EC Fiction Awards 2024

Genres

NOTE: Mature content is acceptable, as long as it abides by the general Wattpad Guidelines.

There is no separate category for LGBTQIA+ stories. The books with such themes may go for any genre that dominates their storyline. In case the story focuses heavily upon the representation of sexuality and/or deeper sub-themes, they finely go to the Diverse Literature category. This is a LGBTQ+ safe space.

Here is the list and description of genres that will be acceptable for this awards:

🌜 FANTASY & SCI-FI: Fantasy genre is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Examples include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Hobbit. Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Examples include The Time Machine, Dune, The Martian, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

🌜 ACTION & ADVENTURE: As children, we've often dreamed of swashbuckling pirates, fire-breathing dragons, outer space journeys and more. Even as adults, the child in us yearns for a visit from Gandalf or a letter from Hogwarts. This is perhaps because we all desire to go on an adventure. Adventure fiction is quite simply a fictional narrative that includes an adventure! Examples include The adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Treasure Island, The Hunger Games.

🌜 PARANORMAL & HORROR: Books in the Paranormal fiction genre are set in the real world, but they include experiences that defy scientific explanation. Examples include City Of Bones, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Horror fiction often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Horror elicits fear, fascination or disgust in its audience. Examples include Frankenstein, The Haunting of Hill House, The Exorcist.

🌜 ROMANCE: Romance novel or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. The Romance genre has a variety of sub-themes, including but not limited to Tragedy Romance. Examples include Pamela, Pride and Prejudice, Fault in our stars, Wuthering Heights.

🌜 NEW ADULT & YOUNG ADULT: New adult (NA) fiction is a developing genre of fiction with protagonists in the 18–29 age bracket. This category focuses heavily on life after an individual has become of legal age, and how one deals with the new beginnings of adulthood. Examples include Yolk, Black Buck, Honey Girl, Real Life, Chef's Kiss. Young Adult is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth. Examples include Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Outsiders, Story of a Girl.

🌜 MYSTERY & THRILLER: Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror, and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Examples include The Count of Monte Cristo, Riddle of the Sands, Thirty-Nine Steps. Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. Examples include Murder on the Orient Express, Silence of the Lambs.

🌜 CHICKLIT & HUMOR: Chick-lit is a literary genre that consists of fiction centering around female protagonists, focusing on their bonds, friendships, career, relationships. Examples include Bridget Jones's Diary, Can you keep a secret?, The Undomestic Goddess. Humor is a genre focused on creating comical journeys or scenes intended to make the readers laugh. Examples include Breakfast of Champions, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

🌜 FANFICTION: Fan fiction can be based on any fictional or non-fictional subject. Common bases for fan fiction include novels, movies, comics, television shows, musical groups, cartoons, anime, manga, and video games.

🌜 HISTORICAL & MYTHOLOGICAL FICTION: Historical Fiction is a story that takes readers to a time and place in the past. It is set in a real place, during a culturally recognizable time. The details and the action in the story can be a mix of actual events and ones from the author's imagination as they fill in the gaps. Examples include Outlander, Memoirs of a Geisha, I, Claudius. Mythology Fiction is literature that draws from the tropes, themes, and symbolism of myth, legend, folklore, and fairy tales. Examples include The song of Achilles, Circe, The Palace of Illusions, Oath of the Vayuputras.

🌜 DIVERSE LITERATURE & GENERAL FICTION: General fiction is a broad category in which one can find writing that doesn't fit into any particular genre. Usually it deals with real, contemporary settings and recognisable characters. Examples include The Bee Sting, The Great Gatsby, Tom Lake. Diverse Fiction focuses on the representation of non-core tropes. This genre includes categories such as religion, race, ethnicity, social groups, families, gender, and ability identity. Examples include The Hate you Give, Brown Girl Dreaming, The Proudest Blue.

🌜 POETRY & SHORT STORY: Poetry genre contain words that follow a rhythm or structure, and sometimes rhyme, that are designed on evoke emotion and thought. Types include Epic poetry, Pastoral, Free verse, Ode, Limerick, Haiku, etc. Short story category contains the stories written under 10,000 wordcount.