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What Is Your Genre?

When people ask me how to write a book I immediately ask that question. So you've got a story in your head and possibly filling up notebooks and idea boards. What genre does your book fit into? On what shelf will it fit?  Deciding your genre will focus your writing and can be a North Star to navigate by if you get lost during the writing process. Picking a genre clarifies your vision and the experience you want the reader to have. It's also the first thing people will ask about your book and can get confusing if you have to explain why you don't have a specific genre. 


It's usually best to write within the genre you love. Your readers will feel that love and have a far more pleasant experience than reading a story that was wrestled onto the page through a tortured process. You want to enjoy the process. When writing is a punishing chore, we see people grinding away for years; the cliché of the book that is never written.


Don't make money part of your decision process. True, this year, everyone may be gobbling up Whisper Man, but by the time your book comes out, The Midnight Library is all anyone wants. 


What about genre hybrids you ask? I agree that the 5 Basic Genre Categories can be restrictive, but they're also broad:

         

                          Fiction          Non-Fiction        Drama       Poetry       Folklore


Then there are the 6 Sub-Genres Buckets:


        Fantasy     Romance     Horror     Science     Fiction     Suspense    Thriller     Western


If you love more than one genre, try writing your story in both of them. If you love detective mysteries and paranormal tales, do an exercise to write it both ways before you combine those genres.


Putting your book firmly into a category (or onto a shelf) makes it easier to identify your audience, agents, publishers and speak coherently about it. All good things.


-- Anna Erikssön Bendewald





















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