I'm having some genre troubles

Write the *story*. Forget about structures you "should" follow. Just write a good story.

I'm with Layla. Don't worry about structure so much as being captivated. If you're captivated by your story, chances are the reader will be too.

I would focus less on the content and think about what kind of experience you want the reader to have. The exact same general plot could be written very differently as a romance or an adventure depending on how the author wants the reader to feel.

Just write. Tell the story that you want to tell (and make it good).

I would ONLY focus on the story - not which particular genre dominates it.

Junia said:

I'm writing a hybrid genre book (whodunit mystery, horror, and drama), but I feel like the genres are clashing and I don't know which one to focus on. Each genre has a certain structure I should probably follow, but choosing a dominant genre is really hard. Any tips?

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I'm also an obsessive how needs to know precisely where he stand before even dipping a toe in. The best I can suggest it to locate a couple or more of books which seem to be in some way or another doing something similar and count yourself as their peer and do it simply because they also did it and so can you.
Psychologically this can be quite liberating.

Like others have said, Layla is right. Unless you depend on writing financially, it seems bad practice to write to the market. Just write the best story you can. Worry about genre/comp titles when you're ready to query.

It's worth distinguishing between the kind of story that you're telling, and the genre that provides its backdrop.

That is, you can have a horror story that's built around a solving a murder, or a sci-fi story that's actually a heist. What story do you want to tell?

I'm with these guys - it looks like th trouble you're having is that you're trying to write someone else's story rather than making it your own. You don't need to follow the structures and conventions to the letter.

I'm mostly with everyone else - write your story and worry about the genre later. But there's one word which is jumping off the page at me and that is "whodunnit". I've never written in this genre (it's on the list of "things to play with at some point") but looking in from the outside it seems to be a genre with some very strict rules. We can go in all sorts of directions with horror and drama, but readers of whodunnits tend to expect certain protocols to be followed. Most of the time. Things like: the perp ought to be one of the known characters. The reader must be able to work it out for themselves. The crime often (but not always) has to look impossible, as in the classic locked door puzzle.

A whodunnit doesn't have to follow these conventions and many don't. But I think the conventions are the starting point. You've got to know what you're doing if you wander too far from the beaten path.

So from your melting pot of genres, the one I would pay most attention to would be the whodunnit aspect. It seems to have less room for creativity than horror or drama.

If you're anything like me, you write best when you're aiming for a high point—the climax of the story, hopefully—or else a series of high points. If you've got "whodunnit" in the mix, the Big Scene is probably going to be the revelation of whodunnit (or whatdunnit, with horror) and how much danger the protagonist gets into from discovering that. My advice would be to take a careful inventory of what you need to take you to your Big Scene. If you make sure all those elements are in place, then I think everything else will fall in line.

Hopefully. Maybe. If not, at least you'll have a more coherent idea of what in particular is not working.

Write what makes you happy.

I'm going to try to chime in with advice other than "write a good story." That's the best advice, but I wanted to still comment without having a bunch of blank space. *cracks knuckles* Here we go!

I've personally dealt with this issue. Recently, actually. I have two (VERY) different projects, and I really wanted to target my writing to one or the other. To be honest, many books I read have a lot of different genres thrown into their novel cocktail. My cocktail of choice has been coined (by me - so no one special, mind) as "Science Fiction & Contemporary Romance Writer. I wanted my blog readers to know who I was and what exactly I wrote for marketing purposes. Romance is my main genre, but my stories fall into two different realms of fiction. I feel quite accomplished with that defining my writing.

Is it perfect and completely colloquial? No. Does it work for me? Yes! Figure out your niche and see if you can wade through all the themes and subgenres to find that sweet spot. Hope this helps!