How to Determine the Best Genre For You Part II

In Part I of this article, we defined what genre & subgenres are and we looked at five different types of genres. We inspected these different genres and what makes them each unique. We focused on their plot, tropes / characteristics, and their subgenres. If this is your first-time hearing about genres and subgenres go check out the other article before continuing. Found there is necessary information that will help you properly understand what we will be looking at in this article. Now, if you’ve already read that article, welcome back! Here we are going to continue to look at genres and how they function differently. The Genres that will be focused on in this article are:

• Romance

• Action / Adventure

• Horror

• Dystopian / Utopian

• Young Adult

How Genres Interact

Before we get into the different genres, I think it’s important first to discuss how genres interact. In the last article we discussed subgenres. We looked at how many genres have smaller genres within them that are a more specific category. The example that I provided was historical romance. This is a genre that is labeled to have characteristics from both romance and historical fiction. This brings up the question, if a book is labeled under historical romance where would the book be placed in a bookstore? Would the book be placed under Romance, or under Historical-Fiction? There are many different books that fall into multiple categories like this. The answer to where the book should be placed under this circumstance usually falls to the bookseller and is placed wherever they feel it is most suited.

Since there are books that fall into multiple genres it is clear that genres are constantly intermingling and shifting. Let’s look at a book many people know: The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games could fit under numerous genres, a few include dystopian, science fiction, romance, and young adult. Typically, the book is shelved with Young Adult books, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be put in different genres as well. It's important to keep in mind announcing your story as one specific genre does not suddenly close out all other opportunities to interact with varying genres. Instead, you’re simply labeling your story under the genre that it most aligns with.

Additionally, deciding that your book falls under one genre does not mean that it will only be perceived as one genre. There are many books where people have differing opinions on what they should be officially classified under. Some people might think The Hunger Games should be labeled as SciFi or Dystopian where others think Young Adult is where it is best suited. This is all just to say that labeling your book as one genre does not close it off to other possibilities. Genres are constantly interacting and changing as books are published. With all that said we can now focus on the differing genres that you might want to categorize your book under. The first, and one that can be found in many other genres, is Romance.

Romance

Stories classified as Romance are often based around one romantic relationship which propels the plot forward. The central theme is love, and not your friendly buddy-buddy type of love. Rather, this is the type of love between two romantic partners that is deep and meaningful. The plot of the Romance genre usually stems from a point of conflict within this relationship that the two characters have to somehow overcome. If the main characters are unable to overcome this conflict their entire relationship will be put at risk. Spoiler alert: they almost always overcome this conflict and live happily ever after. Some common tropes that you may see in romance genres include, “will-they-won’t-they” office romance, friends-to-lovers, forced-proximity, forbidden love, marriage of convenience, arranged marriage, enemies-to-lovers, and more. Romance novels are sometimes challenging to categorize because Romance can come in so many different forms therefore, many romance novels are also categorized with another genre. Listed below are just a few examples of the many subgenres of romance, but I’m sure I missed a few.

Subgenres of Romance: Historical-romance, Contemporary-Romance, LGBTQ+ Romance,

Time travel-romance, Clean-romance, Erotica, Dark-romance, Western-Romance, Sports-Romance, Paranormal-Romance

Adventure

The Adventure genre is typically based around, you guessed it, an adventure. The plot structure focuses on receiving a task or mission, going on a journey to complete that mission, and then accomplishing whatever they set out to do. Adventure stories are normally accompanied by many risky situations that the protagonist must pass through in order to accomplish their goal. This means that many adventure stories have many action filled scenes, risky stunts, and quick escapes. Don’t let the action within Adventure confuse you with the Thriller genre. While similar, the two genres have some key differences that will be focused on more in the next post of this series. A few books that are typically categorized as action or adventure are The Da Vinci Code, Jurassic Park, Mobey Dick, and Life of Pi.

