Genre of Fiction

The word genre has different meanings, even in the literary world. There's the broadness of it, meaning there are three genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Then there is the more detailed definition for each category. This post is all about the genres of fiction.

Let's start with literary fiction. Literary fiction is the fiction that ends up in high school classrooms and college lit classes thirty years from now. Character comes before plot always. Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne are classic examples. Lorrie Moore, Charles Baxter, and Ron Carlson are modern day examples.

-A subgenre of this, that I feel necessary to elaborate on is Experimental Fiction. Although some could consider this a separate genre, I'm throwing it in here. This is the fiction that breaks some or all of the rules of traditional fiction. Vladimir Nabokov and James Joyce are classic examples of this. Mark Danielewski is a modern example.

Commercial/Mainstream Fiction is fiction that has no category. The goal is to entertain and nothing more, usually. Plot comes before character. Chuck Palahniuk's early novels and Denis Johnson are good examples of this category. So is Jodi Piccoult, although I've never read anything by her.

Now for those genres which have more rigid definitions:

Horror: fiction which is designed to scare/frighten/generally creep out the reader. Everyone knows Stephen King, and there are Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, Richard Matheson, and Bram Stoker.

-Subgenre to note! Dark Fiction is very similar to horror, but dark fiction does not necessarily intend to scare the reader (though it often ends up doing that). It deals with the macabre just as much, and shows (appropriately enough) the dark side of humanity.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy: these two are always grouped together, for good reasons. Both deal with what doesn't exist in this world. The difference lies in why it doesn't exist. Fantasy is about is impossible no matter how far technology advances (magic, for example). Sci-Fi deals with what isn't possible now, but could be in the future. Sometimes, Sci-Fi will also use current or soon to be current technology and its implications. Asimov, Heinlein, and Clark are the biggest examples of Sci-fi. Tolkein and Rowling are the biggest examples of fantasy.

Thriller: These are the real page turners. Think Dan Brown and John Grisham. There are many subgenres for this. Character is always secondary, sometimes tertiary to the plot. Time constraints are good, death is better, and a possible terrorist attack is best. These will always be criticized the most by literary critics, because the author doesn't care about making it art, he cares about giving the reader a fun time. Many of these become movies.

Crime/Mystery: as plot oriented as a thriller, but with a different style and focus. Almost always they start with a murder. The goal then is to figure out who the murderer is. Sherlock Holmes is one of the biggest characters in the origins of mysteries, but it has progressed much from then, with new technologies, forensics, and all sorts of things.

Romance/Erotic: These are NOT love stories. I would throw love stories under commercial fiction (Nicholas Sparks' books). Romance novels and Erotic fiction is about the passion and love scenes thrown in there. In a way, it's porn in book form, which means guys refuse to read it. Love stories, in contrast, focus on the love part and not the sex part, the scandalous part, or anything similar. A love story wants you to cry at some point, it wants you to feel attached to the characters.

So what's the point of listing and describing many of the genres of fiction? It's always good to know where you fit, because that's what you'll be using when you look for an agent and a publisher. Although the lines can cross (Danielewski is both Horror and Experimental), it's good to know which category is primary, and which is secondary. I stick to literary (and recently experimental) and dark fiction. So I know not to send a novel query to an agent who specializes in Thrillers. They won't want it. Nor will a literary agent want anything to do with a science fiction novel.

Also, I'm not trying to get you to define yourself by one of these categories. That would be wrong. Instead, if you write a novel one day, write it first, then decide on which category fits it best. If you see it breaking into other categories, that means you can find an agent who specializes in both and hopefully end up with a better deal with a publisher. If you have a horror novel that's experimental, then send to an agent who does both, and they'll hook you up better than an agent who only does horror or one who only does experimental. But write first, think of genre second. Always.