So recently, I decided that I wanted to write a feature-length (90-120 page) script about a kid from Tulsa, Oklahoma, which has forced me to do a TON of research. I’ve been looking at Google case studies, obtaining ethnographies from the school library, and as of today, I’m trying to obtain some ILL documents about the region’s dialect. I’m trying to flesh out the setting of my character mainly, but none of it is important if I hadn’t figured out what genre I wanted to write in.

In my approach to stories, I think that, when you have a story idea, figuring out the genre at the same time as your story’s philosophical conflict is crucial. When you make those decisions early, they often give you direction about how to develop your setting (in my case, setting the story in Tulsa), the kinds of character relations, and, most importantly, your main characters. Sooo, that’s why I wanna discuss a genre today.

The ideas I present today stem from John Truby’s indispensable book The Anatomy of Genres and my own knowledge of the genre

Foundations of the Genre

Often, A Coming-Of-Age story involves a protagonist who is looking to develop from an adolescent into an adult. Usually, the hero has a need that he or she is trying to fill at the story’s beginning, usually caused by past trauma, and eventually grows out of it toward the end through a “self-revelation,” as Truby describes it.

This is usually how a Coming-of-Age story is told, but because of its many sub-genres, the act of the character becoming “mature” sometimes does not happen when a character transitions from child to adult but can in some cases take on different roles.

For example, in the original Peter Pan story, which was a play, Wendy follows Peter and the Lost Boys through many adventures of her life, where Peter is often seen as the never-aging protagonist of the story. However, time goes on and Jane gets older, eventually marries, and has children. Peter visits Wendy one night after many years have passed and Peter asks her to join him, but she has responsibilities now, and in her pain and the audience, she has refuse Peter’s request, showing her moving on from childhood but also resulting in Peter maturing as well.

Other examples of role changes throughout the coming-of-age genre include:

child to leader, where the main character must become responsible for helping others find the right path (Forrest Gump); 

leader to visionary (Moses’ story in from The Bible),

machine to human, when you mix the genre with Science Fiction (Westworld, Season 1);

hero to artist, also called a Künstlerroman (CODA);

and countless other ways. 

A character doesn’t have to mature or realize his or herself in only one season of life, BUT having good character arcs for your characters is crucial to your success in this genre.

Other Qualities of Coming-Of-Age Genre

• The protagonist is either in a world that he sees as ordinary and finds out it is not, or he is in an ordinary world but his journey propels him into a new environment, which creates external conflict.
•  The protagonist usually has a father figure or a mentor that helps him understand the world– sometimes they can be manipulative, like Brother Jack in Invisible Man.
•  They usually have a best friend or a love interest of some kind, sometimes both (Moonlight).
•  The protagonist has to choose the kind of person he’s going to be through a choice; this can be done by making him choose between two ways of seeing the world or two groups of people that are mutually exclusive to one other. The choice usually creates conflict through dilemma and builds the protagonist’s character.

There are a million other attributes that go into making a Coming-Of-Age script, and what I have included here is the basics. If you wanna learn any genre, either read stories or watch movies that fit within the genre you plan to write in.

I hope you all thought this was helpful; drop a comment if you have any questions or comments. I’m happy to create a dialogue here:)