What Is Genre, And How To Use It In 3 Incredible Ways
We’ve all heard of genre and understand the general gist, but why exactly is it so important in our writing? And what does it mean?
Genre is what distinguishes stories, and it is one of the most important things that we as creative fiction writers need to know about. The genre of a piece of writing is important because it helps us to determine the style, tone, and even the possible audience of any piece of writing.
In this blog post, we will explore the concept of genre in writing and discuss some of the most common genres that you may stumble upon.
What Is Genre & Why Is It Important?
Genre is a way to categorise the stories we read and write. Every book, film, or game that exists fits into at least one or more genres. As writers, it is important for us to know about different genres as it tells us what our readers expect when they read our stories. And it also helps us to learn what genres we like to read.
And if genre wasn’t complicated enough already there are sub-genres to sink our teeth into as well! Sub-genres are more specific genres within a broader genre.
Each genre has several sub-genres, often two genres that have converged into one. Some examples of sub-genres are romantic comedies, paranormal mysteries, body horror, and paranormal romance. For example, you could have the genre of crime, then a sub-genre of murder mystery and a further sub-genre of cosy murder mystery.
Knowing your way around genres and sub-genres can really help with finding an agent, getting published, or even with book sales.
As well as understanding genres, experimenting is also vital when it comes to writing in genres. It helps us to open up our minds to new possibilities of writing.
Examples Of Genres
Here are some of the most popular categories that literature fits into.
· Adventure
An adventure story often includes an adventure. The protagonist has a mission and has to overcome obstacles to complete that mission.
An adventure story often involves a hero having to overcome impossible odds in order to achieve a task.
An example of this genre is the Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
· Comedy
The comedy genre tells a story that involves funny or comical events that are intended to make the reader laugh that could be from jokes, or just the circumstances characters find themselves in.
An example of a comedy novel is Every woman for herself by Trisha Ashley.
· Crime and mystery
These stories involve a mystery or crime of some kind and generally follow an investigator who solves a crime. The details and clues are presented slowly as the story goes along to let the reader be involved in solving the case, just like the investigator.
A crime or mystery story can sometimes use what is known as a ‘red herring’ that is a clue that points one way when the actual answer is the other way to keep the reader engaged and guessing. There is often a eureka moment when everything suddenly comes together,
An example of a crime author is Patricia Cornwell, who writes a long-standing series featuring one primary detective.
· Fantasy
A fantasy story is about magic, or supernatural forces affecting a character or world. The world can be our own, or it can be a completely imaginary one.
Some common fantasy tropes are creatures such as elves, goblins and trolls as well as a more medieval setting, but it can take place in a modern setting too.
An example of a fantasy story is the Harry Potter series.
· Horror
A horror story is written to scare or frighten an audience using a mixture of suspense, violence and shock.
A horror story can include paranormal elements such as ghosts or zombies, but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes the fear can come from not knowing what exactly is terrorising the characters.
A good example of a horror author is H. P. Lovecraft, who used monsters to scare his readers.
· Romance
Romance stories are known as love stories where two people inevitably fall in love and build a relationship. One of the biggest characteristics of a romance story is that a happy ending is always guaranteed. If a love story doesn’t have a happy ending, then its main genre is not a romance.
Romance stories are ones such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
· Science Fiction
Science fiction is similar to the fantasy genre except for the fact that genres use science to explain certain elements of the world.
Science Fiction stories tend to take place far in the future, but much like fantasy stories, they don’t have to. Sometimes it can be fun to imagine a time and place where technology developed much more quickly than in our own world.
A science fiction story is something like Star Wars
One of the most important things about genres is that a story can be more than one genre at a time. We are able to play around with genres and mix and match them as much as we want to. We could have a romantic murder mystery where the detective and prime suspect fall in love. Or a fantasy adventure where a cast of unusual characters has to go on a quest to save the world.
How To Use Genre Effectively
Now that we know what genre is and have some examples under our belt, how can we use it to our benefit?
To use genre effectively, it is important for us to stretch our creative muscle and write in as many genres as we possibly can to practise as much as we can. It’s inevitable that we will have a favourite genre both to write in and to read, it might be the same or it might be different, both of those are ok.
Using genre effectively also means learning and understanding the conventions of what each genre expects of us and using those in our own writing.
Do some wider reading on specific genres. Reading books in the genre we want to write in is, of course, very important, but if we want to be successful writers, we can also do more research. There are plenty of books written by successful authors on genre. Our favourite is Romancing the Beat, by Gwen Hayes, talking about the romance genre in detail.
Before we even start writing, it can be helpful to have a clear idea of what genre and what subgenres we want our story to be in. We recommend having a simple plan in place outlining the conventions of your story and keep checking on it as you write.
Whether it’s including a scientific discovery in a science fiction story or speaking about our internal feelings in a personal journal, genre is everywhere.
If you’ve read through this blog and are wondering how you develop your writing and your understanding of genre, our Creative Writing Workbooks will be perfect for you.
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A story with characters that your reader can’t stop thinking about and characters that keep your reader wanting to turn the page – that’s the goal.
