Genre - Writerly Words
Genre
Definition: A basic category of fiction.
Explanation: The word “Genre” is used by many different industries, including the music and literature industries. It is basically a method of grouping similar types of art together according to their style and subject matter.
When we talk about a novel and ask what its genre is, we are simply asking what kind of story it is. How would it be categorized? For example: The Chronicles of Narnia are “fantasy”. Star Wars is “Science Fiction”. And The Eagle of the Ninth is Historical Fiction.
I like to compare the genre system to biology. Remember those school lessons where you studied the classification of living organisms? You learned about all the different categories and subcategories: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species.
The fiction world has its own classification system, but instead of classifying living organisms, we use it to categorize stories.
Below, you can find a collage containing just a few fiction genres. Please note that this list is far from complete, but it is a good starting point.
Often stories fit into more than one category. For instance, you could be writing a story for teens about a character who falls in love with one of her people’s enemies, and it could take place in a fantasy world far away. What would you call it? Fantasy? Romance? You don’t have to choose one. Instead you can say, “I’m writing a young-adult, fantasy romance”.
Just like biological classifications, many people disagree on how stories should be classified. Some say one subject matter should be a “genre” in its own right, while others would say it should be nestled within a bigger category and only be considered a “sub-genre”.
In the end, these classification arguments are of little use, except when it comes to actually selling a book. Marketing forces these questions of genre and sub-genre to the forefront for a couple reasons.
1.) Readers want to know what kind of book they are buying. Calling your story “Young Adult” (YA) fiction is not enough. You need to dig a little deeper into the story’s category. YA romance is very different than a YA thriller, and your reader deserves to know what she’s getting. She might like thrillers… or she might not. Either way, calling your book what it is will help your readers make an informed purchase decision.
The same goes for editors and agents. They want to know what type of story you are trying to sell them. Before they hear about your epic plot or your detailed characters, they want to know if it is a genre they are ready and willing to represent.
2.) The next reason why genres are important when selling books is also pretty simple. It’s the law of association. Science fiction (sci-fi) books should be grouped together on a book shelf. Though each book is very different from others in its genre, they’re all ‘cut from the same cloth’. If a reader knows he likes sci-fi, he can go to the sci-fi section in the bookstore and peruse the shelves, finding what interests him most.
What about online? Check out Amazon, and you’ll see the importance of properly categorizing your genre. Online bookstores group books together too. This helps a reader find the perfect book, and it helps you find the perfect reader. Have you ever seen those “suggested book adds”? They rely on genre. If a reader has been looking at one genre of books, the website pulls up others from the same genre and says, “Read this too… you might like it”.
3.) When you write, it is not always necessary to analyze your story’s genre. However, every genre has specific rules—things that are expected and desired as part of that genre’s norm. They’re the things that make that genre unique. Sometimes, it is helpful to study your genre in order to know what will improve your story.
For example: Historical Fiction relies on history. It contains fictional characters but real events. It’s okay if your character cracks the enigma cipher during World War II. It’s not okay if the code was never broken and the Germans won the war. Meanwhile, the opposite is true of an Alternate History story. We expect historical facts to be skewed… as long as you show us how that one change affects all of history.
Practical Application: Sometimes it is easy to determine what kind of story you are writing. Other times it is quite difficult. Here are a couple things to look at while trying to pinpoint what your story’s genre is.
1. What is the main thrust of your story?
Analyze your story and pick out specific things that make your story your story. What main events or goals drive your plot? Is it your character becoming a better person? Is it the achievement of some goal? Is it the boy and the girl finally saying “I do”?
I’m not talking about sporadic humor, romantic subplots or a paragraph-long fistfight. Those things may be nice story elements, but they aren’t the main point of your story.
Look for the elements that consistently shape your novel and make it unique. These elements will point you toward a specific genre.
2. What is the setting?
Your setting plays a huge role in determining your story’s genre. Where does you story take place? Is it historical? Present day? Futuristic?
3. Look at books that are similar to yours. What genre are they?
Look over your bookshelf and pick books that are similar to yours. Find novels that take place in a similar setting or stories with the same plot style. Does your book contain action, mystery and a whole lot of car chases? Grab the nearest spy book and look it over. The genre is usually printed just above a book’s bar-code or on the first page.
Writerly Words is an e-column devoted to teaching new writers how to understand the Writing World’s cryptic language. Just like any hobby, craft or business, professionals in the writing industry constantly use words that seem strange and foreign to a novice. But it doesn’t have to be hard to learn how these words apply to you and your writing.
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