious](religion.md) components mixed in ### Fantasy + Science Fiction Any deviation from conventional fantasy will typically diverge into adding science fiction elements. - Unfortunately, the scope of explanation necessary to develop a* world that is *very* different from ours means the creator will likely end up explaining all the details about the world as well.