Originally posted on cozycritiques.com. Revised 1/19/2024.
A few weeks ago, I went through my 12 steps for writing a novel, but the process of writing can be so complex that one article might not cover all of your questions. Enter my Writer’s Guide series. Each post, I will cover what you need to know to write a novel, starting with genre! In today’s article, I will be going over what genre is, why the genre is essential, and what the major categories of genre are.
What is Genre?
Broadly defined, genre is a way to sort, classify, or categorize stories. However, there is more to genre than just the categorization of your story. Genre conveys to the reader what they should expect when they pick up your book. Depending on your book’s genre, certain scenes and conventions will accompany that genre.
For example, if you’re writing a romance, your readers will expect the story to focus primarily on the romantic relationship between two people and for there to be an emotionally satisfying ending.
Consumer-Facing Genres
Consumer-facing genres, or reading genres, are categories used to determine how a book is sold to readers. These are what most people think of when they think of genre.
Examples include Fantasy, Young Adult, and Romance.
It’s important to understand the consumer-facing genre because this is what you will use when you pitch to agents or self-publish. But to better understand how genre will affect your plot, you’ll need to know your content genre.
Content Genres
As the name suggests, content genres refer to the type of content in the story. I also like to think of these as plotting genres because they can give you a sense of the overall shape of the story.
It can also help you figure out the protagonist’s goal, the theme of the story, and the scenes and conventions that need to be present.
I like to consider two different models of content genre when developing my story: one from The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne, and one from Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. But I’ll go into those in Parts 3 and 4.
Understanding genre is so important because when you understand what genre you want your book to be, you will be better able to meet your audience’s expectations. So stay tuned for part 2, an in-depth discussion of the different consumer-facing genres!