WGA writer Michael Tabb has written for Universal Studios, Disney Feature Animation, comic book icon Stan Lee, and other industry players. Michael's new book, Prewriting Your Screenplay: a Step-by-Step Guide to Generating Stories, is available now. Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelTabb and Instagram @michaeltabbwga.

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Genre is how films are categorized through establishing one of three popular constants:

Genre allows us to identify, classify, and segregate the styles of storytelling before going into the complexities and details of genre classifications and what they mean.

Once I have selected a premise (the hypothesis I want my script to communicate) and brainstormed situations to argue it, it’s time to start imagining how it might look in different genres. While some premises might fit better into a specific genre, other heartfelt premises can be told through any genre lens. Only the writer can figure out which mood best makes their case and how they wish to make it. For example, the story of western colonization unjustly eradicating indigenous cultures can be seen through a historical genre like Dances with Wolves or science fiction as seen in Avatar. Both films tell the tale of a soldier from an invading force with superior weaponry expanding into an epic, new frontier. During the second act, a female of that indigenous tribe, against her own initial personal wishes, is ordered to serve as liaison to the soldier and educates him in their ways. The outsider falls in love with the woman as he also falls in love with her culture and its people. Eventually, he protects them against his own kind. These are the same exact stories.

It's intoxicating to watch visually imaginative films, which make it easier to absorb profound concepts presented in an entertaining context that feels further removed from our reality. Allegories like Avatar are a great way to reach the hearts of viewers without looking like you are lecturing your audience from a soapbox. This is one way to make a deeply meaningful premise into something commercial. Meanwhile, showing this in a historical context holds a very different but equally cinematic and compelling version of this same narrative. Dances with Wolves won a slew of Academy Awards for the power of this vision, including their highest honor, Best Picture of the Year, and Avatar shattered a slew of box office records. Both versions are equally valid choices. So, it stands to reason that genre selection speaks volumes about the writer. It is one of most significant ways in which writers convey their voice as artists to buyers and reveals how each writer tackles subject matter.

Therefore, think hard about the kind of movies you want to write when picking the genre, because genre is often used to define the writer. I would be remiss if I didn’t remind writers that when selecting a genre for a script, it might determine the types of writing opportunities for which one might be considered. This is why genre is more important than ever to a writer's career.

Many screenwriters want to know why Hollywood needs to define them by genre. Now, I know those of us that studied screenwriting in college can write in any genre; it’s just a matter of tool selection. A screwdriver is still a screwdriver, whether Phillips or flathead. Screenplays are all written in the same structure, and all flawed characters can be created the same way regardless of a story’s tone. I don’t disagree with this argument some writers make, but it will not change how executives think. It's like asking, "Why do they keep putting people like Jim Carrey, Will Farrell, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Adam Sandler in comedies?" The answer is, "Because they have proven they're good at it. Therefore, it makes sense and is smart business."

If feeling pigeonholed ever bothers a writer, writers can write their way into new territory at any time. It's not the same for actors or directors who wish to change direction. For them, it requires a significant investment. For us, we just put a little time aside and do what we do best.

I should also mention that once in a long while, this common genre-specific hiring practice is broken. If it wasn't, Steve Kloves wouldn’t have been selected to write seven of the eight Harry Potter films. Now, I’m sure it didn’t hurt that JK Rowling was a huge fan of his film The Fabulous Baker Boys, and it likely helped that he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the WGA, Golden Globes, and Academy Awards for Wonder Boys just prior. That said, it’s illogical for even WGA writers to get that kind of latitude from Hollywood executives. A lot of stars need to align to make it happen.

So, write something different if that's what you want to do. Nobody in the world is stopping you. I do this all the time between writing gigs and drafts. I have writing samples now in most genres.

Premise provides the film's purpose. It fills a story with passion and meaning. Meanwhile, genre allows the writer to choose how to relay that message. It takes that light of inspiration from the premise and allows the writer to shine it through a specific lens. Think of it as sunshine through a kaleidoscope. Genre establishes a mood, color, and tone for the reader (audience) of that story. It conveys more than just the style of the film. Most important to those who finance movies, the exact genre tells studios how to sell the movie and helps determine to whom (through demographics). How you turn a feeling and a statement into a movie is through the marketing tool of genre. Genre tells a studio how they will sell your idea. It’s important to note that it wasn’t always that way.

In Shakespeare’s time, stories were divided into only three major categories: comedy, tragedy, and histories. Comedy didn’t mean funny back in Elizabethan times. Tragedy meant a sad story traditionally ending in the death of the central character(s). Comedy meant it did not end in tragedy (happy endings featuring love and marriage), and histories meant it was “inspired” by real people or events. Later, tragedy started to be called drama because comedy started to be associated with humor and not all dramatic stories ended in tragedy.

