How writers create their own categories
Categories are created at unlikely intersections, spotted by writers with an intimate understanding of one or multiple sub-categories. — Nicolas Cole
You match different:
- audiences,
- genres,
- and writing styles,
to create a new category. For example:
- Audience X Genre → You take a classic genre (historical fiction), but you target an unusual audience (kids or immigrants or war veterans).
- Genre x Genre → You combine two genres that don’t go typically together (How to + Thriller or Survival + Sci-fi)
- Audience/Genre x Style → You target the usual audience and genre but with an unusual style or tone. For example Mark Manson did this writing in a harsher way for the self-help niche.