What's your genre?
A genre is a particular type or category of fiction. It can apply to both the long and short form (novel and short story/novella, respectively). It's impossible to give an exhaustive list, but it includes the following: Crime, psychological thriller, action thriller, realism, magic realism, dirty realism, romance, historical, gothic , science fiction, humour, fairy tale, gay fiction, family saga, political, maximalist. Think about what kinds of books you enjoy reading; do they fall into any of these categories? Think about how much these genres might overlap. They are not mutually exclusive. Most pieces of fiction contain glancing aspects of many different genres. Genres also overlap, and within any one genre there are often a number of sub-genres. For example, ‘crime’ is a genre, ‘East End gangster crime’ is a sub-genre; ‘romantic fiction’ is a genre, ‘historical romance’ is a sub-genre.
What can genres do for you?
Think of it like this: each genre novel suggests certain characteristics, qualities and plot patterns that are particular to that genre. When you read a murder-mystery, you expect there at least to be a murder, or some kind of love interest in a romance. The reader has certain expectations. To fulfill them – the murder-mystery opening with a dead body; the romance delivering the passions of a hero and heroine – means that readers recognise the familiar elements and progressions of the story, their expectations are confirmed, and in the end they feel a satisfaction with the story.
Try this:
Does sticking to a prescribed formula or genre make for a good piece of fiction? What do you think? Write a sentence or two about your ideas.
Think about this:
Sticking rigidly to a prescribed genre style might not be such a good thing. For example, the progression of the story might be too predictable. There might be too much ‘expectation, satisfied’, where the most obvious culprit committed the murder, just as you had known from the start. Or there were no tantalising ‘red herrings’ to lead you off the scent, no intriguing ‘twists’ in the plot to make the final outcome seem surprising, even though you had been encouraged to anticipate it. Alternatively, the fiction might not be ‘predictable enough': a great romance that fizzles out midway through the story, with the writer never again referring to that romance's existence – this, after having raised the reader's expectations about its importance within the piece of writing. These are the pitfalls of not following the genre's ‘rules’. They can also be turned to your advantage. By diverging from your readers’ expectations – perhaps by employing aspects of different genres – they can feel surprised, intrigued and excited, rather than feeling let down.
Listen to this:
Click below to listen to an audio file in which novelists talk about the pleasures of working within existing genres or of subverting them.
Pleasures of working within existing genres or of subverting them
Pleasures of working within existing genres or of subverting them (audio file)
What next?
If you have enjoyed this taste of creative writing why not have a look at free online courses in Additional resources