Genre Kidding Me?

There are seven types of literary genres: poetry, drama/play, essay, short story, and novel. Now, I won’t be covering how to write poetry in this simply because if I wanted you to cry, I would write poetry. To clarify, you wouldn’t be crying because it’d be beautiful, but because it would be so bad that it would physically hurt you to read it. You’re welcome for saving you from that trauma.

A brief overview of each literary genre:

· Poetry – Uses sound, rhythm, and choice of words to evoke emotion and inspiration.

· Drama/Play – Script writing for actors to use on a stage and act out. Think, “Romeo and Juliet” or a personal favorite, “MacBeth.”

· Essay – I heard the groans of majority of high schoolers as I wrote this one. Written facts about a specific topic with a limit of pages.

· Short Story – Usually about 20,000 words, give or take. The theme is fully developed but less elaborate than a novel.

· Novel – A fully constructed book with intricate characters and back stories.

After deciding which literary genre you’ll be writing, you’ll need to decide what your sub-genre is:

· Sci-fi (Science Fiction)

· Fantasy

· Romance

· Mystery

· Thriller

· Horror

· Nonfiction

· Fiction

· Paranormal

· Supernatural

· Comedy

· YA (Young Adult)

· Children’s

When writing a novel, you’ll need to decide which two “subgenre’s” you’ll be writing about. This is then classified as a novel’s genre and/or subgenre. The genre is the main category, and the subgenre is what is involved as well. Not everyone has a subgenre, and that’s okay! Most people have both for their novels to give people a better insight as to what they’re getting before reading.

For instance, you could have a supernatural-horror, or fantasy romance, or paranormal mystery, etc. The next question is usually, “How do I know which is my genre and which is my subgenre?” Perhaps you have more than two in these categories throughout your book.

The best way to decide is to know what your theme is. Does your story take place in this world? If so, then it’s not a fantasy. If not, then it’s a fantasy or sci-fi. Is there romance in the book or is the book a romance? If you can remove the romance from a book and still have a complete story, then it is not a romance. This doesn’t mean there can’t be romance in the story, it just means that the plot itself is not wrapped around a love story. Therefore, your main category might be mystery, thriller, comedy, or anything else in the genre list and your subgenre is romance.

Now, go enjoy writing in one of these genres!