Writing Genres; Part 1/3🖋

♙What are writing genres?♙

What is a writing genre, and how does it assist us in our writing career?

A writing genre is the thing that helps you identify which category does your story fall under! And also helps you understand what your readers are into too, along with YOUR interests in which types of stories you are able to write.

Writing Genres help your readers understand what are the story elements they should expect to read in your story, simply by reading the title and the genre can give a first impression on what the story will be about!

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『List Of Main Genres:』

♕Literary Fiction

Literary fiction are Character-Driven type of novels, they follow a character’s inner story, focusing on serious life issues. Giving their readers a deeper understanding of life it usually appeals and attracts the intellectual type of audience, as it addresses and discusses serious matters and can provoke beliefs and change the audience’s way of thinking.

_What is the difference between Literary Fiction and Fiction? you may wonder. simply enough, Literary Fiction is character-driven, meaning, it focuses more on style and depth of a character’s life and way of thinking along with discussing serious topics, meanwhile Fiction is plot-driven which meaning, it focuses more on imaginary details and creativity, focusing more on the scenes from the start, middle and end.

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♕Mystery

The ‘Detective Fiction’ type of novels revolve around solving a mysterious case from the start till the end. These type of novels usually build a relationship with the Writers and their Readers, as the mysteries turn the readers into detectives, the writer drops clues and the readers try to solve them along with the characters, the pace of the story usually keeps the readers interested until the end where the secret is revealed, leaving the readers satisfied with the answers that answer their thoughtful questions and connects the dots to all the scenes.

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♕Thriller

Thriller novels are mysterious plot-driven novels. Unlike Horror, they have more psychological explanation to the scenes that are written, so it makes sense to the readers why things are the way they are in the story! They keep the readers in suspense with the many plot twists and cliffhangers.

_What’s the difference between Thriller and Horror? You may wonder. Simply enough, THRILLER novels make more sense than Horror, the scenes in Thriller have more explanation than Horror, meanwhile HORROR is more about gore, blood and the scary scenes with not enough meaning.

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♕Horror

Horror novels are meant to scare the audience. They focus on hunting their readers lives, filling it with fear with usually no explanation to what is going on or connection between scenes. So  they always leave their readers shocked and startled by focusing on death themes and evil creatures (such as, Demons, Evil Spirits, Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves etc...) however, that can change based on WHO is the story written for, is it kids? Teens, or adults? If kids then they have to know that it’s all just fiction, more fantasy-like horror, however if it’s teens/adults we have to make it more realistic, more believable, giving the reader a feeling that the story can possibly happen.

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♕Historical

Historical novels speak about past events. They can be either a mix of imagination and real past events, by taking a real event and creating another scenario without messing with history,  or fully realistic aka based on facts only by bringing actual past events and historical figures making no changes, OR either just imaginary past scenes filled with fantasy not necessarily following the actual historical events.

Usually Historical novels writers write their stories as a mix of researched information and a bit of imagination, making the reader actually feel like they live in the events that have been written.

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♕Romance

Romance novels are all about the love that goes between two characters (unless it’s a poly relationship), those types of stories may involve conflicts, however, the ending is always emotionally pleasing and satisfying for the readers.

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♕Western

Western novels commonly take place in the American ‘old wild west’. They rely on specific elements made specifically for this genre, writers use those elements in ways other fiction genres don’t! Those novels tell stories of Cowboys, Settlers and Outlaws that explore and ‘tame’ the American Old West.

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♕Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman novels are Literary Genres that literally mean ‘A Novel Of Education’. They revolve around a character’s growing up story, it follows a character growing up psychologically and morally from their youth to adulthood.  They experience a heartfelt emotional loss that leads them to live a journey filled with difficulties till they finally become mature at the end of the story.

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♕Speculative Fiction

Speculative Fiction genres is an umbrella term for writers that do not belong to a particular science fiction or fantasy genre, some refer to it as ‘super gener’. These types of stories take place in a world that is different from our own, using a mix of literary fiction along with some fantasy elements! However, while some stories with mixed genres can be called a ‘speculative fiction novel’ not all genres can be counted as speculative, as an example; horror fiction. Horror fiction IS a part of the speculative genre, however, sometimes it just cannot.

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♕Science Fiction

Science Fiction, or Sci-Fi novels are speculative stories, that have fictional elements that do not excite in this reality. It is divided to two, HARD sci-fi and SOFT sci-fi:

        •Hard Sci-fi is the type of Sci-Fi with actual facts and science, such as; physics.

        •Soft Sci-fi is the type of Sci-Fi with not so accurate scientific facts, OR other ‘soft’ science like: psychology.

Those types of novels can also be a mix of science with a bit of fantasy, as it usually speaks of elements such as; time travel and mind control.

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♕Fantasy

Fantasy novels are speculative stories, using imaginary sets and characters to create a story. Those types of novels attract different people from all ages, as they are inspired by many magical elements, such as; magic and mythology. They take the reader to a whole new world and a magical way of thinking.

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♕Magical Realism

Magical realism genres take place in our world, however it adds some magical elements that appear to be normal in the world written in the story. movies /books such as Harry Potter shows us the 5 elements of Magical Realism as it appears to be normal for Harry and his friends to have magic and extraordinary creatures living among them.

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♕Realist Literature

Unlike magical realism, Realist Literature speaks of things that can actually happen in our reality. It describes reality and everything in it so accurately, it abides by the laws of nature, and speaks of the everyday life that we know.

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