Size and Labels Matter... in Storytelling
Size and Labels Matter... in Storytelling
Choosing a Type and Genre for Your Story Idea
Over the past couple of years, while I’ve been marketing and working on my new book and tarot deck, Mystic Storyteller, I’ve also been planning a new fiction project.
In the background, on the side, and whenever the inspiration strikes me, I’ve been making and organizing notes, my process for which I shared with you in Part 2 of this #NaNoWriMo series, So, You Have a Novel Idea... But You Have NO IDEA What to Do With It. During the amalgamation of this project’s details, as with all my other works of fiction, I’ve had to think about what type of story I want to write—a novel? Or maybe something smaller? What about a series?
When planning a new story idea, considering details such as word count and genre matters.
Anticipating the size of your story can help with direction to take while outlining, writing, and then marketing the work. While noodling over my new project, my earliest thoughts were to write a single book, and I felt pretty sure it would be another novel... until the idea grew into a 7-book magical realism-historical fiction-Southern Gothic-romantasy series.
In the past, I’ve written standalone novels and a duology; however, a few of my story ideas felt better suited as shorter formats. A Bright Light is a novelette, The Missing Lamb and Always Remember November are both novellas. While writing my book series The Scars We Choose*, it felt important to explore the back story for one of the main antagonists, and I thought readers might want to know a little insight around why this character behaved the way they did... what/who hurt them? As such, those notes became a short story I added as a bonus for readers after they finish Book Two.
*Remember, as a Substack subscriber, through the end of the year you can download The Scars We Choose, Book One, absolutely free. Get your copy here.
In today’s post, Part 3 of my #NaNoWriMo Substack series, I’m sharing why size and labels matter... in storytelling.
What’s the difference between a novel, novelette, novella, and a short story?
Well, size.
And what size fits your new story idea? To help you decide, I’ve searched the internet far and wide for “word count by genre” and charted the averages for the most common types of books.
What about genre?
Another important consideration to make early on in the novel writing process is genre. Where does your story fit? What are the genres of other books similar to your story idea? Establishing your book’s genre(s) can help you identify your potential reading audience and market(s).
Put simply, a book genre is a category or style that helps organize literature by theme, topic, and audience. Examples of genres include romance, thriller, horror, literary fiction, fantasy, and so on. Furthermore, your story doesn’t have to stay in one lane. You can swerve into several, if necessary. In fact, my novel Only the Rocks That Float is considered literary fiction, Southern Gothic, and coming-of-age.
Oftentimes, as you’re writing your story, the genre(s) become clear. Other times, it can be difficult to decide where to place a story, especially when self-publishing. At the time of writing this, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform only allows you to select three book genres. Drilling down can be challenging!
Here’s how I decide on genre.
As I’m writing my books, I keep a running list of other titles similar to my stories. For example, if you enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Of Mice and Men, then you might also like Only the Rocks That Float.
To discover all the genre possibilities for my stories, I search Amazon for books similar in tone or theme, and then scroll until I see the book’s rankings. The genres are highlighted beside each ranking, and you can click on them to explore similar titles.
On the Barnes & Noble website, you can select a book similar to your story and scroll until you see the section titled Related Subjects.
In which genre(s) does your story fit?
Are you writing a book? Are you planning to participate in NaNoWriMo? What genre possibilities sound best for your story idea? I’d love to know so I can keep an eye out on it in the future!
About Mandy
Amanda "Mandy" Hughes is an author and instructional designer who uses the tarot to inspire storytelling. Her book Mystic Storyteller: A Writer’s Guide to Using the Tarot for Creative Inspiration and companion tarot deck are coming soon! She also writes fiction under pen names A. Lee Hughes and Mandy Lee. Mandy lives in Georgia with her husband and four sons, two of whom are furrier than the others (but not by much). Visit her website at www.haintbluecreative.com and follow her on Instagram @HaintBlueCreative.