Unearth Your Writing Ideas: Mastering the Drill-Down Technique

This works for both reading and writing fiction.

Image by author, using Leonardo AI

People tell you to “niche it down” when picking a business niche. Most fields, say medical products, need to be more specific. Medical devices get less ambiguous — medical devices for disabled people. You have a particular niche, but it’s still too broad for left-handed disabled people. Now, you have a niche that seems unique!

You can use the same thing for writing. You can “niche it down.” You can drill down through the conventions of a genre to create something new. At least it still sticks out from the others — without leaving it.

(Sticking to a genre’s conventions is okay. In articles like this one, I list the conventions of a genre because they’re what readers expect. You need to know these rules before you can drill them down; find a unique tact.)

Here’s an example of niching it down (drilling it down):

You want to write a mystery. That’s too broad as a genre

The mystery uses a detective. That still needs to be narrower.

Now, let’s consider a unique approach within a genre. Imagine a detective who solves crimes without ever leaving their armchair. Relying solely on their reading skills. Though not a common trope, authors like Rex Stout and Edgar Allan Poe have successfully used this approach. By adopting such a distinctive angle, you can create a memorable and standout piece of writing.

Drilling down the genres

Most genres have sub-genres. You can discover them on Amazon like this:

For reading

Most genres have sub-genres. You can discover them on Amazon like this:

To find sub-genres for a particular genre on Amazon, follow these steps:

Go to the Amazon website.

Type the name of the genre you’re interested in into the search bar. (ex. romance)

Click on the search icon.

Scroll down to the “Department” section on the left-hand side of the page.

Click on the genre you’re interested in.