Genre is supposed to be the foundation of your story—but what if it feels more like a puzzle you can’t solve? You’ve named your genre, but the pieces still don’t fit together. Let’s explore how to turn genre from a source of confusion into a tool that makes revision click.

So you know your story’s genre.

It’s an Action story with a Worldview internal genre. Or it’s a Love story with a Status internal genre. You’re, like, 32% sure of it.

Which is great, because you’ve studied story enough to know genre is important. You’ve heard that it shapes the foundations of your story, that it has conventions and obligatory scenes, reader expectations you’ll need to deliver on.

Somehow, though, just knowing some words—Action, Worldview, Love, Status—hasn’t magically solved anything. And it’s not a great feeling to have studied story theory so much, and still be stuck on the application.

So what now? Now that you have some language for your story’s genre, what do you do with it? How do you actually use it as a revision tool?

To answer that question, I turned to my friend and fellow writing coach Savannah Gilbo.

Meet Savannah Gilbo

Savannah and I met way back in 2017, when we trained together as Story Grid–certified editors. We sat right next to each other at the same table taking notes all week, and we’ve stayed connected ever since.

Since then, Savannah has built so many fantastic resources for writers. She’s the host of the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast, which is one of the top podcasts for writers. There, she shares actionable advice about how to write, edit, and publish a novel.

And in her Notes to Novel program, she’s helped writers who have struggled to get words on the page for years—sometimes even decades—finally finish a draft of a novel that works. She’s guided more than 800 writers through the novel-writing process.

In short, Savannah knows her stuff, and genre is one of the areas where she really shines.

Why Revising With Genre Matters

In the last episode of Your Next Draft, I shared a framework for thinking about genre that goes beyond words like “fantasy” and “women’s fiction” to get at the heart of the conflict in a story.

This episode is a companion to that one. Savannah and I assume you have a baseline familiarity with the twelve content genres, and here we dive into how to actually apply genre as a tool for writing and revision.

If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, check it out here:The 12 Core Genres That Power Every Great Story.

Savannah’s Key Genre Insights

A lot of writers resist genre because it feels like a formula or a checklist. But as Savannah explains, genre can be used as a flexible tool that gives you clarity, freedom, and direction in revision.

Here are some of the biggest insights from our conversation:

When to identify genre

Savannah recommends identifying your story’s genre as early as possible. Even if you don’t know all your plot beats yet, knowing the genre gives you clarity about what’s really at stake. It anchors your story and helps you make choices with confidence.

Why genre matters

Genre narrows the infinite possibilities of what could happen in your story. It helps you focus on what must happen for your story to satisfy reader expectations. Instead of being restrictive, genre provides a framework that guides your creativity.

Common mistakes

Writers often get stuck because they:

• Ignore genre altogether.
• Jump between genres without a clear hierarchy.
• Disconnect their internal and external genres so the arcs don’t support each other.

Savannah shares how recognizing these patterns can save you from endless revision loops.

How to apply genre

Genre isn’t just a checklist of conventions or a beat sheet of obligatory scenes. It’s a flexible tool to help you shape your story, clarify stakes, and revise with intention. And if you’re wondering whether a story problem is genre-related, Savannah shows how to trace issues back to genre misalignment.

Blending genres

Many stories weave multiple genres together, and Savannah offers a great metaphor for how to think about this: a “volume dial.” Instead of treating all genres as equal, you identify the primary one and then adjust the “volume” of secondary genres up or down to create the mix that best serves your story.

Dig Deeper Into Genre

Want to go deeper? Here’s where to go next:

Get the Content Genre Overview. It lays out all twelve content genres, with links to explore each one in detail. Enter your email below to get the overview:

Read or listen to The 12 Core Genres That Power Every Great Story. Learn the fundamental genre framework Savannah and I both use to build and revise excellent stories. Read or listen here »

Check out Savannah’s podcast: Fiction Writing Made Easy.