The Short Sharp Shock upon Realizing My Novel Is an Adventure, Not a Thriller
The importance of choosing your novel's correct genre and sub-genre.
Picking my genre and sub-genre
A novelist not knowing their genre for a work-in-progress is a huge mistake. Work on my first draft and first revisions led me to believe my novel is a thriller. But after talking to a publishing industry advisor, my genre is action adventure. Not a thriller at all.
My book does not include the conventions and obligatory scenes to make it a thriller. But the right elements are all there for an action-adventure novel.
This requires a complete rewrite, but more than a year now has passed since the last revision. There was a time in the last decade I thought taking that much time away was impossible.
The last year has taught me otherwise.
Revision is Re Visioning, as in seeing something in a new way.
This time, I will look at the text in a different context than before. A true, “re-visioning” with the right genre in mind.
The reason it is so important to choose the correct genre and subgenre is that you need to know your market. You need to know who your audience is and what they want. Picking the wrong genre could mean that your book never gets published.
Even worse, it gets published, and no one buys it.
The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne
I now coordinate most of my revisions through the work of Shawn Coyne’s 2015 book, The Story Grid.
Instead of Coyne’s long-form book from 2015, he now publishes a series of medium content books. They sell these on Amazon, but they’re also sold from their website for a reasonable amount. There is invaluable information in these smaller books.
They focus on specific genres and then get into conventions and obligatory scenes.
Elements that must be there in order for a book to live in a specific genre.
Using Story Grid to improve your stories.
Developing a story “that works” requires elements in a certain order. Coyne’s approach pushes writers to make important decisions before they write anything.
Instead of the Christopher Vogler 12-step “writer’s journey,” Coyne uses the “Hero’s Journey 2.0.”
Per Coyne’s process, there are five elements for each step of the journey.
The inciting incident
Further complications
The best of two bad choices
The climax
The resolution
To go a step further, each of the four quadrants of the story has the same five elements.
So instead of having 12 steps in the HJ, you have 20.
Going through the conversion process to get from 12 to 20 was mind-bending. Transposing scenes involved several long weeks of long days. But looking back now, I can see the rhyme and reasoning behind this exercise.
Finding your genre and sub-genre is easier with Coyne’s model.
One can find The Story Grid’s Genre Five-Leaf Clover here. There is a fantastic two-page spread showing the genre outcomes. This also includes the sub-genres and their characteristics.
I did a 30-minute consultation with a Story Grid-trained editor and in 90 minutes we found I was in the wrong genre.
With no doubt in my mind, my present work in progress is action adventure.
The only problem is the publishing industry does not use the term “action adventure.”
Movies fall into the action genre.
Books find themselves on store shelves labeled “adventure.”
My sub-genre involves specific classifications.
My story is an action-adventure with the sub-genre of worldview — maturation.
This insight is significant.
The obligatory scenes of adventure and worldview—maturation differ from those of a thriller. Looking at that chart and understanding action/worldview-maturation makes an incredible difference. This changed my understanding of what I still need to include or verify what I have written.
How I’m moving forward with my adventure story.
It’s been a little over a year since my last revision and I’ve realized that my novel is not a thriller, but an action adventure. This was a tremendous shock to me. I had spent so much time working on the draft and revisions with the mindset that adventure story, not a thriller.
This was a huge mistake.
The reason it is so important to choose the correct genre and subgenre is that you need to know your market. You need to know what readers are expecting from your book.
If you don’t want to disappoint your readers by not giving them what they want. And if you try to force your book into a genre that it doesn’t fit, it will be obvious to the reader.
Choosing the right genre is essential to giving your book’s eventual literary agent the best odds when it goes before editors and publishers.
The importance of finding your genre.
There are many ways to do this, but the best way is to read books in your genre and see what they have in common.
What are the obligatory scenes?
Do you know the genre’s conventions?
List the expectations of this genre’s readers?
You can also use a resource like The Story Grid’s Genre Five-Leaf Clover to help you find your genre.
Once you have found your genre, the next step is to choose your subgenre. This is important because it will help you focus your story.
You need to know your subgenre inside and out if you want to write a successful book.
The next step is including all the obligatory scenes for your genre and subgenre. These are the scenes that are essential to the story and without them, the story will not work.
More ways to read my online content
Thank you for reading my post here on Tuesdays.
I also publish three newsletters on Substack: Disquisitions—Mondays; and, The Voodoo Hill Explorer Club—Fridays.
As if I have not overextended myself already, I also post on my new YouTube Channel — Donald J. Claxton.
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.