Chris Anson uses his article “Habituated Practice Can Lead to Entrenchment” to explain the challenge of navigating genres, whether a writer consistently stays within the same genre or decides to venture out of their usual one. On one hand, writing in the same way time and time again can lead to an almost stagnant styling, similarly to a driver shifting gears and the automaticity behind the act. Essentially the writer is on auto-pilot. On the other hand, exploring a new genre can be an uncomfortable challenge, one that tests the norms of a writer’s style. An added challenge to that is attempting to fit the audience’s expectations of that particular genre.
On one hand, writing in the same way time and time again can lead to an almost stagnant styling, similarly to a driver shifting gears and the automaticity behind the act.
Arguably, without habitual practices within writing, genres would cease to exist. Genres do not exist without constraints and to build those rules, reiteration is key. Audiences even find it upon themselves to agree upon the limits of the writer’s content extent. In a well-known song by Linkin Park, the band sings “’…cause once you got a theory of how the thing works, everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first.” Audiences tend to feel strongly if an artist/writer has been on the same path for far too long or if they are “selling out” to pursue a new style. In some instances audiences have used the opportunity of an artist switching genres to gauge their talent level. When Stephanie Meyer concluded the Twilight Saga she wrote a science-fiction book called “The Host”. While it was pretty widely received, Keith Brooke of The Guardian went on to say, “When it’s good, the novel works well, and will appeal to fans of the author’s hugely bestselling Twilight series, but it is little more than a half-decent doorstep-sized chunk of light entertainment.” All in all, not every fan will be happy with either stagnation or a venture into new territory.
I would say writing habitually is neutral on most grounds. Being pushed out of your comfort zone is encouraged by most, but why fix what isn’t broken? Some audiences prefer to stick with what they know when it comes to certain authors– for instance, fans of Nicholas Sparks. His stories are arguably copy and paste love stories. Alternatively, some writers have become greater creating works outside their expected genres. Dr. Seuss started as a political cartoon artist and A.A. Milne switched to children’s stories after previously writing murder mysteries. The act of writing habitually is both a blessing and a curse, it ultimately depends on a writer to prove it one way or the other.