Through the centuries, perception and greater clarification is constantly being sought to quantify stories. It helps audiences enter the theater in the right mindset, and it helps producers market the story to their customers. The smarter mankind has become about buying and selling entertainment, the more clarity they want. People want to know what they are buying. Therefore, the number of different genres has expanded quite a bit.

Nowadays, you would still call Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It comedies, but modern producers would call The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasy. King Lear and Hamlet could still be called a tragedy or drama, but Macbeth would really be considered a psychological thriller, Romeo and Juliet would be called a romantic tragedy, and Titus Andronicus might even be considered horror. The KingHenry and Richard plays were dubbed histories, which in the film business today, we’d call biopics, but each would likely include a supporting genre as well. The Henry stories are war stories set with the conflict either within England’s hierarchy or France, while Richard III is really more of a thriller as the title character murders his way to the throne.

Genre has gone from a form of simplification to a strict pinpointing of demographic and market appeal. Production companies specialize in specific genres, be it comedy, horror, or action. So many inexperienced people in our industry think artists are the only people who get pigeonholed. They’re dead wrong. Producers can get the same treatment. Studios want to buy product and put behind the scenes people who have worked successfully in that type of product before, so even producers get typecast.

Then there are genres most companies don’t even want to consider, the principal of which tend to be historical pieces, and they all have their reasons. Everything in a period piece runs up the cost of production, including: hunting down or creating suitable locations, appropriate transportation in the film, costuming… It’s even harder to write because dialogue cannot break the illusion of the period or setting. It all becomes stylized. Nowadays, it’s more difficult to get anyone to read westerns than it is to write them. Believe it or not, even comedy is a niche market because the comedic sensibilities are different all over the globe.

Meanwhile, thrillers are popular internationally because the stakes (life and death) are a universally understood set of circumstances. Like it or not, those are the facts. Writers need to understand this so they know the challenges before selecting a genre.

Hollywood insiders follow genre trends and popularity. Spec scripts that sell are often broken up in marketplace analysis and categorized by genre. When people talk about current trends in movies, they don’t talk about whether it was character versus plot-driven or premise versus concept-driven. They will sometimes look at whether star-driven films are hitting or whether original or previously existing intellectual properties are trending, but, more than anything, it’s almost always measured by genre. Even the subgenre trends are debated. As audiences have gotten savvier, so have the genre classifications. The measuring of even the most detailed subgenre trends is very common. It’s no longer just movies about monsters in general that are selling, but they pinpoint which type of monster, be it vampires, werewolves or zombies.

It's important for writers to understand that this is how the industry works outside of our creative bubble. There are so many moving variables; you might be wondering one thing...

As much as genre is a huge part of the picture for buyers and sellers, all of that trend thinking actually has very little to do with what genre a writer chooses to write. I never chase trends because by the time a decent writer pens and edits a great spec for a hip trend, chances are the trend has already passed. Writers need to know what’s going on because we all have our little treasure chests of unsubmitted scripts waiting for the right time to see the light. When it comes to what we are starting to write in the present, genre boils down to two things: the writer’s personal voice and what speaks best to the subject matter (premise). Trend has nothing to do with it. We write what we write and understand market fluctuations are just a part of the game. It's simply something to understand; do not worry about it. These are the fads and phases of our industry, but unlike real trends that don't always come back into popularity, genres do every so many years. Besides, I have always held the belief that when a script is amazing, great writers make trends, not follow them.

Genre creates certain expectations within the viewer and opens a door for the writer to deliver upon them. Each genre promises to elicit certain responses or feelings inside the audience member based on their prior experience from having seen those types of stories. Screenwriters use the audience's ingrained knowledge of the genre to affect them with familiar tropes in original ways. It’s a backdoor way of sneaking under the skin of the audience before the lights even dim in the movie theater. When audiences go to see a comedy, they are ready to laugh. When they pay for a suspenseful thriller, something as simple as a slow walk down a long hallway can put viewers on the edges of their seats, creating expectation because they know something can pop out at any moment.

Yes, it is a form of emotional manipulation, but it's voluntary. In fact, it’s why they’re paying to see the movie. Genre is the unspoken agreement between the writer and the audience for the experience they promise to give. We use what the audience already knows about the genres so that we don’t have to start fresh on page one of the script. We use expectation to seduce and affect them, playing the strings inside the human instrument… Inside the viewer.

