How to Determine Your Story’s Genre

For those who have been talking with me for a while about writing, you probably already know that I put a big focus on what a genre should be and how writers should understand their genre before actually writing their story. As for those who haven’t heard me say it before: I put a big focus on what a genre should be and how writers should understand their genre before actually writing their story. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to fully examine every little nook and cranny of the genre you want to engage with, but this does mean you have to put at least some thought into it. For this particular guide, I’m not going into too much, because this one is supposed to be more focused on making things clear instead of detailed. If I go into details, we’ll be here all day due to how many genres are possible(here’s a hint: it’s more than what we have now).

To begin, I’m going to explain what genre is for. Genre, in storytelling, is a categorical system that has the type of story explained to the audience before they even read a single word of it. This categorical system is important for readers because it lets us know what kind of product we’re planning on investing time and/or money into. Readers are picky, they have their own certain taste, and the more appetizing we make the product look at first glance, the more likely they will want to try it out. We present the work to the audience with 4 checkpoints: genre, cover, title, and blurb.

The other 3 are for another day. This is a focus on genre and the first thing you need to know about genre is that every genre granted is the best description, but not an exact. This is because if we explained everything a story had, we’d be putting many stories, especially novels, into practically every category. So for that reason, we have genres to help out with categorization to tell the audience what they should expect. It’s kind of like if you’re offered a strawberry to eat and it’s described as “a berry”. A strawberry should be kind of berry-like and not at all like a meat or a spice or anything unrelated.

But how does a genre get determined?

Most people say that it’s about story, plot, character, and setting (4 elements). However, there is another element that is perhaps the most important out of all of them that has entire genres named after it. That would be tone, which really supports genres like romance, drama, thriller, horror, and comedy. Perhaps story is what is being considered when it’s about tone, but for now I will say “tone” instead of “story” as that 4th element to make sure it’s clear, since so many people get story and plot mixed up. So, to reiterate, everything in your genre relies on these 4 basic elements:

1. Tone
2. Plot
3. Characters
4. Setting

Tone is how the writer approaches the situation. Our adjectives and attitude on what’s going on with the plot can change a lot in a story when it comes to genre. Stories that focus on tone are the oldest kind of stories that we know of, being the most basic kind of stories: poems, drama, horror, thrillers, comedy, slice of life. The focus is on how things are said rather than what’s said. Your goal with tone is to invoke an emotion into them, which is what causes the mood.

Plot is what happens in the story. A plot will always have a beginning, middle, and end(when done right). Stories focused on plot are things like mystery, adventure, heist, westerns, spy-fi, military fiction, pretty much anything where what happens in the story is the part you’re really focused on. If you feel like you’re going to be angry if a twist or plot point is spoiled for you, it’s safe to say the story you’re talking about is plot focused.

Characters are who acts within the story. Without characters, the plot cannot move. Stories that focus on characters are things like super heroes, heroic fantasy, grimdark, slasher, magic girl, slice of life, coming of age. The focus is going to be on what happens to the characters, and this also includes romance because the characters are what cause the romance to be romantic. A lot of the time tone and characters work hand in hand as the main focus, because we like to have people care about our characters and this is where the tone comes in.

Setting is where the story takes place. Setting is going to be split between realistic or speculative, with sci-fi somewhere around the middle because it’s possible but not plausible in our world. What we end up doing with genre is that if it’s more on the realistic side, we don’t really try to mention the setting unless it’s part of the focus, such as historical fiction. Then when it’s in the fantasy realm, we make sure to tell the reader it’s fantasy first before anything else, because fantasy means the writer put effort into making the world, meaning it’s a focus.

Your goal as a writer is to make sure these all work together instead of them fighting against each other. Some things are obvious, such as wrongly putting a story in the crime genre and there is no crime, but what I think people have trouble with is understanding what the important elements are in their story. If a story is about a treasure hunt and happens to have a romantic subplot, do we then consider it as romance or adventure? Well, considering the romance is a subplot and not the main plot, we can’t really consider this as a romance novel and as we plan out this subplot, we can’t have it overshadow the main plot or else it becomes the main plot.

