I think Asimov's genre-busting innovation was to mash up science and history. By contrast, H. G. Wells and Jules Verne novels seemed to be kinda ahistorical. Asimov didn't just invent a time machine concept like Wells. He offered epic histories of robotics, and psychohistory.
Conversation
3 data points from my own experiments:
My first story, Heirloom Lounge, is technically okay for a beginner but clearly a zombie. It busts no genres.
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My second story is technically horribly incoherent and crashes rather than ends, but it did find a genre-busting vector: mashing up consulting and absurdist sci-fi
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My 3rd story, LEAP, which is also chapter 1 of a stalled novel, I think has both ok technical quality and a genre-busting vector (time travel scifi and identity/consciousness metaphysics). I have the plot worked out. It's just beyond my execution rn
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I should also mention a 4th story which got off to a really strong start imo, but I had to abandon because the plot I had in mind was easily far beyond my ability to even begin to execute.
Seoul Station:
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But back to the general point. My own example makes this yin-yang dynamic (genre busting versus technical perfection) painfully, embarrassingly obvious, but it is visible even at the most accomplished and mature levels of the work of people with way more talent and experience.
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And the funny thing is, I have seen almost no good advice on solving or even acknowledging this problem. 70% of fiction writing advice focuses on tactical mechanics. The other 30% tries to finesse the genre-busting problem with color-by-numbers narrative templates.
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I should add. Simply juxtaposing 2 genres is not a case of dissolving or creating a genre. You could mechanically combine (say) military and romance fiction. That doesn't mean you've mashed them up in a disruptive way. Much "fusion" cuisine fails the same way
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My aspirations in fiction are low. Not shooting for the moon or Nobel quality literature. I just want to write one longish story that both "works" and is technically competent. But there's something here I still haven't cracked. Like Turing wanted AI to beat a mediocre human.
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Replying to
do you ever write your dreams? my personal favorites often come from there. they’re not always stories but i find it good practice for seeing how vivid ideas appear on paper
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