Bonus Level 4

The Medium-Sized List of Story Genres

STORY GENRES ARE categories of fiction based on subject matter. There are so many of story genres, I find it helps to have a list to keep track of them all.

  • Adventure: period piece/swashbuckler/pirate
  • Adventure: pulp/“two-fisted” action/explorer/treasure-hunter
  • Adventure: survival/disaster
  • Adventure: young adult
  • Blaxplotation/grindhouse
  • Caper/heist/thief
  • Cartoon/anthropomorphic
  • Comedy: romantic/misunderstanding
  • Comedy: screwball/slapstick
  • Crime drama/police
  • Documentary/showbiz
  • Educational
  • Erotic
  • Espionage
  • Family drama
  • Fantasy: fairytale/alternate world
  • Fantasy: mythology (Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Norse, and so on)
  • Fantasy: swords and sorcery
  • Fantasy: whimsical
  • Film noir/crime-drama/hard-boiled detective
  • Game show
  • Historical
  • Historical: alternate
  • Historical: mythological
  • Historical: warfare
  • Horror: B-movie/giant monster
  • Horror: gothic (ghost, vampire, werewolf, Frankenstein)
  • Horror: sci-fi
  • Horror: slasher
  • Horror: zombie/end of the world
  • Martial arts/ninja
  • Medical drama
  • Mobster/gangster
  • Musical
  • Music/rock ’n’ roll
  • Mystery
  • Nurture/tamagotchi
  • Political
  • Romance drama/gothic
  • School/teen drama
  • Sci-fi: cyberpunk
  • Sci-fi: invasion
  • Sci-fi: Japanese/Sentai/giant robot
  • Sci-fi: psychic
  • Sci-fi: realistic/NASA
  • Sci-fi: retro (1930s)
  • Sci-fi: space opera
  • Sci-fi: steampunk
  • Sci-fi: time travel/parallel universe
  • Sci-fi: undersea
  • Sports: fantasy/sci-fi
  • Sports: individual (boxing, wrestling, skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing)
  • Sports: Olympic

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