How far should a story be allowed to subvert the tropes of its genre before it leaves that genre completely?

[Guest]

In your opinion..

[Fredrik]

How would you even answer this question? I think it up to the readers to define which genre or genres a book belongs to, like most things the reason genres even exist is because human cognition tends to make us want to categorise things. And the definition of genres are not static, they change over time when the collective perception of what the genre is changes.

I think it is unhelpful to constrain yourself to tropes.

[Lynn]

First, learn the rules. Read dozens and dozens of novels in your genre. Prove that you have completely dominated the genre. Develop a following of readers who love your stuff. Then you will be able to subvert the tropes and break the rules to your heart's content.

If you try to do this as a beginner, your readers will give you negative reviews.

[Aaron]

As far as you like. They exist to tell us where we've been and what worked in the past.

[Dylan]

If a book is good, then a book is good. Genres are mostly there to categorize books for someone who is browsing for something specific, so a genre-busting title might be more difficult to categorize.