There are so many great metaphors for this. It's like writers have an inside man deep undercover already inside the audience’s brain. Genre is our secret agent behind enemy lines. It's the I.V. already stuck in their vein when they sit in the theater. Genre makes sure that the viewers are predisposed to affect them when we want to get their blood pumping. We use genre as a tool to reach an audience more effectively, queued into their receptivity. It’s the open door into the subconscious, full of preexisting, preprogrammed, conditioned responses planted there from their earliest memories of entertainment. Genre is exploiting their Pavlovian training, if the writer is skilled enough to correctly play upon those tropes.

A movie can sometimes be poorly told, but audiences will still enjoy it because it delivered on the promises made by the genre in advertising. When done perfectly, without speaking to one another, the writer is working in tandem with the marketing team that handles all the P&A (print and advertising) for the film. Because of this, the viewer comes to the movie prepared by the advertising in the right frame of mind to hear the writer's story.

I never think of genre as something I have to use. Instead, I would consider myself foolish if I didn't take advantage of its attributes. I would never deprive myself of the opportunity to affect my audience in whatever particular manner I wish. Genre guides the context for my premise into an effective delivery mechanism, offering a proven method of distribution of my hypothesis. It gives story a clear and linear path, never all over the place. All the same, not all writers see it that way.

Defining a film’s genre can be very restrictive to writers, making them feel painted into a corner with an obligation to quantify their work. Inexperienced writers often don’t feel deft and agile enough within a genre’s toolbox to do everything they want to with their story. It takes time and patience. Directors have told me that when they are forced to make something work within certain conditions, the limitations sometimes allows them to focus and find the specific solutions they need that are simple and most meaningful. Genre can be that way for the writer. We know to explore the mood and tone set forth by the genre, so we can feel our way forward with clarity and focus. Personally, I find utilizing genre liberating and helpful. In fact it doesn’t restrict my choices, but it tells me where I need to break new ground.

Inexperienced writers feel like genre selection makes their scripts predictable and confined. I never feel confined because my goal is always to take the genre to places we have never seen it. In an action script, I focus on writing action sequences with acts that are brave, original, and heart-pounding, whether it’s putting it in a wild location or how the character physically handles confrontation. In science fiction, I want to use technology in a way no other movie has. In comedy, I want to laugh at things people haven’t laughed at in that way. It’s all about perception and innovation… Breaking new ground with fresh ideas. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy making something the same but different, yet that’s our job as artists. The writer can’t blame the genre if he or she can’t do something new with it any more than a painter can blame his or her brush.

Though there is a little fluidity between genres, there should be one constant tone throughout the script. When describing a script of mine, I never pitch it as more than a mash-up of two dominant genres. Two is the maximum. Listing too many genres is like wearing a neon sign around your neck that reads amateur writer. Some of the below films are mash-ups of more than one genre, but I list them under the primary genre.

If your screenplay is going to catch the eye of the studios, it should be written for the buyers but still speak from the heart with its premise. Now, you don't pitch a premise to others. If anyone does ask you for the premise of your story, chances are they are asking for the story's basic situation. They are using the word as it's found in any dictionary, not the technical term explained in my last article. Meanwhile, you always pinpoint the genre for them. It shows buyers you know your audience and through what cinematic and visual devises they can sell your idea to the masses. You will notice that in many genres, the world in which it is set has scope that fits the tone.

There are a lot of different articles and breakdowns of what makes something a specific genre. I'll lay out my very simple definitions for each. Ask yourself which singular genre can best convey your premise in the most entertaining way. Here are your choices:

Here are examples of successful films in those specific genres:

If you’re a writer, whichever genre you select for your story, you should have seen all those movies listed for that genre.

There's a saying in the industry -- if the story does not require it to be animated due to the vast need of special effects and wild visuals like talking animals and miraculous things... Then it shouldn't be one. Some might say the same thing goes for science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, musical, etc. If the concept, plot, and story do not involve the necessity of those budget-burdensome elements... Why use them? It makes your film harder to produce. Most writers who have written anything set in a previous time period has heard from some producer, "If you had just set this today..." In short, people reject work simply based on the genre and era in which the writer sets it. Don't let that dissuade you. There's a great lesson in this.

Once a writer selects a genre, it's important to infuse that story with constant, visual elements and plot developments that specifically fit that genre in particular. The entire story needs to feel like the genre you selected and be hard to imagine done any other way. The genre should be inseparable from the plot. Gravity must be science fiction because it's about someone stranded in outer space. Pitch Perfect is all about an acappella singing group trying to win a performance competition, so how could it not be a musical? There's no way to tell the story of a boy going to wizard school without Harry Potter being fantasy. This means that picking a genre is the beginning of integrating traditional, cinematic concepts to the hypothesis of the story, your premise.

