Pinning down the exact genre of your work is a lot more challenging a task that it initially sounds, especially if the story you have created is something that feels very new, or straddles multiple genres. From my perspective, this is a reassuring sign of the originality of your manuscript, but on the alternate hand, having this problem presents a whole new set of challenges in regards to placing your work on the market. In order to find the right agents to submit your work to, to pin down your Amazon categories, to know your audience, to choose the right cover, you need to narrow your work down into one or two definite genres. One of the biggest reasons I received rejections from agents was not because they felt my writing was weak, but because they could not place it on the market. I took this two ways; firstly, I don’t think I selected the right agents to submit my work to, and secondly, ‘the market’, refers to what genres are currently flying off the shelves, such as domestic thrillers or regency romances. The latter is one of the many reasons I felt that self publishing was a better avenue for me, but that’s another post. But in order to even begin the process of self publishing, you must have your genres pinned down, and you must be aware of the definitions and requirements of each genre. So here are a handful of common literary genres, with their definitions and requirements to hopefully simplify a few things:
Thriller – A thriller is a work of fiction with the aim of creating feelings of suspense, tension and absorption in the reader. What sets the genre apart from those such as mystery and crime, is the focus on the emotional, psychological battles associated with a highly tense, edge-of-your-seat plot. Thrillers have many sub genres such as political, legal, psychological, supernatural, crime or domestic, but all of them must incorporate a plot with high stakes and unbearable tension. Feelings such as doubt, guilt and vengeance are examples of dark mental elements that the characters often experience during the events. Thrillers often benefits from tightly wound sub plots and parallel plot lines, the mysteries of these being revealed at the end. The emphasis on terror and torment is an example of how this genre is a hybrid between horror and mystery. In short, if your story features dark, gripping and brutal plot elements, complex characters, gripping suspense and a gritty setting, you may have a thriller on your hands.
Fantasy– This is often one of the most easily identifiable genres, due to the elements of unreality present within it. Fantasy writing may incorporate settings, creatures, races, events or worlds that do not exist in reality, often with a magical or supernatural element to them. High fantasy refers to novels set in a completely fictitious world, with its own governments, laws, and history fabricated by the author, such as Middle Earth, Narnia or Westeros. Low fantasy refers to novels set in the real world, but feature creatures or aspects that do not truly exist, such as talking animals; magical realism can also come under this banner, featuring characters with powers or skills that are impossible to possess in the realms of reality. Fantasy can include the sub genres such as young adult, fairytale, dark fantasy, supernatural, superhero, or science fiction. In short, if your novel concretely contains any elements or characters that are physically impossible in reality, it should fall under some sub section of the fantasy genre.
Romance- The romance genre is one that is, contrary to popular imagination, extremely diverse, as it can translate into all sorts of plots and settings. The main plot of a romance revolves around the development of a romantic relationship between two people, and explores the conflicts and issues that arise around this relationship, both internal and external. Romance novels are highly character driven, and have an emotional core at their heart, regardless of any plot driven sub plots surrounding the couple. Romance sub genres include contemporary romance, historical romance (my jam), paranormal romance, young adult romance, erotic romance, fantasy romance and romantic suspense. They can range anywhere in tone from fun, sexy and light hearted to dark, serious and moving. The final requirement for a novel to classify as a romance is that is must have an uplifting and positive ending, unless your sub category is tragic romance.
Dystopian- Dystopian differs from fantasy and science fiction in the fact that it entertains the dark possibilities of the future, as opposed to creating a whole new world, or exploring our world with fantastical elements. There is often a great element of depth to dystopian works, presenting some sort of social commentary or raising issues about humanity and discussing what these issues could result in. Alternatively, these novels explore the aftermath of a disaster such as a plague (bit too relevant at the moment), a flood or the rise of the machines, and how humanity deals with a broken world. They can either be incredibly depressing, or imbued with great hope (if you want to read an incredible dystopian novel that falls under the latter category, check out Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, because it’s really in a league of its own). Sub genres include young adult, sci-fi, romance, or even comedy. Dystopians are usually heavily plot driven stories, with characterisation in general taking a back seat.
