To aid others in their curiosity, and planning their reading lists, I present the following handy guide.
| Genre | Distinguishing Characteristics |
| General fiction | Nothing to explain |
| Literary fiction | If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand it anyway |
| Mystery | Explain what happened |
| Thriller/Technothriller | Explain how it happened |
| Romance | Explain who it happened to |
| Western | Explain what lily-livered varmint gone and done it |
| Horror | Explain what's about to happen |
| Science Fiction | Explain everything in technical detail |
| Fantasy | Explain everything in nonsensical detail |
| Magical Realism | Explain nothing |
| Surrealism | Go fishing for ice cream |
Permission is granted for redistribution or reproduction under a noncommercial Creative Commons license. © 2003, 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr., writing as "Jay Lake".
"Jay Lake's Handy Guide to Genre Distinctions" by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. writing as "Jay Lake" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at jlake@jlake.com.
