Categorizing your story on Wattpad

In this article:

Stories don't fit into one box. Romance and Fantasy. Sci-Fi and Fanfiction. Enemies to Lovers and Found Family. Wattpad stories are layered, and the way you categorize them is too. When filling in your Story Details, you can:

Select up to three genres and up to three subgenres per genre
Select up to three fandoms for your fanfiction story (or suggest new ones!)

Explore our glossary of Genres, Subgenres, and Fandoms on Wattpad below.

Fiction

Fictional stories about original characters, settings, and events, using plot and character arcs to tell a cohesive narrative.

A broad grouping based on themes and storytelling conventions, setting reader expectations, and aiding discovery:

Action and Thriller

Fast-paced stories driven by danger, conflict, and high-stakes scenarios. These stories emphasize adrenaline-filled sequences, life-or-death decisions, and psychological tension.

Culture and Identity

Stories that explore cultural backgrounds, heritage, and personal or collective identity. Often reflective or rooted in community experiences, social roles, or diasporic narratives.

Fantasy

Stories that include magical, mythical, or otherworldly elements. Set in imagined worlds with heroes, magic, quests, and supernatural beings.

Historical

Narratives set in a specific historical period, often focusing on historical events, figures, or settings.

Horror

Stories designed to frighten, unsettle, or explore the darker aspects of the human psyche. Often includes supernatural, psychological, or gruesome elements.

LGBTQ+

Stories centered on queer characters and experiences, exploring gender, sexuality, identity, and relationships.

Mystery

Plots driven by the unraveling of secrets, crimes, or unknowns. Focuses on investigation, deduction, and suspense.

Paranormal

Stories set in the real world that involve supernatural phenomena, creatures, or ghosts. These stories blend everyday settings with eerie or otherworldly elements.

Romance

Stories that center on romantic relationships, exploring emotional connection, attraction, tension, and growth between characters.

Science Fiction

Explores futuristic, speculative, or technologically advanced concepts. These stories imagine what could be possible through science, innovation, or the disruption of known physical laws.

Social Themes

Fiction with a strong focus on social commentary, justice, activism, and real-world issues like mental health, discrimination, and religion.

Fiction Subgenres

A more specific classification within a broader genre that reflects popular themes, settings, tropes, narrative styles, or character identities. They offer deeper insight into what a story is about or how it’s told—such as enemies-to-lovers, dystopian settings, or gay protagonists—enhancing both relevance and personalization in recommendations.

Action and Thriller subgenres

Adventure: Action-packed stories centered on journeys, quests, or exploration—often across dangerous terrains or unfamiliar lands. These narratives follow heroes as they face physical challenges or fight for survival.
Assassin and Espionage: Thrillers focused on covert operations, professional assassins, or spies navigating high-stakes missions.
Cowboy: Gun-slinging dramas of justice and survival on the lawless frontier. Expect outlaws, dusty trails, explosive duels, and fierce moral codes under the blazing sun.
Crime: Fast-paced stories involving criminal enterprises—such as gangs, mobs, or underground syndicates.
Pirates: Swashbuckling adventures on the high seas filled with treasure maps, mutinies, and legendary captains facing danger and betrayal at every turn.
Psychological: Thrillers that dive deep into the human psyche, exploring manipulation, obsession, trauma, and mental instability. These stories use suspense and character-driven tension to unravel twisted minds or morally complex dilemmas, often featuring unreliable narrators or dark emotional journeys.
Sports: High-stakes stories set in the world of competitive sports, whether it's a race against time, a rigged match, or a personal vendetta played out on the field. From the cutthroat circuits of Formula 1 to the brutal intensity of the boxing ring, these stories fuse athletic ambition with danger and corruption.
Survival: Stories about enduring extreme, often life-threatening circumstances—such as war zones, barren wastelands, or wilderness isolation.
War and Military: Thrillers centered around combat, military missions, or the emotional toll of war. Featuring soldiers, officers, or tactical units, these stories portray conflict on the battlefield or within military life.

