#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.05.19 — How would changing genre change your current WIP's plot?

The genre is essentially SF, but not hard SF. Yes, the story does discuss the effects of science and technology on people (David Brin's definition of SF), but the story is not about science and technology any more than a story set in modern times is about computers, cars, airplanes, electricity, and climate. You can't entirely remove references to them, but science and technology themselves aren't the heart of story. I called it social SF when I started writing YA in the 80s.

That said, the science and technology in the WIP could be crudely (and peripherally to the story) binned together as genetics and applied physics. I could change the genre to fantasy, where the genetics could be simply be presented as beastmen cultures and the physics as magic. The genre switch wouldn't largely change the WIP's plot, but it could make it seem more whimsical (I prefer gritty and realistic seeming) and less firmly constrained by rules. Good SF is all about ensuring the rules of the universe, like the laws of physics, are knowable, so that the plot and the constraints on the characters are knowable—and crucially, predicable.

Not so much with fantasy.

Since one of the factors in the Reluctance Series is an additional force of nature, it's inescapable that "violation physics" might be lumped into a bin with magic. Fantasy is an acceptable alternative genre.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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