My name is Grace Giska. I am an undergraduate student studying Creative Writing and the author of three novels, one of which I like a lot. I enjoy long walks through enchanted forests and travel blogging on my site, Pack a Pen! Thank you for the clear, organized explanations.
I cross boundaries with my novel series. A medical drama that draws attention to the broken lives of homeless, injured teens, the work falls under the category of literary fiction.
Character-driven scenes move the story forward. Topics cover career and work ethics, family values, relationships, troubled teens, and disability issues, to name a few key elements.
I keep things real by addressing tough situations and delivering content that is educational and entertaining. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Adventure Books about swashbuckling buccaneers, hungry mountain lions, or incredibly mismatched co-workers. They dedicated their fictional lives to uncovering secrets and saving the world. Man V. The Hemingway Thief by Shaun Harris is a wonderful example. Sport Showdowns — Stories of fighting the clock and beating the other guy to the finish line.
Fantasy We are all familiar with some aspects of the fantasy genre. Contemporary — Here, you can find magic woven into everyday events, like the wizard who uses their powers to make the best tasting BBQ in Town.
Epic stories take you to a wholly new and exciting world. Dark — These horror-fantasy mashups can quickly become cult favorites like H. Superheroes — Few can dispute the fact that Stan Lee did something right when creating the Marvel Universe. Science Fiction Science Fiction gets the best of all the worlds with its abilities to leap through space and time. Clarke, anyone? Adventures in space are hard to beat. This subgenre can also include space creatures traveling to Earth.
Bring forth the apocalypse! Alternative Universes — A distant or alternative cousin of space travel stories, alternative universes are kinda like ours, but different. These stories, like Maximum Ride by James Patterson, are often too enticing to pass up.
Artificial Intelligence — A. The success of these tales proves that people are always curious to know what robots think of us. Historical While the future fuels science fiction, historical fiction finds its inspiration in the past.
Buck was one of the first life-changing books I read. This Chinese epic exemplifies what makes family sagas so touching and powerful. Traditional Histories — These stories put you in the shoes of anyone else who was just going about their day when a fantastic story happened to them.
Famous Figures — When writing about prominent figures, authors often walk the line between fiction and nonfiction. I, Claudius by Robert Graves, talks from the first-person point of view of a Roman emperor and follows a semi-autobiographical tune. Hidden Histories — The demand for diverse, unique voices is only growing. People want to hear about secret heists, deals, and populations that lived without a voice, until now—Stories like Faces in the Water by Janet Frame.
War Narratives — Whether they are from the perspective of a general, a soldier, a civilian, or prisoner, war stories sell consistently. Dramas — Literary titles are inherently character-focused and this creates delectable drama.
Experimental Works — Novels like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell break storytelling and genre rules to create literary masterpieces. Writing short stories makes it easy to experiment and grow as a writer. But short stories aren't only for beginners! Some experienced writers prefer short fiction over novels. Since space is limited in a short story, every word counts. In this way, a good short story is often like a poem.
And like poetry, short stories often hint at more than what they say, suggesting a world beyond the story's frame. On the other hand, writing a novel has its own pleasures. There's the challenge of taking on a big project. And there's the chance to immerse yourself in your story's world, to live there for a while. Not long ago, I received an email from a student who had started writing a mystery novel and was excited about it.
But since he was a beginner, he thought maybe he should write some stories first, for practice. I advised him to keep writing his novel. I don't believe in a lot of universal rules about the writing process, but here's one: If you're partway through a writing project and it's going well, then by all means keep going! Literary Versus Commercial Fiction The difference between literary and commercial fiction isn't easy to define. And there's overlap between the two categories. Literary fiction is meant to be a work of art and often uses language in artistic ways.
Commercial fiction is intended to entertain. Often, literary fiction is more focused on character development and commercial fiction is more focused on plot. Of course, you need both to write a good story! The difference is one of emphasis. For example, imagine you want to write a novel about a murder. If it's literary fiction, the novel might focus on how the victim's family struggles with grief.
If it's commercial fiction, the focus might be on finding and stopping the killer -- before he strikes again.
Types of Fiction by Genre Genres are commercial categories of fiction, such as mysteries, horror, or romance. If you decide to write in a particular genre, you'll have a built-in audience of readers who look for that particular type of story.
The genre provides a set of traditions and rules that you can use to structure your story. And you can have fun bending the rules and taking a fresh approach to the traditions. Here are some of the most popular genres. Mysteries Usually a novel or story is about someone trying to solve a crime, usually murder. Most mystery novels create suspense around the question "Whodonit" and answer that question at the end.
There is a puzzle element to mysteries, as the reader tries to figure out the solution along with the main character or sleuth.
You might love writing mysteries if you enjoy plotting and plot twists, and if you enjoy puzzles. We are currently offering an 8-week online course on mystery writing. You can find out about it here. Writers can use this to their advantage because their boundaries are models on which to base stories. Genres reflect trends in society and they evolve when writers push the boundaries. Readers ultimately decide if the experiment has worked by buying these books. The most important part of genre fiction, though, is that it fulfils our human need for good, old-fashioned storytelling.
We sometimes need stories we can rely on to blunt the harsh realities of life. Source for image. With the advent of self-publishing and ebooks, these genre guidelines have become less strict. This is because a publisher does not have to produce thousands of physical copies of the book. However, if you want to publish traditionally, you should still consider genre requirements. Isolate your target market, research it, and adapt your story if necessary.
Look in bookshops — they are generic, sorting books into categories to make it easier for their busy readers to choose and buy whatever will guarantee them a good read.
Top Tip : Find out more about our workbooks and online courses in our shop. This is wonderful and so easy to read. I wish there were more sub-genres and I guess there are, but it would be weird to list them, like steampunk, vintage, and Western could be in every category except maybe sci-fi. Yes, I could have listed many sub-genres, but it would have been overwhelming.
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