Subgenres of Adventure: Action, Spy novels, Lost world, Western (which is often categorized as its own genre), Robinsonade, Swashbuckler, Choose Your Own

Horror

The main characterizing trait of horror stories is that the goal or purpose of the story is to elicit fear from the reader. Horror stories are usually structured as a protagonist vs. an antagonist. The antagonists of horror stories often come in all shapes and sizes. They might be ghosts, monsters, people, animals, the list goes on and on. When looking at the plot of horror novels there is normally some sort of hook towards the beginning that gets the reader interested. From there the story progresses until the end when the protagonist ultimately has to face the antagonist. Unlike the Romance genre horror stories don’t always end happily. Sometimes the antagonist will defeat the protagonist much to the reader's disappointment. This type of horror story usually is classified as a cautionary tale. Some common tropes that often appear in horror stories include a dark rainy atmosphere, abandoned buildings, graveyards, cursed artifacts, the group of characters splitting up, a continuous feeling of being watched, and unexplainable events. One of my favorite Horror books is The Institute by Stephen King. To be fair, I really don’t enjoy being scared all that much, so this is one of the only horror books I’ve read, but I still thought it was excellent.

Subgenres of Horror: Uncanny, Possession, Supernatural, Paranormal, Cosmic, Psychological-Horror, Surreal

Dystopian / Utopia

In Part I Dystopian literature was classified as a subgenre of Speculative Fiction. However, in the past decade Dystopian has become more and more popular to the extent where it could be considered its own genre. Utopia was included in the heading of this passage because a common trait in most Dystopian books I’ve read is that many start off as a perceived Utopia. In said stories there are usually a group of people who believe that the society they live in is perfect and then there are others, often the protagonist, who recognize the Utopia for what it really is. The structure of these stories is often an introduction to utopia, noticing issues of the society, confrontation, followed typically by the destruction of whoever was in charge of the society.

Other Dystopian novels are clear from the start that the world the characters live in is far from perfect. Books that fall into this category focus on how the characters survive in this new and unsafe environment, and the journeys that they must go on to stay alive. These stories are often apocalyptic. The apocalypse may be caused by a variety of differing things: climate change, zombies, diseases, you name it and it’s probably been written about in a dystopian novel. A dystopian novel that I recently finished was Children of Men by P.D. James which left me effectively freaked out and feeling all the feels. Some other Dystopian books you may have heard of include: The Giver, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Clockwork Orange.

Subgenres of Dystopian / Utopian: Zombies, Climate Catastrophe, Technological takeover, Young-Adult Dystopian

Young Adult

Diverting from the Dystopian genre, young adult (YA) as a genre is perhaps one of the vastest genres. Young adult is primarily categorized as a genre that is written towards readers who are between the ages thirteen to eighteen. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to be between that age range to enjoy these books but that is normally the target audience. Within the Young Adult genre there are books that fit into all different types of other genres. There can be YA fantasy, YA mystery, YA contemporary-romance and many more. The main characteristic of YA books is that they are written specifically for the audience that hasn’t quite reached adult maturity, but also doesn’t fit under children's books anymore. These books are typically fast paced, and usually have main characters who are between the ages of thirteen to eighteen. One of my all-time favorite YA books is Cress from the Lunar Chronicles. Some other books that fall under YA are The Fault in Our Stars, They Both Die in The End, To All the Boys I Loved Before, and One of Us is Lying.

Subgenres of Young Adult: Pretty much any other genre can fall under young adult, except for some books with specifically adult themes (18+).

So, There You Have It

Over the past two articles we have looked at a total of ten different genres. Over the past two posts plot structures, characteristics that make them unique and a few of their many subgenres have been considered. Defining all the different genres can make it clearer which your book may fall into. If you’ve found yourself relating to one of the genres listed and thinking that the overall gist of the genre sounds correct for your book, then congratulations you have found your book's genre! If not, don’t be discouraged there is still more to come.