Selecting the genre has to do with how you plan on telling the story. Let's say you want to tell a story about aging. If it's a science fiction, the plot could focus on characters dealing with new scientific methods of dealing with aging like the film In Time or how older people are disregarded by society, see Logan's Run. If you want to talk about it as an innately supernatural story, consider the concept of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. If it's a drama, the person could be battling Alzheimer's like Still Alice and Away From Her. In a disaster film, the frail body of an elder protagonist should make everything the character has to do in order to survive harder, from outrunning to climbing the cataclysm.

A script should not include or force superfluous things into it just to throw in bits of genre here and there. You do not just throw in a bunch of cool ideas for genre-specific beats and elements that do not relate to the major turning points within the plot. The key is to nestle the premise so deep within the genre that they become inseparable. It's part of the blueprint for the story, where everything in it should be a necessity of telling that specific story. 

Now, genres even have subgenres. Here are a few examples of subgenre:

Subgenres narrow the framework of the story for more direct targeting, giving the script a hook on which to market the film. Some subgenres can slip into more than one genre, like spy thriller, action or comedy films, buddy comedy, action or (b)romance, noir crime, thriller or mystery. It's the details within the details.

The more clearly defined the story is, the clearer the picture of what you hope to write becomes. This is a large part of unfogging the mist within the crystal ball so that the writer can get a clear view of the future story. Once you select a genre, this informs how your script should be consistently written in tone and mood. It pilots the script into the world in which the writer will set his or her story.

Before deciding which genre you want to use for your story, start asking yourself how would you tell your premise in each genre. How would it be interpreted in an action versus adventure story. Is there someone in history that made you feel the way you do about the hypothesis you have made and would that person be well known enough to prove a worthy topic of a biopic? What war or sport would you set it in and why? Can the hypothesis work as a mystery, thriller, or crime film? How would a fantasy, supernatural and science fiction version of that premise be explored, each in a unique way? Play with it. Considering where and when would be the best place to set that premise might lead you toward one genre or another. You may find yourself with more than one viable way to tell the story. Then you get to do the very best part of the writer's job, and that is keep the best and cut the rest. Just because you pick one genre now doesn't mean you can't tell this premise again in a totally different genre at another time.

After exploring your options, which way of making the point you want to make gets you 1) thinking most visually about how the genre serves your statement, and 2) it's the genre that gets you the most excited to write, regardless of the specific visuals that come with your premise. Use those two qualifiers to narrow down that decision.

Pick a genre for each premise that:

This brings me to an important classification of writers. Some scribes are thematic writers, while others are what I call genre writers. Thematic writers hop around from genre to genre, and the thing that gets those writers going is what they want to say to the world with their core premise. Others aren't tied to a specific message or personal truth at all. They are storytellers of a specific genre, and they can say anything within it.

The writers that get the most work establish themselves as an expert in a single genre. Having a specialty helps sell the writer to buyers on specific projects. So, if there is a specific genre you love and want to develop a name for yourself in, start doing so now. Again, it's not enough to be a fan of that genre; the genre writer needs to become an expert in it. They would have seen every movie listed above next to their main genre. Young writers should give serious thought to a specialty. You don't want your ears, nose and throat doctor in charge of your open-heart surgery, would you? It's the same concept. Having a specialty of genre works in all mediums, not just film. So, if that's how you work, this step in the process was easy as hell; the genre is chosen.

We work in a visual medium, and, therefore, the best and most cinematic ideas stem from the pictures in our heads. For each genre I write in, I brainstorm a laundry list of specific, physical visuals, including: images, items, props, sets, actions, situations, scenes, tense moments, and characters that come to mind when you think of the genre. When I write a screenplay, I try to assemble hundreds of visual ideas (little nuggets of inspiration) before I start using it to plot my film. Think of the kinds of locations and settings that cinematically fit a genre, like vineyards and long walks on tropical beaches... Tahiti, Paris, Prague, Martha's Vineyard, Kyoto, Dubrovnik, Quebec, Bruges, the Swiss Alps, Venice or Tuscany. I picture the world and put my head in it. It's the beginning part of the process we call, "World building."

You will notice that the world in which any story is set has a heightened level of stakes. There are only two things the world can agree are worth truly fighting for, which is why those are the two stakes films focus on 99.9% of the time; they are death and love. This explains from whence the cliché of films being all about sex and violence originates. So, when visualizing the world, remember to consider all the different ways in which love and death make sense within the genre.