We are currently in a time where writers don’t want to seem derivative or predictable, and many people tend to try a trick where they change the genre half way through. It’s fine to have two genres in your story, but when you separate them and have them conflict with each other, you might as well serve chocolate ice cream with tuna on top. If the idea of that disgusts you, congratulations, you felt what the audience feels when the genre changes for no reason half way through. But actually, it’s more like eating chocolate ice cream and then there is a pocket of tuna near the middle to make it more appropriate. This is why we have to decide our focus before we start writing, to make sure we don’t have the urge to change things half way through.

However, if you do start writing something and it finds a way to change, then you’re more than able to edit the story to remove the red herrings that don’t relate to the main plot or setting or whatever it is that you’re messing up on. Red herrings are things that don’t relate to the focus or the main story you’re trying to say, and thanks to postmodernism focusing on non-sequiturs and juxtaposition, we have more writers these days adding things that don’t matter to the story and muddy up the genre. But instead of focusing on what could make you stand out, you should focus on what works, because a plate of waffles covered in BBQ sauce stands out but not many people want to even try such a thing. There is a benefit for going for niche genres and trying out new things, I highly recommend for people to explore anything they can. However, there are certain things we can look at and go “yeah, that’s not going to work”.

Then there comes the subject of “mis-genring”. We don’t like it when someone mis-genres a work. Giving the wrong genre to something is annoying and is misleading. It’s no different than if I was doing a blind tasting and someone said “this next dish is ice cream” and I got a mouth full of cheeseburger. No matter how much I enjoy cheeseburgers, the deception is what makes the meal feel wrong and we would prefer it if it was properly labeled. Make up any of your own comparisons that you want, no matter what we are not satisfied even if we get something we happen to like.

This is because improper categorization makes it so we might as well not have any categorization system to begin with, making everything too much of a guessing game. It’s better to reduce the amount of guessing and instead let the reader know if it’s something they are interested in. The closer we are to the exact, the better, even though we can never be fully exact. For example, if you have a romance plot with romantic characters in a romantic setting while using a romantic tone, you have yourself a pretty good romance don't you. Even before you write it, you're going in the right direction, meaning you're more likely to succeed.

But what happens if you mix things up? 

Well, this is where subgenres come in to save the day. Or they are here to make your life miserable, depending on how well you understand them. This is because subgenres are where everyone gets lost in the weeds. All you have to remember is that a subgenre is simply a mixture of genres that allows the subgenre to be named because of how specific it is while not being one of the main genres. A subgenre is smaller than a regular genre because of how it becomes more specific, and so it becomes more niche.

If you tell someone you’re writing a fantasy story, they will be more likely to react positively than if you said it’s a grimdark fantasy, just because grimdark reduces possibilities of engagement but is more detailed in its description.

 

Some people worry about losing engagement, which is why when authors post their stories on amazon or wherever, they go for the more broad genre choice. However, the right way to do it is to have one that’s broad and one that’s niche, but both must be as appropriate as possible. This also relates to the title and cover that tell the reader what to expect in your story, because the genre must also relate to the kind of title you do and the type of cover you go for. Whatever you do, don’t rely on niche or generalization, just have them work together to come out with the best results. Less conflicting genres in your work, the better.

Speaking of the reader, some people don’t realize that there’s a second part to your genre. It’s usually ignored and people don’t have a good grasp on it, which is where I plan to help out. This part is your audience age group. The types of age groups are: children, middle grade, young adult, new adult, and adult. It’s 5 very clearly defined categories.

Children stories go over children related themes. Think of fables, fairy tales, picture books, that sort of thing. Very simple, anyone can read them, simple words, and very clear messages. Death rarely occurs and if it ever does, you bet it will be a traumatic moment that doesn’t have any blood and is usually off-screen. Kisses on the cheeks is already pushing it.

Middle grade goes over themes about the beginning of puberty and searching for identity. Harry Potter is the best example, at least for the first book, because it was all about Harry finding his identity as a wizard. Their bodies are changing, they aren’t comfortable in their own skin, they have problems within the self. Magic school is a common one, but it also has things like slice of life, coming of age, and tends to also involve portal fantasy. Sci-fi middle grade would be something like E.T. but I’m not sure if that’s still a thing or what that genre is called. Sex is not yet really a topic*unless you’re going for sexual ignorance like Catcher in the Rye) and death will either be dramatic or guilt ridden, while both are still tame and not too present.

