Chapter 1: In Which You Choose Writing-Craft!
Class Time!
What Genre is Which
Identify your preferred creative fiction genre starting with categorizing a story. The way to categorize stories is based on core elements, such as the setting, tone, plot, and target audience.
Classifying your story according to genre helps set reader and marketplace expectations. When you decide on the genre of your story, this decision also guides the pacing, use of tropes, and plotting. The right genre for your story also ensures your work connects with the right audience in the publishing market.
Start your creative fiction genre journey by finding the perfect intersection between the stories you love to read and the worlds you want to live in. The secret is to start simple—choose one mainstream genre, like fantasy or romance. Establish a clear conflict and write a draft without worrying if the words are “right.”
About My Writing Genres
My writing spans several genres depending on the project. For creative prompts, I write in speculative fiction with a whiff of magical realism in non-linear formats. Magical realism is a high-brow style of fiction writing that grounds magical or impossible events in a mostly realistic, mundane setting.
For informational content, like website information, my genre is expository nonfiction. Unlike narrative nonfiction, which follows a chronological storyline, expository nonfiction organizes information through structures like cause-and-effect, comparison, or categorization to deliver facts clearly.
I write a type of content blending objective facts and data analysis as a sociologist. The result is data-driven, fact-based explanations and content.
Identify Your Writing Genre
Your genre sets the rules of your world and the expectations of your reader. The following are the mainstream genres of fiction books:
Science fiction: focuses on world-building or futuristic technology
Fantasy: centered on magical systems and supernatural activities
Romance: driven by emotional stakes, interpersonal chemistry, and a satisfying conclusion
Mystery: needs deadly danger and should reveal secrets
Thriller: characterized by suspense and pacing of action
Horror: scare tactics and scream queens are quintessential
Literary Fiction Versus Commercial Fiction
Literary fiction focuses on grammatical techniques to create an artistic work. Commercial fiction is centered on the story and how well this translates on the silver screen.
Expect literary fiction to stay in the stacks. Commercial fiction typically is turned into theatrical versions.
External conflict is plot driven focusing on high stakes—action, mystery, thriller, fantasy, and sci-fi
Internal conflict is character driven with emotional growth and relationships regarding human experience—romance, historical fiction, and coming-of age
Nonfiction and informational guides, textbooks, marketing copy, essays, and memoirs—expository, narrative, persuasive, and argumentative copy
How to Identify Your Fave Genre
Sometimes you need to do physical activity to make mental moves, such as:
Check out your bookshelves—What genres are most represented? What are looking to read but cannot find?
Define your writing goal—Do you want to entertain, teach, terrify, or tickle pink?
Study the competition—Grab five books that are cover-wise or content-wise what you want to write/read and analyze these. What do you like/hate/wish you could do better?
Once you start the act of writing, look at the story pacing, conflict, and setting. These areas will be easy to define by genre tropes. Here are some characteristics of setting-centered genres:
Fantasy: magical worlds, mythical beings, invented languages
Science-fiction: futuristic societies, alternative technology, space travel
Historical fiction: eras in history with altered ideas or dystopian views
Plot-driven stories make the central problem dictate the genre. These include:
Mystery: crime or a puzzling event has occurred and will hopefully be revealed
Thriller: fast-paced dangers with high stakes and a countdown to safety
Romance: happily every after (HEA) story about two or more individuals in a relationship
The third type of genres are chosen by styles, such as thematic depth and prose. Consider writing stories in these genres:
Literary: literary devices, such as alliteration and onomatopoeia, are utilized for writing
Horror: psychologically terrorizing, dreadful, and fear inducing with the intention of scaring the reader
Dystopian: personal survival and lack of social control due to oppressive entities usually with end-of-time vibes
Genres by the Hundreds
Take a few writing sessions to sketch out ideas, formulate your list of favorites, and consider the genre options. For me, I used to love reading and writing horror stories. However, as I have aged, my tastes have evolved to look at dystopian fiction, sci-fi, and those banned books from the library.
Expect your writing genres and sub genres to change as you write. Also, check out my blog post 450 Creative Genre Fiction Keywords to stimulate your creativity. I write my blog posts on this website with this course in mind!
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