Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part iv. Choosing Your Genre

The choice of genre is a pretty straightforward process for some writers. They love writing one kind of things, and that's what they focus on. For the rest of us, this can be a difficult decision to make.

Why Choose?

The easiest choice to make is not to choose at all. By choosing to stay open to you are free to pursue any idea that grabs you.

So why choose if by choosing you limit your options? It all comes down to marketability.

Most authors suggest to first try letting your writing shape your target readers instead of choosing a genre right off the bat and see what happens.

The vital thing to think about here is: What is your book's theme?

Deciphering between genres can be tricky at times, but thinking about these points will help you narrow down your book's genre:

• The Wattpad genre descriptions are up for interpretation.

• What do you want your readers to expect when they stumble upon your book?

• What is the main theme/plot of your book?

• What is the underlying theme/subplot of your book?

• What is the main struggle your protagonist is dealing with?

• What is the main desire/goal of your protagonist?

These questions should be able to help you decipher between genres.

So, How Do You Choose?

The most obvious way to pick a genre is to write what you like to read. If you mostly read romance, then write romance. Most of us read in several genres, and that can make it tricky though. Do you choose the one that seems the most marketable? The one you think is the most fun? Flip a coin?

This is ultimately a personal choice, but there are a few techniques that can help you choose:

• Make a pros and cons list: The classic decision-making tool. Write down the good and bad reasons to write in each genre and see how it shakes out.

• Go with your gut: After thinking about your options for a while, sit quietly for awhile and listen to your intuition. Forget about marketing, or what your friends will think, what does your heart tell you to write?

• Pick the most marketable genre: This is tricky since it's almost impossible to guess where the market is going. That said, you may be choosing between writing in a super-niche, micro-market, and something more mainstream. If you truly feel that they are equally-weighted in every other way, then maybe go with the one you think you can sell.

As you examine potential genres pay attention to the ones that attract you but scare you at the same time. If you're excited to write in a certain area but afraid that you won't be able to do it, then seriously consider choosing that genre. Often what you fear to do is what you need most to grow as an artist.

Picking The Right Genre

Write To Done writer, Cathy Yardley, suggest the following four steps to picking the right genre.

1. Get to know genre options:

A quick look at Amazon's Books page, or a stroll through any bookstore, will show you the main classifications for fiction. The Amazon bestseller page for books splits its lists by genre.

Look at the top five bestsellers in each genre. Read each book description. What does each genre emphasize?

For example, James Patterson's NYPD Red 2 is on the list for "Mystery, Suspense & Thriller." The description features crime scenes, brutal slaughter, and shocking murders.