When we start a career, project, or business, we learn to see the genre we play. For non-fiction writers, you want to know about the rules, expectations, and edges of the genre. So people can identify who is standing next to you and which group you belong to.
You are the player that’s defined by the game.
But over time, people in the genre start to push the edges and have breakthroughs in their work. They influence what the genre can be by changing how they write.
For example, Song of Increase by Jacqueline Freeman is a non-fiction work with a spiritual and metaphysical approach. The narratives from bees (based on her observations and intuition) are almost identical to fiction writing.
The quote, “at the start, games define players, but ultimately, it is the players who define the game,” isn’t just a wish but a progression from the game to those who participate in it.