Culture and Identity subgenres

Arabic: Stories centered on Arab culture, identity, and heritage, including both religious and secular life. May explore traditions, faith, family, diaspora, and social life.
Black: Stories reflecting the diverse experiences of Black communities globally—including African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latinx identities. Common themes include race, heritage, Black joy, resistance, romance (e.g., BWBM), and cultural pride across the diaspora.
Caribbean: Stories rooted in the cultural richness of the Caribbean islands, celebrating heritage, dialect, carnival, island life, and the rhythms of daily life. Includes both diaspora and on-island experiences.
East African: Stories representing the people, languages, and traditions of East Africa (e.g., Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).
East Asian: Stories reflecting the heritage and cultural identity of East Asian communities—such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and more.
European: Stories rooted in European cultures, identities, and migration experiences. This subgenre explores the diverse traditions and identities, such as the Basque, Roma, or Sami, and these stories reflect the complexity of European heritage, from ancient customs to modern cultural clashes.
Hispanic: Stories centered on Hispanic identity, including those of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish-speaking cultural backgrounds.
Indigenous: Stories rooted in the traditions, stories, and modern realities of Indigenous peoples around the world (e.g., Métis, Māori, Manobo, Sámi, Yoruba).
Latin American: Stories rooted in the cultures, histories, and lived experiences of people from Latin America—including countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and others across Central and South America.
Multicultural or Interracial: Stories exploring the intersection of cultures, ethnicities, or racial backgrounds—often through mixed-race identities, interracial relationships, or multicultural families. Celebrates diversity, identity negotiation, and cross-cultural understanding.
North African: Stories reflecting the heritage and cultural identity of North African countries like Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, or Algeria.
Pacific Islander: Stories that highlight the traditions, landscapes, and diasporic experiences of Pacific Islander cultures (e.g., Samoan, Polynesian).
South African: Stories centered on life in Southern African countries (e.g., South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia) and diaspora.
South Asian: Stories grounded in the cultures of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and surrounding regions.
Southeast Asian: Stories centered on life in Southeast Asian countries (e.g., Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia) and diaspora.
West African: Stories centered on life in West African countries (e.g., Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal) and diaspora.

Fantasy subgenres

Ancient Civilizations: Epic fantasy rooted in the grandeur, mystery, and mythology of lost worlds. These stories are inspired by ancient cultures—real or imagined—such as Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Mesoamerica, or Atlantis. Expect vast empires, divine rulers, arcane rituals, and long-forgotten magic woven into ruins, pyramids, and desert sands. These tales explore forgotten knowledge, sacred power, and civilizations on the brink of rise or ruin.
Dark Academia: A moody blend of magic, mystery, and intellectual obsession. Set in elite schools or secret societies, these stories explore power, ambition, and forbidden knowledge.
Dark Fantasy: Fantasy that blends magic and supernatural elements with grim, violent, or morally grey settings. These stories often explore themes of betrayal, corruption, curses, revenge, and the darker sides of human (or inhuman) nature.
Fairy Tales and Mythology: Stories inspired by classic fairy tales, folk legends, or mythological lore—whether retold, reimagined, or original.
Gods: Epic tales of divine conflict where celestial beings clash with mortals, heroes, and each other. These stories draw from global mythologies such as the Mahabharata, Journey to the West, and ancient pantheons. From fallen gods and cursed avatars to cosmic battles for balance, this subgenre unites the heavenly and the human in a struggle shaped by power, duty, and fate.
High Fantasy: Epic stories set in fully developed secondary worlds with rich lore, magical systems, and complex political or heroic plots. Common elements include quests, chosen heroes, dragons, kingdoms, elves, dwarves, ancient prophecies, and warring empires.
Isekai and Reincarnation: Characters are transported to another world—often through death, portals, or magical transmigration. These stories typically follow the protagonist’s new life in a fantasy realm where they gain powers, second chances, or dramatic role reversals (e.g., reincarnated villainess).
Magical Kingdoms: Stories set in monarchic fantasy realms where magic and royalty intersect. Features castles, knights, royals, and battles for power, often layered with romantic, political, or magical intrigue.
Mythical Creatures: Fantasy that centers around magical or legendary beings—such as dragons, mermaids, jinn, centaurs, or trolls.
Pirates: Swashbuckling fantasy adventures set at sea, often involving magical treasures, cursed ships, or oceanic empires. These stories fuse naval exploration, rogue heroism, and high-stakes quests.
Wuxia and Cultivation: Stories rooted in Chinese martial arts fantasy traditions—featuring warriors who train to harness spiritual energy (qi), ascend to immortality, and fight with elegance and supernatural skill. Often set in ancient China or myth-inspired realms, it includes both wuxia (martial hero) and xianxia (immortal cultivation) genres.

