In this episode, we delve into the importance of understanding your book's genre. Discover how identifying your genre can help you write more effectively and market your book successfully. Learn about the different genres for both fiction and non-fiction, and explore how sub-genres can add unique flavors to your writing. We also share valuable resources like '20 Master Plots' by Ronald Tobias and provide actionable tips to ensure your book meets reader expectations. Join us and gain the momentum to propel your writing journey forward!

• 00:00 Introduction to Writing Momentum
• 00:41 Understanding Genre: What Is It?
• 03:31 Genres in Fiction and Non-Fiction
• 04:45 Identifying Your Book's Genre
• 07:23 Genre Conventions and Writing Tips
• 12:47 Resources and Final Thoughts
• 15:19 Conclusion and Community Engagement

LINKS:

• 20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias
• Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join our writing membership and get your book DONE! https://www.writingmomentum.com/membership

How do you discover the genre you're writing?

We can help with that.

Hello and welcome to Writing Momentum.

I'm Christopher Maselli.

I'm here with my wife, Gena.

Gena, how are you?

And what are we talking about?

I am doing really well and I'm very excited.

Um, just for you guys that don't know, this is our third

attempt at this podcast today.

You know, what we discovered is that when you record a podcast,

you need to turn the microphone on.

You won't believe how far you can get into recording a podcast and then

discover the microphone isn't even on.

So we're, we're talking today, we'll go back to what

we're really talking about again.

What is genre?

We're talking about genre.

We're talking about what it is and why it's important.

So what is genre, Chris?

So I like to think of it this way.

If I walk into a bookstore and I know I want to read a mystery, I

will look for the mystery aisle.

The mystery aisle is where it's, it's a genre.

It's a category, it's a classification of all the books that in that aisle, right?

And they all have some similarities in their form and their style, their

subject matter, that sort of thing, and it helps Bookstores gather

the books together and it helps us know what a book kind of is, right?

What it's not necessarily about, but the kind of things we can

expect when we read that book.

Yeah, so it really is about, uh, not only for the author to be able

to say this is what my book is, but also for a bookseller, even an online

bookseller, to be able to say, Oh, we know where to place this or how to list

it so that the readers can find it.

So it really does help both the author, but also the bookseller on the other end.

Yeah.

Amazon, you know, we've said before, it has something like over 600 categories.

Okay.

Those are essentially, Narrowed down genres, right?

So it might start with mystery, and then it'll say cozy mystery, or mystery

thriller, or something like that, and it'll narrow it down, down, down, to down.

So there are literally hundreds of genres, there's probably only a

handful to start off with, and then you go deeper and deeper, the more

The sub genres.

Yeah, more and more sub genres.

And, um, it's important to know what your book's going to be.

So like, for fiction, you might say I've got a mystery, or I've got a

romance, or a fantasy, or science fiction, or historical fiction.

And that's kind of the place that you're going to start.

Yeah.

I've even gotten into, as I've read fiction before, uh, fiction

that is, um, maybe a mystery that's based in a specific locale.

So, um, it, it can get that specific.

So if you are someone who loves, I think I got into low country,

which is South Carolina, I believe.

Um, but it was low country mysteries for a while.

And it was, it was fun because I was learning all about these, uh, different

places in South Carolina and in that, just that area, whether it was the food that

was influencing the fiction, whether it was the locations, whether it was the way

of life, the culture, that kind of thing.

And for a while, I really got into that.

And it was just really fun.

So that was a very niche niche.

Subgenre of fiction that I kind of got into.

So are genres only for fiction?

No!

They're not?

No!

Fiction, uh, we think about fiction a lot of times when we think about genres,

but for non fiction it's the same thing.

It really is the, where is this going to appear in this bookstore?

Is it going to be in the biography section?

Is it going to be in the memoir?

Is it going to be in self help, travel, history, theology, or religion?

Is it, where is it going to be?

Geography?

There's all these different categories and shelves that these

books are going to appear on.

And so, absolutely.

It's important that because genre is, helps a store classify where

to put the books so people can find you.

Even online stores like Amazon, they group their books together

so it helps people find you.

It also helps readers find the kind of books they like.