Young adult is for teenage themes. They got used to the transformation but now they are trying to deal with high school and the real world is slowly encroaching upon them. They are trying to learn how to become independent, after being so long under the wing of others. Dystopia is rather popular with young adults, but so is romance because of the obvious hormonal changes that make them extra horny. We’re not quite in the ability to have erotica yet, because it’s for teenagers and they aren’t comfortable with SEX sex kind of stuff. Missionary, bra stays on, making out is the focus. Death can happen rather openly without it being a big deal but teenagers still don’t really want gore or anything. It’s mostly people getting choked or shot like in an old noir movie.

New adult is a strange one. It’s about college years kind of themes, the years right after high school but right before getting a job and actually contributing to society. It’s about people who still don’t know how to function in society as an independent individual, yet they are given all of the responsibility of an adult. So they have the power, but they don’t know how to use it and they are still trying to learn how to grow up even though they are physically grown up. This one can have all of the same themes as adult, but it still sort of relates to the rebellious teenage themes of young adult. School themes mixed with adult themes.

And finally, adult is where all of the hardcore stuff is at. Adult themes like erotica, gore, anything that’s exploitation, but also things like politics and murder investigation. This is where most people go for experimentation and more niche genres like bizarro and grimdark. But that doesn’t mean adult is made to be dark, it’s just that certain themes don’t relate to the other age groups. Not many children or middle grades will care for a book about a father trying to protect his family from an apocalypse, for example.

So when you think of your genre, also think of your age group, because that is what will determine a great chunk of your tone. This is why tone is the most important factor, due to how it determines many things, beyond just what happens in the story. It’s how you decide who you’re going to appeal to and how you’re going to appeal to them. This means that when you try to determine your tone, you’re not only trying to decide what kind of adjectives you’re going to use but also what kind of themes you’ll try to tackle.

If it’s about a school and a teenager dealing with school and teenager stuff, you’re better off making it young adult. However, if it’s about a teenager in school dealing with having to fight a demon and there’s guts flying everywhere, you’re better off making it more adult. Funny enough, anime and manga have their genres in this department named after both age and sex, but it’s just children, male/female adolecent, male/female adult. Kind of more simple, but same amount, just split between the sex of the audeince since the Japanese know that their girls and their boys are interested in different things and approaches.

You don’t have to worry about that, but it is something to consider.

As my big finale for this guide, I’m going to explain the genre hierarchy. Just remember this simple 5 layer system and you’ll be realizing your genres in no time. It goes: fiction(1), characters(2), setting(3) ideology(4), age group(5), emotions(6), plot(7).

Fiction: You’re writing fiction in this case, so there’s only one choice.

Characters: The role your characters play in the story and how important they will be for the reader. These get split between identity and role. Identity is how the character wants to identify as(their goal is important to them) and role is about their role in the story(grimdark, hero, detective, fish out of water).

Setting: This is split between aesthetic and realm. How the place looks and what happens in the place. Realism, sci-fi, fantasy, and everything in between.

Ideology: this is a strange one. I switched it from tone because I think tone helps with both this one and age group, but we have an ideology attached to some genres. LGBT fiction, dystopia, religious fiction, philosophy, just plain being satirical, it’s all about how the writer thinks. The 4 categories we can give to this section will be philosophy, satire, religion(or lack of), and politics.  

Age Groups: Pick from one of the 5 age groups to better direct yourself. Children, middle grade, young adult, new adult, adult.

Emotions: This one is a bit tricky since this gets mixed around with plot and you have to see the emotion more like a symbol. The 6 basic emotions are: happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise. These emotions get translated to better relate, respectively, as comedy, tragedy, horror, surrealist/weird, action(or something where you end up really hating an antagonist or even the protagonist), and thriller.

Plot: What happens in the story. This is the thing that’s keeping the entire narrative together, and so the plot can pop in to replace anything else that’s too weak to stand on its own. There are 7 basic plots: Comedy, tragedy, quest, rags to riches, overcoming the monster, rebirth, and voyage and return. Even though some of these plots can stand on their own, a writer should still try to have strong characters, but sometimes there’s not enough time or reason to make it about the characters rather than simply be about the plot.

 

In this kind of categorization, you are able to see the hierarchy go from 1-7. The smaller numbers speak louder than the bigger numbers, for the most part. So when you want to determine your genre, you’ll see if something in your story is intentionally trying to fit in a slot and you see where it fits in that layer. Rather than trying to explain every little possibility, I’m going to go through a few examples to show what I’m talking about. Remember, we want a broad genre and a niche subgenre to let everyone know what we are trying to sell.

