Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part i. What is Genre Fiction?

In the context of fiction, genre is simply a category used to organize books based on similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

Genre is used to better market your work so readers who are interested in your type of book may find it easier.

Understanding Your Readers' Expectations

If you want to satisfy your readers, you need to know what they look for in the books they read. Every genre has conventions, and understanding those conventions allows you to honor them as well as your readers. Readers expect you to respect the conventions of the genre you are writing in.

If you are writing a genre novel, you should read them. Get to know the rules of that genre even if you plan to break every one of them.

The main genre categories for published fiction are mystery, thriller, romance, science fiction, and fantasy.

Let's delve further into these main genres.

Mystery

A mystery novel is about crime, often a murder, and the story involves a fictional sleuth solving the puzzle. They are also known as a "whodunnit" book.

Sleuths come in all shapes and sizes. A sleuth can be a pro whose job is solving crimes, like a police officer or a private investigator. Alternately, a sleuth can be an amateur such as a teacher, librarian, or waitress who gets inadvertently drawn into solving a crime.

The conventions of the mystery genre include:

• Much of the story is narrated by the sleuth/protagonist.

• Bad things happen; there's at least one murder.

• There are multiple suspects.

• There's a central puzzle for the reader (and the fiction sleuth) to solve.

• The author plays fair with the reader, revealing everything the sleuth knows.

• The reader feels satisfied at the end that justice has been served.

Thrillers

The main ingredient of a thriller is suspense. The reader stays on the edge of his seat turning the pages, feeling both anxious and afraid to discover what happens next. The stakes are as high as they can be, and evil itself is often what the protagonist is up against. Thrillers often have multiple narrators, plus plenty of action and violence. Their stories move swiftly.

Here are some of the genre conventions of a thriller novel:

• The pace is fast, often unrelenting.

• There's tension from page one.

• There are lots of exciting, surprising plot twists.

• A "ticking clock" ratchets the tension as it counts down to disaster.

• The stakes are high.

• The story often takes place in an exotic location.

• The hero tends to be a maverick who follows his own moral compass.

• The story often revolves around a "high concept" (like impending environmental disaster or terrorist threats to humanity).

• In the final climactic scenes, the protagonist triumphs over ostensibly insurmountable odds.

Romance

Romance novels are about romantic relationships (usually) between two people, and about overcoming the obstacles that keep them apart. There are two general types of romance novels: category romance and single titles.

Single-title romance novels tend to be longer and have fewer restraints. Category-romance novels are shorter; they follow specific publisher's guidelines about aspects like historical backdrop and the level of sensuality.

For many years, so-called "Regency romance" (set in nineteenth-century England) were wildly popular; more recently, paranormal romance has surged to the forefront.

Romance readers expect:

• A love story.

• A central obstacle or conflict that keeps the lovers apart and must be overcome.

• Erotic scenes and often hot and steamy sex (this, obviously, doesn't apply to teen fiction romance).

• Main characters who grow and change over the course of the novel.

• An emotionally satisfying and upbeat ending.

Science Fiction and Fantasy

These two genres are sometimes lumped together as "speculative fiction."

A science fiction novel envisions a scientifically plausible world in the future, in some alternative past, or in an alternate timeline.

Fantasy novels take the reader to an imaginary, fantastic world that might be deep in the earth's core, in the heavens, or in a setting from mythology. Characters that may or may not be human typically have extraordinary powers or the ability to work magic.

I'll tell you the biggest difference between the science fiction and fantasy genres, but first, brush up on your knowledge of a proper story arc (Section III, part i).

Both science fiction and fantasy story arcs start out with a flat exposition, then complications and conflicts rise with crises along the way until the top peak where conflict occurs. After the conflict is where you see the difference between the two genres.

In science fiction, in order to reach the reflection, change has to occur in the resolution. The main thing to remember here is that while there is peace in the beginning and end of the novel, an evolution in plot has to take place, so the peace at the end isn't exactly the same as the peace in the beginning. The characters will never be the same again. Their world has changed due to the conflict. They have to learn how to survive with the recent events.

In fantasy, in order to reach the reflection, the characters feel the need to do everything in their power to go back to the way things once were, before the conflict struck. So, the peace at the end of a fantasy novel will be exactly the same as the peace in the beginning. While the characters may reflect on the conflict, they will be okay because things are "back to normal, again;" they can move on with their lives.

Here are some conventions that make both science fiction and fantasy novels work:

• The protagonist takes a hero's journey to reach some powerful goal.

• Their fantastic or future worlds are utterly believable and internally consistent.

• The hero is often the only person who can stop a powerful villain or evil force; "the chosen one."

• Heroes typically have someone or a special force that helps them and explains what challenges they face.

• By the end, most of the main characters survive, having been transformed.

The next part will briefly touch upon each genre Wattpad offers with examples.

Please vote if you've learned something new!