So if they like reading a John Grisham book, they can see what kind

of book that he wrote that I like it, is it a lawyer thriller, right?

Then they can look for other lawyer thrillers.

And if that's what you've written, it'll help them find you.

But it's also important for you to know the kind of genre that you're writing.

Yeah, I think this is, this is a question that comes up when

we are talking to new writers.

And it's something that that's why I wanted to talk about it today.

Because so often when you talk to new writers, they will stop and kind of

start to stammer and stutter when you ask them what their book is about, what

the genre is that they're writing in.

And it's because they're trying to classify their book

in several different genres.

They're trying, they're kind of trying to do a mashup of all these different genres.

And does that work?

They can mash up, right?

You could have, uh, Um, a book that is both historical and a thriller, right?

So they, you could mash up those two genres, so that works.

But, there are sometimes things you can't mash up.

So, for instance, sometimes when I'm talking to authors about the

children's book they're writing, they'll say, well, it's like a picture

book, but it's for middle graders.

Well, usually picture books and middle grades, like those are two

completely different genres, right?

So you really need to know if you're writing a book, is it a picture book?

Is it a chapter book?

Is it a middle grade book?

Is it a YA book?

Those are all considered children's books,

Right

but if you don't know the kind of book, the kind of genre

you're trying to fit into, you're not going to probably be successful

in that market because You don't know where it goes, the bookstores

don't know where it goes, and people aren't going to know how to find you.

And the libraries don't know where it goes.

And the libraries don't know where it goes.

When you're talking about children's books, libraries are really, you know,

they're trying to figure out where do we put this book to find the reader.

And librarians are smart.

And they still don't know where to put it because they haven't identified the genre.

Well, and so, I think children's books is a great, um, Uh, example of this,

because with children's books, if you're writing a picture book, which is for what?

What grade?

What age?

It's four to six?

Usually, yeah, this could be three to six, four to six

years old, three to five, right?

So it's very young.

That is going to affect the vocabulary, the number of

words that you use, the sentence structure that you might choose.

Even the subject matter, right?

We know what kids are learning at those ages and what they're interested in.

For instance, they might be very interested in dinosaurs, but they're

not interested in murder mysteries.

And so, if you are trying to write a murder mystery in a picture book, it's

going to be very hard to sell that, right?

So, when we're talking about the elements We've talked about

children's books, but when you're talking about, think more generally,

think more fiction or nonfiction, and I guess we'll focus on fiction.

What are the elements that you need for identifying your genre?

Well, so I like to think of it in terms, and this helps you write

better, right, too, and write faster.

If you know what is expected in your genre, what the rules are, or here,

maybe as a better word, what the conventions are, what are the conventions

of the genre that you're writing?

Let me give you a, for instance, I have written a superhero novel.

In doing so, I researched what are the superhero conventions.

And here's what you find.

You find that, you know what?

Almost all superheroes have an alter ego that's a secret identity.

That's a convention.

That's something that's in almost every superhero tale.

Not all of them, but most of them.

Almost all superhero tales have an arch enemy villain whose strength

is the opposite of your hero, right?

So in that way, your hero has to find a way to defeat them with

that, their strength being the superhero's weakness and vice versa.

The superhero strength is the villain's weakness.

And it makes for a much interesting plot knowing that you can

better construct your story.

But if you're trying to just write a superhero book without knowing anything

about the superhero conventions, It's going to be much harder to write and boy

does it just come together once you start to hear those things because you think,

Oh, okay, he's got to have a nemesis.

I was wondering what to do about a nemesis.

Well, now I know the nemesis strength has to be my hero's weakness

and it starts to come together.

It becomes, it becomes much easier to write.

Same goes for romance, doesn't it?

Absolutely.

When you're writing romance, it needs to be, there needs to

be, uh, two characters, right?

That are coming together.

They don't just come together, fall in love, and the rest is history.

they have to come together, have some kind of conflict that

happens that drives them apart.

And often, uh, there's even a fear that is they're working with that's

underneath, that's kind of keeping them apart too, or not just an external

thing that's keeping them apart.

But a lot of times there's an internal reason why they're not coming together.

A rom com, like a romantic comedy, there's always

a character triangle, right?

