Sally asked David Wong:

JDaTE definitely defies genre with all its different mythologies and conspiracies and creatures. Was it part of the plan for it to end up as a genre fusion or did that just sort of happen on its own?

David Wong I think it's easy to overestimate how much of an author's thinking is cold strategy like this. I think most authors don't start from a place of, "Okay, I want to combine early Hemingway with modern magical realism with a touch of Southern Gothic." It's more that there are certain types of story you enjoy reading and thinking about and so that's what you write. The genre fusion and twists come from your own personality, combining the things you're a fan of.

To use a music example, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain grew up loving punk music and also pop like Abba. So his own music winds up being a fusion of the two (punk verses with pop hooks) that wound up creating something new. Not because he sat down and made a pie chart, but because he was just putting together all of the things he loved.

I think it's actually a mistake for writers to try to be creative in that strategic way, where they endlessly study the history of literature and try to decide what kind of book this era needs. Your own personality and history is what is going to make your voice unique, not going out of your way to be original. Good stories usually don't come from just saying, "What hasn't been done yet?"

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