I'm going to post this Question in 'Plot Developmental" category and 'General Writing' because I don't know the correct place to put it lol so i apologize in advance Okay, so i've finished my novella and as i was editing it and re-reading it, I started to think if the genre i chose for it really fits the story. My story follows August, who is a 25 year old male witch who grandmother, who is also a witch, is battling cancer. His grandmother is only 72 years old and has decided to stop fighting in her cancer battle and decided to just enjoy her last days with her grandson. The story shifts between August POV and his grandmother POV from when she first started practicing witchcraft at a young age and falling in and out of love and getting into trouble as a young girl. August is also dealing with his own issues as a 25 year old witch with family and relationship drama where August must come to terms with what is important in life and what isn't. Sidenote; The story takes place in a wizardry world. So everyone is either a witch, warlock or wizard. My initial genre for the story was "Fantasy" but it doesn't give me 'Fantasy Genre" vibe, you know. I feel 'Adult Fiction' could be more of an appropriate genre. What do you guys think?
Adult fantasy? No, wait, that might not be the best idea... Definitely don't do that. I think that the question, "what genre?" is one that is best asked when you are trying to publish/market, as Denegroth said. Your story will likely evolve over time and what you end up with may not be how it started. Either way, don't write to a specific genre just to conform to it. The genre should flow from the story, not the other way around. If I had to give my opinion, I think adult fiction may be a better fit, depending on how much magic and how much family drama there is. Less magic, more drama= adult fiction.
Genres tend to be very wide, and writing can often fall in quite a few genres, or only just about fit into a certain one. Due to the presence of wizards, I'd say this is fantasy. But I also agree with QualityPen. It could, in addition, fit into a different genre that would suit it better if it could only have one label. However, unless you are marketing it yourself, the specific word may not matter as much. If you're looking for an agent, say, (which I have no experience of) I suppose you could just look over the kind of people they represent and see if their work has a similar feel to yours. Then I guess the agent will decide exactly what genre it will be marketed under.