So you've always got one character and then two other characters

that one they're supposed to be with and one that's deterring

them from being with that person.

Who looks like a good option.

Who looks like a good option right but this this again okay

so this is a convention of that genre if you try to write a romance without

some kind of convention it doesn't have to be that that third person in the

triangle that's not what we're talking about today but just as a side note the

third person in the triangle doesn't have to be a person it could be a Vocation,

right, that is drawing that person away.

Whatever it is, there has to be some kind of triangle created, but if you

try to write a romance without the triangle, it's gonna be very tough going.

Well, not only is it gonna be tough going, but it's gonna be disappointing.

And that's the big thing that, where this really affects you as the writer.

I know we all want to create something new.

We want to come up with new stories.

We want to come up with something creative and unexpected, but if

we veer too far out of our lane, it's going to become unsatisfying.

Is that the word?

Dissatisfying.

It's not going to be satisfying to your reader.

And that's what you don't want.

You want to be satisfying to your readers so that your readers think, Oh

my gosh, I love what he did last time, I'm going to look for his next book.

Right, and, and that, that the reason people become dissatisfied is

because it lets down their expectations of the book and the genre, right?

When I watch a superhero movie, most of the time I want the

superhero to win in the end.

In the rom com or romance book, you want the characters to get together.

Those are conventions, those are expectations that I have of that book.

And that doesn't mean you have to follow that all the time,

but that's the general rule.

And you can break the rule, but not until you understand how it works.

It really does go back to this idea of you have to know

the rules before you break them.

And it's just so important that you have to understand, I would even say

understand your primary genre and then you can have a secondary one.

We've talked about the mash up.

We've talked about how you can have a book or a story that goes into more

than one genre and that's fine, but you really want to zero in on what that

Primary one is and make sure you hit all those points and then add those

other ones in for flavor It's like adding spices to a beautiful soup.

You're adding in those spices to make it a little bit different to make it really

your own But you're still holding to the conventions of that primary genre.

Yeah, gotta make that spicy soup.

So here's one of the ingredients that I love for a spicy soup It's a book

called 20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias.

This is a fantastic book on helping you identify the genre that you're writing

in and then following the conventions.

What he does is he breaks down 20 different types of plots.

Each one he breaks into a three act structure and then within that three

act structure, he shows you the kind of tropes you need to include.

He shows you what generally is included so that you can put those into your own book.

I have written books, entire novels, where I follow exactly the kind of

direction that Tobias recommends.

And boy, does it just come together really nicely and then sometimes I'll

start to break the rules a little bit or I'll change things up a little bit.

But knowing the direction to go really helps since you can use a book like

that as 20 Master Plus by Ronald Tobias.

We'll put a link in the description of this podcast and you can go

ahead and get your own copy.

It's been around for years so even finding a used copy is very easy.

You've probably had that book for 25 years.

Easily.

Maybe 30.

It's one he will never sell.

He will always have it in his library.

And I was also going to mention, if you are interested in a specific genre

and you want just to kind of get your juices flowing, do a search for tropes.

For that genre.

Now, I know tropes, sometimes that word gets a bad rap and people kind of

roll their eyes at the idea of tropes.

But look at what the tropes are for whatever genre you're looking for.

. Or that you're wanting to write and really.

Kind of let that get those creative juices flowing.

Start thinking about it.

Think about maybe, okay, this is what's expected.

What can I do that might be a little bit different without

completely running out of my lane?

Let me stay in my lane with my genre, but maybe give it a little bit more flavor.

Add that spice.

So ask yourself, what is your book's genre?

This is your homework for the week, right?

This is your challenge.

What is your book's genre?

What are the rules or the conventions of that genre?

And are you obeying those rules?

And if so, see how it can all come together.

If you're not obeying some, see if you can work it in there,

because you need to understand the rules before you can break them.

But once you've done that, then we think you've got a good book to jump off with.

Absolutely.

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That's right because remember we are not in this alone.

This is not something, if you're writing and you think that this is something

that you're supposed to do alone, that's not the way we do writing nowadays.

Nowadays we get a lot more done.

We add momentum to our writing because we do it together because together

we have writing momentum.

Bye bye.