The people you bring your work to want to know what it rhymes with, what category it fits in, what they’re supposed to compare it to. Please put it in a container for us, they say. We call that container “genre.” That’s not a cheap shortcut; it’s a service to the person you’re seeking to change. Generic work is replaceable. A generic can of beans can come from any company, because they’re all the same. But genre permits us to be original. It gives us a framework to push against. Shawn Coyne has written brilliantly about genre. Not generic, which is boring, but genre, which gives your audience
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