Literary Genre Reduction
Literary Fiction — Internal weather (alt. Pretty prose)
Upmarket Fiction — Accessible depth
Mainstream Fiction — Hindsight hit
Commercial Fiction — Fast payoff (alt. High-premise)
Women’s Fiction — Interior change
Book Club Fiction — Discussion hooks
Children’s — Gentle wisdom
Middle Grade — Big feelings
Young Adult — First everything
New Adult — Becoming, reckoning
Romance — Will they
Rom-Com — Meet cute
Contemporary — Now problems
Historical Fiction — Past problems
Dystopian — Future problems
Speculative Fiction — What if
Science Fiction — Future consequences
Hard Science Fiction — Math matters
Soft Science Fiction — Human matters
Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi) — Planet stakes
Metaphysical — Reality questioned
Visionary — Consciousness expanded
Fantasy — Magic systems
High Fantasy — World immersion
Low Fantasy — Magic intrudes
Portal Fantasy — Magic door
Urban Fantasy — City magic
Dark Fantasy — Beauty rots
Magical Realism — Casual miracles
Mythology Retellings — Old gods
Mythic — Archetypal truths
Horror — Don’t die
Cozy Horror — Don’t worry*
Gothic — Atmospheric dread
Southern Gothic — Polite decay
Paranormal — Otherworldly intrusion
Thriller — Sustained tension
Psychological Thriller — Mind games
Mystery — Who did
Detective Fiction — Solve it
Police Procedural — Process matters
Crime — Why did
Noir — Moral rain
Gangster — Loyalty costs
Adventure — Relentless motion
Action — Immediate impact
Epic — World stakes (alt. Hero’s Journey)
Western — Hard landing
Pulp — Stylized excess
Comedy — Earned laughs
Satire — Laugh, wince
Experimental — Rules optional
Slipstream — Genre bleed
Memoir — I survived
Autobiography — Me, myself
Biography — Someone else
Creative Nonfiction — True art
True Crime — Real horror
Spiritual — Faith inquiry
Argue with me in the comments (but lovingly please). Or better yet—add your own two-word genre reduction.
this is actually helpful!
Where is poetry?