Example #1: This is a story about scientists discovering a way to bring back the dinosaurs. During a demonstration in a secluded jungle-like park that was meant to feature these dinosaurs like a zoo, the dinosaurs break loose and start to attack the people stranded on the island. It has violence ranging from showing blood to showing severed arms. No sex in sight.

If you didn’t guess it, that was Jurassic Park and the publisher categorized it as sci-fi thriller as well as action and adventure. Not to rag on the company, but they didn’t really categorize it properly, they just categorized it in the way that would sell during its time. Now, we are able to see that this book is better categorized as a biohorror thriller. This is because the biohorror part is the subgenre and the thriller part is the main genre. The story has less to do with the characters and is more about purely trying to survive in a situation where dinosaurs come back to bite us. Yes, there is action, but the plot doesn’t really call for action as much as it does call for biohorror and thrills.

Example #2: A young hobbit must venture into the wild lands of a fantasy world as war erupts, with evil creatures searching to find him and the ring he holds. On his journey, he meets many people from his fantasy world and the results of his quest is of an epic proportion that involves the entire world. The characters are heroic and they realize morals and virtues along the way. The villains are clearly evil and the heroes are clearly good, or at least they strive to become clearly good as time goes on.

This was referencing Lord of the Rings and the genre it’s given is high fantasy and chivalric romance. Kind of outdated to call something chivalric romance these days, but during its time it was considered appropriate. However, we can fix this with a more simple genre than the last one. We’ll use heroic epic fantasy. This is don’t because it’s purely about the fantasy element, so a focus on heroic actions from the characters and epic high fantasy setting comes together to be heroic epic fantasy. Heroic fantasy already includes the chivalric romance part and epic fantasy covers the entire war and adventure aspect.

Example #3: Story starts out with a woman taking money and running from the law. She’s worried she’s going to be caught with tension rising every mile she drives. She ends up at a motel and the lonely motel owner spies on her while she undresses and even dresses up as his own mother as he comes in to kill her as she takes a shower. Police try to find the missing woman and later on find her in her car at the bottom of the lake. As clues are found and reveals are made, it turns out the motel owner suffers from an alternate personality where he acts as if he’s his own dead mother.

That one is Psycho and the way it’s categorized as a movie is better than how it’s categorized as a book. The book just says horror, but the movie is a psychological horror thriller, which is far more accurate. Some people might think it’s a money heist or mystery movie but neither one relates to the entirety of the movie. Money heist would only be for the beginning and mystery would only be for the end. Instead, when you’re in a mixed situation like this, you go for a thriller, because both halves are involved in a thriller and so the subgenre that relates to both as well is psychological horror. The woman begins psychologically breaking down as she is horrified at the thought of getting caught, with then later on the horror and psychology shifting from her to the motel owner who has an alternate personality.

As you can see, genre is sometimes easy and other times it’s a tough call. But the goal is not to be exact, just close enough to make sure your audience knows what they are getting into. And for the most part you don’t actually have to worry about categorizing your book into an age group with your genre. That’s only when it’s not an adult book or when you want to add it to a description for clarification. For example, something like Harry Potter would be considered a middle grade magic school mystery. Most people call it fantasy, but magic school is the specific subgenre and mystery is the more broad genre, while middle grade is the age group, but you can’t really add the middle grade part into amazon. So that’s where you add it into the blurb or just when you describe it to people.

That’s about it on this subject. To recap, genre is split between what the author wrote and who the intended audience is. There are 7 layers of genre description, as a hierarchy, but no matter what you’re going to label your book with a genre and a subgenre while avoiding any redundancy. Adult as a genre is usually omitted while the other age groups are put at the forefront. And, as a final bit of advice, if you can’t find a genre to shove it in and it’s more or less in the realm of realism, you put that as “general fiction”.

That doesn’t mean that you should or that general fiction is a good genre to get into, but categorizing it as that is better than trying to make your own niche, so general fiction would be the genre and then you can go look for a subgenre after that. Any questions about genre, I’m here, so feel free to ask. Any suggestions for more story topics, feel free to suggest. I hope that was short enough and if not, well… I tried.