Kristen GwenDo you love structure? Or do you run away like Forrest Gump? While some say that structure stifles creativity, personally, I feel it gives me bumper guards that insure my creativity makes sense and leaves readers satisfied.
Genres are one of the ways to structure your story. Choosing which genre your story fits into will give you a blueprint of reader expectations. When you fulfill those expectations, the result is happy readers.
In the Save the Cat screenwriting books, Blake Snyder talks about the 10 genres that all successful movies follow. Jessica Brody took those principles and translated them for novel writing in, Save the Cat! Writes A Novel. Below is a fly-by overview of these genres, but I encourage you to pick up one or both of these books for further explanations.
Now, without further a-do, the 10 genres!
1. Whydunit: All mysteries novels live here. They explore the dark side of human nature. And more than finding out “who” did it, we are interested in motive. Why do people do the dark things they do?
Examples:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
2. Rites of Passage: This genre is all about growing pains: death, puberty, separation, midlife crisis, adolescence. The moments in life that make us stop and think about who we are as human beings.
Examples:
Emma by Jane Austen
About a Boy by Nick Hornby
The Shack by William P. Young
3. Institutionalized (Groups): The question of whether to join or not to join a group is what this genre is all about. This genre highlights groups of people, be they families you’re born into (Little Women) or the highest echelons of society you’d love to join (The Great Gatsby) and the challenges that joining or not joining brings to your character’s life.
Examples:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
4. Superhero: And not just the superhuman ones, either. This genre is all about characters that are destined for greatness. But it’s not easy being super, as it often comes with great sacrifice.
Examples:
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Dune by Frank Herbert
5. Dude with a Problem: The opposite of Superheroes, these guys are regular old Joes with nothing special about them that are dragged through trouble, but eventually they will rise to the occasion. And it will be awesome!
Examples:
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. Fool Triumphant: This is the story of the overlooked underdog who rises above their underdoggian status.
Examples:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
7. Buddy Love: Not just for friend-type stories, but all romances fall under this category. These are stories in which the hero is transformed by the influence of someone else.
Examples:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
8. Out of the Bottle: Something magical happens in this genre. And the many types of magic used in this genre all bring about the universal truth the heroes all have to learn: they didn’t need the magic after all. Everything they needed to solve the problem was always inside them.
Examples:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
9. Golden Fleece: All the road trip stories live in this genre, but also stories where they don’t necessarily hit the road, like heist and quest stories. You just need a road, a team, and a prize. It’s about a journey and what the characters learn as they move toward their final destination.
Examples:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
10. Monster in the House: This is where most horror, slasher, and basically all scary stories live. It’s about small spaces and being trapped with a thing of horror. For this genre, you need a monster, a house (or enclosed space like a town), and a sin. The sin is what brought the monster into the house in the first place, and it is what is tied to the universal theme the hero must learn, such as don’t play God (Jurassic Park).
Examples:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Shining by Stephen King
World War Z by Max Brooks
Which genre does your story fit into? There is a lot more information in the books about how to make your stories fit and work within these genres. But once you have a solid genre structure, you’ll never be lost again when writing your stories. I don’t know about you, but that gives me a lot of confidence in this often difficult path of writing.
Happy Writing!
Julia N. White
Sharon Rene
Jill K Willis