Horror – The name of this genre encapsulates the feeling a novel within it should evoke in the reader, through disturbing images, scenes and themes. People read horror to experience the thrill of being terrified and placed out of their comfort zone; the genre in general deals with the fear of the unknown and the darker parts of the human psychology, such as lust, violence, vengeance, doubt and guilt. Horror novels often include elements of the fantastical or supernatural, but the genre is starkly apart from fantasy due to its focus on inciting feelings of terror and repulsion within the reader. Horror is a very timeless genre, as people will always be fundamentally terrified by certain topics, but will also be darkly drawn to them. Sub genres range from gothic, occult, dark fantasy, survival, slasher, natural, undead to crime. In short, your intent as a writer must be to illicit terror and uncertainty in your readers, and to explore dark themes and settings.
Literary Fiction – Literary fiction is a very complex genre to define, as most works under this label dip in to genre fiction somehow. Literary fiction refers to novels that deal with characterisation and are propelled forward purely by the characters themselves. They are introspective works, focusing on the nature of the human condition and exploring deep social or political topics. Literary fiction also does not adhere to traditional story structures, sometimes disregarding a narrative arc with not guarantee of a satisfying ending. The characters, themes, and imagery are not organised within the confines of a plot, akin to a puddle, in place of water within a bowl. It can be depressing and realistic, philosophical and thought provoking or fresh and experimental. I would recommend seeking advice before branding your novel under this genre, as I mistakenly used to do, as its quite hard to identify, and its truly quite rare to find a novel that doesn’t just have elements of the literary, and can be fully branded as a work of literary fiction.
Psychological Fiction – One that is easy to confuse with literary fiction, psychological fiction covers novels which are propelled forwards by an examination of the mental states of the characters, and a psychological explanation as to their motivations and reasoning behind their actions. Psychological fiction books are character driven, the plot being intertwined with the development of the characters, and of their interior worlds. Psychological fiction can be a genre within itself, or it can intertwine with other genres, such as with my book, The Demon’s Dollhouse. In short, if you’ve written a book with rich and complex characters, who the story revolves around and not vice versa, your novel may qualify as psychological fiction.
Historical Fiction- Historical fiction is quite simply a novel set at any time prior to the 1950s, and will fall almost certainly in to another genre. A historical fiction novel can either be a book set in a certain time period purely for its suitability for the story and themes (such as The Demon’s Dollhouse), a novel exploring real historical events such as the First World War through the eyes of fictional characters (my current WIP is an example of this), or a fictional representation of the lives of real historical figures, such as a novel about the love story of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. You can write a romance, a thriller, a fantasy, a horror or literary fiction set in a previous era, and thus the genre is very adaptable; if you’re interested in history, you can find a way to make any genre work in the right period.
Of course, these are only the main genres seen in modern fiction, and there are countless others, as well as sub genres, out there that your book might fit into better. It can feel scary and restricting to try and put your book into one clear box, but you’ve got to remember the importance of sub genres; for example, Codename Villanelle and The Wrong Family are utterly different stories, yet they are both thrillers, one is an espionage thriller, one is a domestic thriller. Readers are far from dumb, and they won’t paint all of one genre with the same brush when choosing their next book to read. Personally, I read primarily historical fiction, thrillers, and literary fiction, but that won’t stop me picking up a dystopian if I think it sounds compelling. But you must be able to narrow your book down into two genre fields, if we are going by the Amazon BISAC categories for example. The Demon’s Dollhouse falls into Historical Romance, and Psychological Fiction, which I think both give an impression of the novel quite nicely.
My debut novel, The Demon’s Dollhouse will be released on Amazon this July; feel free to follow by blog, and my Instagram blog account @rowan_writes_ and my Facebook page Rowan Speakman Books. 🙂
For more writing advice, go to the page My Writing Journey, for a list of all of my posts. 🙂
By, Rowan Speakman
(All images sourced from Unsplash.com).
Rowan Speakman Books 