When you’ve written your first draft, you start with developmental editing. The first step, usually, is to check your main genre.
You’ll want to know this so you can properly analyze your manuscript and craft a story your readers will love. All you need to do is check your protagonist, antagonist, ending climax, and level of reality.
You can also watch the video below for more information.
Why Do I Need To Know This?
Naturally, you want readers to enjoy your story (and buy the sequels, if you have them).
For that, you need to know what it is that readers enjoy about the kind of book you’ve written.
And for that, you need to research books that are similar to yours that your target readers really seem to enjoy.
And for that, you need to know what kind of book you’ve actually written.
Now, before you say “My book has more than one genre,” or “I’ve blended genres;” that’s all good and well. But then you still need to identify these genres, and ideally have one overarching genre.
For instance, you could write a romantasy (like Fourth Wing, very popular these days). This combines action with romance and fantasy elements. But the main genre of a romantasy is action. Although both romance and action need to be weaved together, so it’s important to examine both genres in your story.
Think about it: when you’re reading Fourth Wing, the main question starts with Will Violet survive? This is followed by Will she and Xaden get together?
The point is: if you want readers to love what you’ve written and earn money, you need to know what it is you wrote.
1. Prewriting Preperation
Ideally, you already decided what kind of story you wanted to write before you started writing it.
In fact, I have an article right here that dives into the different fiction external and internal genres you can choose from.
You can also find a lot of information on the different genres on the Story Grid website.
However, it’s possible that during the writing process, your story morphed into something else. It happens. And it might just mean you wanted to write something different than you initially thought.
Either way, it’s good to check whether your main genre is still what you decided on beforehand.
2. Your Protagonist
To find your genre, you can check your protagonist’s main focus in the story.
Are they trying to survive, save someone, or get revenge? (action, horror, thriller, war, western)
Are they trying to right a wrong/seek justice? (crime, mystery, thriller, western)
Are they mainly trying to find romance or another form of meaningful connection (or doing the complete opposite)? (romance)
Are they trying to be a hero or act honorably? (war)
Are they trying to win something, get better at something, or prepare for some other type of big event? (performance)
Are they trying to gain more power (societal power)? (society)
Are they trying to move up in the world? (status)
Are they trying to find their true selves or find some truth about the world? (worldview)
Are they trying to do good (or bad) or find some kind of balance between right and wrong? (morality)
3. Your Antagonist
Your antagonist also plays a large role in your story (if not, they should). They’re the ones who give your protagonist obstacles to overcome.
Are they villains, bent on destroying your protagonist? (action, thriller)
Are they villains who want something, but your protagonist stands in the way? (action, thriller, western)
Are they the environment? (action, thriller, western)
Are they a monster? (horror, action when fantasy/sci-fi)
Are they a criminal or murderer? (crime, mystery, thriller)
Are they a potential love interest? (romance)
Are they a rival of some kind? (performance, western)
Are they a collective enemy, like a group of soldiers? (war)
Are they a tyrannical system (can be represented by one or multiple characters)? (society)
Are they coming from within the protagonist (like inner conflict arising from external events)? (morality, worldview, status)
Would you like some help with your developmental editing? Then this developmental editing planner is the one for you! It contains a checklist followed by detailed information and worksheets to perfect your developmental editing process.
Note: This planner is geared toward fiction editing. While elements can be used for nonfiction editing, I will create a planner that's specific for nonfiction.
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4. The Ending Climax
Your story builds up to a certain moment in the story; the final climax that the reader has been waiting for. What kind of climax it is and what’s at stake will tell you what kind of genre you’ve written.
Do the two individuals get together in a romantic relationship, or do two or more people have some other kind of connection? (romance)
Will the hero survive their altercation with the villain? (action, thriller)
Will the hero survive their altercation with the monster? (horror, action when fantasy/sci-fi)
Will the hero catch the criminal and bring them to justice? (crime, mystery, thriller)
Will the hero(es) win the battle or war? (war)
Will the hero(es) take down the tyrannical system? (society)
Will the protagonist mature and find meaning in their life? (worldview)
Will the protagonist stick to their beliefs or sell out? (status)
Will the protagonist succeed or lose the event? (performance)
Will the protagonist decide the right or wrong thing to do? (morality)
5. The Level of Reality
Finally, you’ll look at the level of reality. This will tell you how much the reader will need to suspend their belief.
Is your story grounded in reality? This means that your story could happen in real life, but is imagined. (realism)
Is your story grounded in reality but takes place in the past? This means that your story could have happened in real life, but is imagined. (historical fiction)
Does your story take place in an alternate world that’s similar to reality but has magical or paranormal elements? This means that your story takes place in a similar world to ours, but couldn’t happen in real life due to certain fantastical elements. (contemporary fantasy/paranormal/magical realism/urban fantasy)
Does your story take place in an alternate world that’s similar to reality but takes place in the past and has magical or paranormal elements? (historical fantasy)
Does your story take place in an alternate world that’s nothing like ours and includes a form of magic? This means your story couldn’t happen in our world and that everything about the world is imagined. (epic fantasy, portal fantasy (usually), dark fantasy, grimdark fantasy, and so on)
Does your story take place in an alternate world that’s similar to ours but has imagined technologies? This means your story takes place in a similar world to ours, but couldn’t happen in real life due to these technologies. (science fiction, dystopian/post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, and so on)
Does your story take place in an alternate world that’s similar to ours but takes place in the past and has imagined technologies? This means your story takes place in a similar world to ours, but couldn’t happen in real life due to these technologies. (alternate history)
Does your story take place in an alternate world that’s nothing like ours and includes imagined technology? (science fiction, space opera, dystopian, and so on)
6. Combine your answers to determine your genre
Now you combine your answers to determine your genre. This is also a good test to see if your elements line up.
For instance: say I’ve written an epic fantasy story where the protagonist is trying to gain more political power, but my antagonist is a villain bent on destroying my protagonist and my ending climax involves my protagonist battling with the villain, I may need to check my protagonist’s role.
Of course, it might be that I actually want to write a society story, and I have to make a lot of significant changes to make this happen.
But I also might just change some things about my protagonist. For instance, perhaps instead of wanting to gain power, they want to move up in society (status), but their main focus becomes saving someone (which may be the reason behind them wanting to increase their status).
Final Thoughts
Once you’ve determined your genre and whether you need to make some tweaks, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Doing the research and determining whether your novel hits all the right moments to make readers fall in love with your story.
Other Resources
If you want to learn more, you can find a lot of information in the following books:
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