Learn to Write

The fantasy book genre is a type of fiction that often involves magical or supernatural elements and takes place in a fantastical world or in the real world with added fantasy elements. Fantasy stories often have elements of adventure, romance, and mythology and may include mythical creatures, mythical lands, or magical powers. The genre allows for a wide range of storytelling styles and can include subgenres such as epic fantasy, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, and sword and sorcery. Some well-known examples of fantasy books include "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling, and "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis.

Below is a long list of fantasy subgenres that people write novels in. And if you're interested in other book genres, you'll like our article on popular book genres.

Science fiction is a genre of fiction that explores the possibilities of science and technology and their potential impact on society and the individual. Science fiction stories often take place in the future or in alternate realities, and may include elements of space travel, time travel, alien life forms, and advanced technology. Science fiction often examines the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, as well as the social and cultural implications of these advances. The genre also often explores themes of humanity, society, and the future. Examples of science fiction books include "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, and "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells.

In our article on popular book genres, we discuss the importance of choosing the genre you're writing in. Below you'll find our extensive list of science fiction book genres along with examples and a brief description of each.

The romance genre is a subject that focuses on the relationship and emotional connection between two people, and often include elements of love, passion, and attraction. Romance books can have any setting, with popular books in the genre being set (or even written) far in the past (such as "Price and Prejudice" by Jane Austin), they could be more contemporary (such as "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks), and can even contain fantastical elements such as the super-popular "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer.

We discuss in our article on book genres the importance of choosing the genre you're writing in, and this goes double for the sub-genre! Here we've listed an extensive list of romance sub-genres, many of which come from Amazon's list of featured romance categories. Each one has its own audience with their own expectations, so be sure to look through them and find the best home for your romance novel.

Book genres are categories of stories that share similar characteristics and themes. Romance stories, for example, tend to focus on relationships. Science fiction, on the other hand, often revolve around changes to or the use of technology. Many genres will have similarities and overlap - and some are even regularly mashed-up - but each genre has its own unique components and requirements.

Here we'll list the high-level books genres as well as examples!

It's fair to say that we want readers to like our characters, although 'like' can mean a few different things. For instance, Jake Gyllenhaal's character in "Nightcrawler", Lou, is incredibly repulsive as a person, and yet we still want to follow his story (i.e., we 'like' Lou in a certain way). Frodo, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of the likeability spectrum. Most characters are somewhere in the middle, though, where they're ultimately good people (and people working on "our side"), yet they have abrasive personalities that would stop us from wanting to get a beer with them after work. Or maybe they're great people, but are constantly screwing up the big presentation others are working so hard on.

If you've spent any time studying how to write novels or screenplays, you've no-doubt heard the term 'save the cat'. This is a term coined by screenwriter Blake Snyder to describe a way of getting the audience to like and identify with a story's character, even if that character isn't the most affable of people. Ususally this means a scene in a book or movie where the character does something heroic or altruistic (such as, you know, save a cat), which will make the audience thing, "Aww, what a great guy!" (And, of course, the examples don't have to be quite that literal!)

In its quest to delve deeper into the mechanics of story structure and development, the Save the Cat! system goes beyond the regular genres of sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and the like! In fact, Blake Snyder and Jessica Brody created ten new story genres for us to write our stories and screenplays in, but they might not be quite what you think.

The Point of View (or POV) of a story, in essence, describes who is telling your story. Another way to phrase this is to ask, who is the narrator? For many fiction books (such as The Expanse series or Harry Potter series), there is a disembodied god that sits high above and describes what all the characters below are feeling and doing and saying: Bob wok up with his alarm and smelled coffee. This is a Third Person Point of View. Sometimes it's one of the characters (often the main character) describing what everyone is doing: I woke up and smelled coffee. This is called First Person Point of View. There is even an elusive Second Person POV!

Here we'll discuss the different types in detail, some sub-categories, and why you might choose one over the others.

Ever wonder how Dan Harmon (the creator of Community and Rick and Morty) writes an episode of Rick and Morty? It all starts with an eight-step story breakdown – often called a beat sheet – widely known as “Dan Harmon’s Story Circle”. It’s the tool he uses to, “Remove all the hard and repeated work from the task of breaking a story.”

While all (most?) of us stick to writing our manuscripts month after month because it's a labour of love, it'd still be nice to get paid a little something at the end! But how exactly does a publisher or literary magazines pay their authors? Is a debut writer paid (and rich!) before their first book even arrives in stores? Read on to learn more about author compensation for both novels and literary magazines.