Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series!
Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft.
Today’s Exercise is
Genre Switch
- Objective: To explore the conventions of genre by applying them to an unexpected story.
- How to Play:
- Take a well-known story, like a fairy tale (“Cinderella”) or a famous myth (“Icarus”).
- Each writer is assigned a different genre (e.g., Sci-Fi, Film Noir, Western, Horror, Romance).
- Everyone has 15 minutes to rewrite the beginning of the story in their assigned genre. Reading the different takes on the same source material aloud is always revealing and entertaining.
- Best for: Understanding genre tropes, developing voice and tone.
Use a story and genre from these lists, or choose your own. You can’t choose wrong:
Stories:
Little Red Riding Hood | Goldilocks and the Three Bears |
Hansel and Gretel | Jack and the Beanstalk |
Snow White | Cinderella |
Beauty and the Beast | The Three Little Pigs |
Sleeping Beauty | The Little Mermaid |
Rumpelstiltskin | The Ugly Duckling |
The Tortoise and the Hare | The Boy Who Cried Wolf |
King Midas | Theseus and the Minotaur |
The Flight of Icarus | Pandora’s Box |
Orpheus and Eurydice | Hercules and the Twelve Labors |
King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone | Robin Hood |
The Trojan Horse | A Christmas Carol |
Frankenstein | Dracula |
The Picture of Dorian Gray | Romeo and Juliet |
Hamlet | The Wizard of Oz |
Alice in Wonderland | Peter Pan |
Noah’s Ark | David and Goliath |
The Garden of Eden (Adam & Eve) | Sherlock Holmes (e.g., The Hound of the Baskervilles) |
Genres:
Science Fiction | Space Opera (A subgenre of Sci-Fi focusing on grand, adventurous themes and galactic empires) |
Cyberpunk | Dystopian Fiction |
Post-Apocalyptic | High Fantasy |
Horror | Gothic |
Slasher Film (A subgenre of Horror with a focus on a high body count and a stalking killer) | Film Noir / Hardboiled Detective |
Western | Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com) |
Slapstick Comedy (Focuses on exaggerated physical humor and absurd situations) | Satire / Parody |
Espionage Thriller | Political Thriller |
Courtroom Drama | Procedural (Police, medical, or legal; focuses on the step-by-step process of a profession) |
Mockumentary | Found Footage |
Musical | Superhero |
War Film | Coming-of-Age (Focuses on a protagonist’s journey from youth to adulthood) |
Melodrama (Heightened emotions, sensational plots, and a clear divide between good and evil) | Silent Film (The story must be told visually, with minimal or no audible dialogue) |
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