Even the traditional lower budget dramas listed are set behind the closed doors of: the Mafia, prison, military life, world politics, bikers, Wall Street, insane asylums, war zones, internment camps, the ghetto, and criminal trials... The violence is palpable; the stakes are exceptionally high. Measures taken are extreme. It's very hard to sell screenplays (and movies as whole) to anyone without such palpable conflict at the center of it. People don't often pay to see a movie about everyday life. If they wanted that, they'd save their money and stay home. So, I explore the extremes. Movies are exceptional stories about characters in exceptional circumstances. The worlds and situations of these films only get more visual, wild, daunting and cinematic for characters in other genres. For example, here is the start of a list for Science Fiction:

The list will keep going and going...

These visuals stem from the subconscious part of genre. I'll come up with a pretty cool idea every now and then, but I don't stop when I do. I just keep expanding. It's a list hundreds of visuals long for different genres. I work off of it because it helps me picture the mood. Pages of images and ideas for each genre that I never throw away or diminish. I will build upon the list my entire life.

Brainstorm of the genre(s) you select for your premise. Each genre listed above should have its own list, even if they are describing the same concepts and conceits. There may be some overlap in your lists; there are no rules limiting you. The contradictory irony of writing is that it's about breaking down the walls within each framework, expanding the outer walls into new ideas. So, the best writers are breaking new ground while keeping the superstructure of genre intact.

If you intend on making one genre your specialty as a writer, you will eventually have a master list of hundreds, maybe thousands of visuals. I've never counted mine. The more, the better. This is a list from which you can begin to manufacture a script's potential conflicts, situations and characters. 120-150 per genre is a great start for fueling ideas. It gives the writer hints and ideas for characters, scenes, locations, actions, stakes... It paints a vivid, visual picture from which a writer may draw from like a well. I would keep such a genre list as a file on your computer and add to it throughout your life as a writer.

The list should not include things that are specific to a preexisting franchise or intellectual property. For example, Darth Vader, the Death Star and Jedi Knights are not on my list. Instead, let such ideas inspire you to come up with something original. Create ideas for your own supernatural-infused aliens, space stations, and alien samurai telekinetic empaths. Okay, that last one is a little too close to Star Wars, but you get what I'm saying.

Genre-based, visualization brainstorming lists contain actual, tangible visuals a person can see and see happen. Vivid pictures specific to the mood, tone, location and the highest possible stakes. This is how you tell visual-medium-based stories... Through physical actions and images. If you have an idea that's not visual, ask yourself what might be the most dynamic way to see that thing in your head. Unpack the concept into situations, characters, scenes, objects, imagery, and actions. Nobody else ever looks at this list. There are no bad ideas, only steppingstones to good ones. It should not simply be a list of objects.

Mix in your list of premise-brainstormed situations with these genre visuals and see what wild concepts and ideas spawn from it. To help assess the story, I like to make a brainstorm list with the core premise to help flesh out the potential scenes and situations for and against the story's hypothesis. Then I put the ideas for interactive scenes and best in order of lowest-to-highest stakes so that my script's conflict is always escalating from sequence to sequence.

Have fun fleshing out these ideas. You are breathing life into the kind of story you want to be writing, in a genre of your choosing with a message that says everything you want it to say. Let your creative mind fly free without restrictions of logical censorship. The ideas do not have to fit together yet. You won't use them all in your final script. It's just free-association play. This is stretching out before doing creative gymnastics.

Most importantly, I want to end by saying that this chief of writing tools can be implemented and built upon during any point in the writing process. Genre is used to explore tangible precepts of storytelling. The imagery that stems from its exploration can be used to identify specific characters, tropes, and major obstacles. This list is where writers can go if they ever write themselves into a corner. It can be used to tune up a script rewrite if it feels like it hasn't maximized the manipulative power of its genre in the latest draft. When asked to make script changes, the genre is the hinge guiding you where and when to set revised beats of your story. I return to this list throughout the writing and rewriting process. It's a great, constant exploration tool I go back to if I ever want to reconsider the possibilities of any plot moment in the script. That's why I start thinking about genre so early in the writing process, right after premise, even if I don't have a story yet. Obviously, it's perfectly common to explore genre selection after the story is conceived, but not everyone knows it can work in the other direction. Genre is the one thing that writers use so diversely and constantly that its gifts can be applied at any time in the writing process, from before characters are created to after the script has been rewritten. It's truly the gift that keeps on giving.

In my next article, I will delve into genre gone wrong, exploring the ways in which genre can be used to either ruin the script or its marketability.

Learn to build a strong premise in our upcoming SU course, Basic Premise and Story Development for Screenwriters