The Big 4 - Genre Options in Christian Fiction

On Friday, Krista had a fantastic post about the differences between Inspirational Fiction and Christian Fiction. If you want to read about it, go here.



Genre is a tricky thing anyway, I think. There are SO MANY possibilities. And so many ways to mix them together. I’ve been trying to figure them out for a while now, so I wanted to share some of the basics I’ve learned.

Here is a list of the BIG FOUR genres in Christian Fiction, and I’ll try to break some of these down into subcategories.

One of the MOST popular genre in Christian circles is Historical Fiction. Usually the ‘line’ for historical is WWII or maybe even the 1950s. I say ‘historical’ a bit loosely because there are basically two different camps of historical writers.

- People who give great historical detail, including true historical events and even historical figures (such as Nancy Moser’s historical books)

- Others use a historical period as a backdrop for their stories, but use purely fictional characters throughout.

Romance can be a part of these stories, but it usually isn’t the MAIN part of the story. Not if it’s a pure historical. For those of you who write romance in a historical setting, then the next genre is for you ;-)

THE MOST POPULAR Genre in Christian fiction is ROMANCE. Which means, the stories are about love, but that’s about all they could have in common. There are so many subgenre, it’s one of the easiest for first-time writers to enter. MANY of my favorite authors fit into here, of course. Mary Connealy, Julie Lessman, Laura Frantz, Siri Mitchell, Deeanne Gist… you get the point :-)

Historical romance

Romantic Suspense

Prairie Romance

Amish Romance

Fantasy Romance

Romantic Comedy

Those are just a few of the possibilities. We could add various combinations to romance and get another sub-genre, but remember some (BASIC) rules apply to romance. Most publishers want the hero and heroine meeting in the first chapter. The relationship between the hero and heroine is the ‘heart’ of the story and usually the story takes place over a relatively short period of time. There can be some pretty important stereotypes placed on the hero and heroine as well – so researching is an important starting point. :-)

Another BIG Genre is Christian Contemporary Fiction – which is really the ‘catch all’ of novels set in a contemporary world. Christian Women’s Fiction is usually placed within this genre. Chick-lit and Mom-lit would have fit in here, or any character driven novel. Angela Hunt comes to mind and some of Deb Raney and DiAnn Mills novels as well.

The fourth BIG genre (and one of the newest) is Christian Suspense and Mystery. The ‘who done it’ stories as well as the ‘thrillers’. The three main subgenre here are:

Romantic mystery

Romantic suspense

Cozy Mystery – these are your ‘sweet’ mysteries, without the graphic violence.

(Legal suspense novels and the new Christian ‘thrillers’ are becoming a larger subgenre here – Steven James, as an example)

A few other subgenres are – Christian Biblical Fiction (The Centurion’s Wife, Abigail), SciFi & Fantasy, Westerns, Adventure (House of Wolves is a VERY good example here), and even Horror – I might be tempted to put some of Ted Dekker’s books here)

So, when it comes to you – what genre do you read? AND what genre do you write?

Can you narrow it down to a subgenre, or do you get stuck in the gray sometimes like me? I have a historical novel that has a strong romantic element, but the heroine’s journey is as strong by itself as the romantic journey. So what do I do? Is it historical or is it romance?

Do you guys ever get a little lost in the genre fog?