Historical subgenres

16th Century: Stories set in the 1500s, for example, stories exploring the Renaissance, the Ming dynasty, Tudor England, the Aztec and Inca empires, Spanish conquest, and early colonialism.
17th Century: Stories set in the 1600s, featuring themes such as the Baroque era, pirates, early colonization, the Ottoman Empire, Qing and Edo dynasties, plagues, and European court life (e.g., Versailles).
18th Century: Stories set in the 1700s, highlighting the Enlightenment, American and French Revolutions, colonial conflicts, industrial shifts, and dynastic rule (e.g., Romanovs, Qing).
19th Century: Stories set in the 1800s, often focused on the Regency era, Napoleonic wars, imperialism, abolition, the American Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and global uprisings (e.g., Indian Rebellion, Opium Wars).
20th Century: Stories set in the 1900s, often focused on World Wars & conflicts, the Great Depression, countercultures and political movements.
Alternate Reality: Stories that imagine what might have happened if key historical events had turned out differently. These narratives explore “what if” scenarios—such as a different outcome in a major war, the survival of a historical figure, or the persistence of an empire—while reimagining social, political, or cultural consequences.
Ancient Civilizations: Stories set before the 5th century, focused on influential ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Rome, Greece, Mesopotamia, Persia, or early dynastic China.
Middle Ages: Stories set between the 5th and 15th centuries, often focusing on feudal societies, knights, castles, plagues, religious conflict, and political intrigue. Common settings include medieval Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic Golden Age.
Mythic and Epic: Sweeping historical tales inspired by legends, dynasties, and ancient heroism. These stories blend fact with myth—drawing from epics like the King Arthur, Ramayana, and other cultural sagas—to explore themes of destiny, loyalty, war, and legendary kings and warriors who shaped civilizations. Expect battles, prophecy, honor, and the echoes of gods and heroes.
Regency: Stories set during the Regency era (early 1800s, typically 1811–1820), known for its distinct social customs, manners, and romantic intrigue among the upper class. These stories often focus on courtship, inheritance, and societal expectations, with a backdrop of political and cultural change.
Royalty: Stories centered on real historical kings, queens, and noble courts across any time period. These narratives explore royal politics, power struggles, succession, and court life.
Victorian: Stories set in the Victorian era (1837–1901), themes may include societal repression, gender roles, scientific progress, and colonial expansion.
War and Military: Historical fiction focused on major wars, military campaigns, and the lives of soldiers or those affected by conflict. These stories emphasize battlefield experiences, strategy, and the personal cost of war, often set during global conflicts.

Horror subgenres

Dark Comedy: When scares meet laughs, these stories blend gruesome scenarios with absurd humor. From haunted houses with sarcastic ghosts to zombie apocalypses ruined by bad timing, these stories embrace the chaos, irony, and dark hilarity of surviving the horrifying—and laughing through it.
Creatures and Legends: Stories that feature unnatural beings, cryptids, or folkloric monsters—such as wendigos, chimeras, or banshees. These tales often explore primal fear, the unknown, or ancient legends brought to life, with an emphasis on terror through physical confrontation or transformation.
Creepy Pasta: Internet-born horror stories that blur the line between fiction and reality, spread like digital folklore. They are chilling tales of cursed games, haunted videos, lost episodes, and supernatural glitches. Expect familiar legends like Slender Man, Jeff the Killer, and the Backrooms. These stories tap into the fear of the unknown lurking just behind the screen—and inside your mind.
Ghosts and Hauntings: Scary stories centered on spirits, phantoms, cursed places, or paranormal disturbances. Often involves haunted houses, possession, or unresolved trauma from the dead.
Gore and Murder: Stories that focus on graphic violence, death, and disturbing content—often involving serial killers, cannibalism, or vengeance. These tales heighten fear through visceral imagery, psychological brutality, and moral breakdown, exploring the darker corners of human nature.
Gothic: Stories rooted in Gothic horror traditions, blending supernatural elements with decaying settings (e.g., castles, crypts), emotional extremes, and themes of isolation, madness, or forbidden knowledge. Often atmospheric, with Byronic characters and romantic dread.
Psychological: Horror that delves into the mind—focusing on paranoia, trauma, delusion, or moral collapse. These stories often feature unreliable narrators, internalized fear, or identity distortion, creating dread through suspense and psychological manipulation.
Zombies: Stories involving the undead—whether from plague, magic, or science gone wrong. Typically set in apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic environments, these narratives focus on survival, infection, societal breakdown, and the fear of losing one’s humanity.

LGBTQ+ subgenres

Asexual and Aromantic: Stories featuring characters who identify as asexual (experiencing little or no sexual attraction) or aromantic (experiencing little or no romantic attraction). These narratives explore identity, relationships beyond romance, community, and the diverse spectrum of ace and aro experiences— such as aroace, demisexual and biromantic identities.
Bisexual: Stories centered on bisexual characters—those who experience attraction to more than one gender. Themes may include relationship dynamics, identity discovery, and navigating stereotypes or bi-erasure.
Coming Out and Self-Acceptance: Stories that explore the emotional journey of realizing, confronting, and embracing one’s LGBTQ+ identity. These narratives often deal with fear, family, romance, friendship, internalized stigma, and empowerment.
Gay: Stories focused on gay characters and their relationships, including romance, self-discovery, or everyday life.
Lesbian: Stories focused on lesbian characters and their experiences, including relationships, identity, and community.
Queer: An inclusive and fluid category embracing characters and stories across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, such as nonbinary, pansexual, intersex, genderfluid, and questioning. These narratives defy fixed labels, often celebrating self-expression, intersectionality, and chosen family.
Transgender: Stories centered on transgender, nonbinary, or gender-diverse characters, including those undergoing gender transition or exploring gender identity. Themes may involve dysphoria, self-acceptance, relationships, trans rights, and affirmation.

Mystery subgenres

Amateur Sleuth: Mysteries solved by non-professionals—like curious teens, writers, bakers, or neighbors—who find themselves entangled in crime-solving. Think Nancy Drew or Veronica Mars.
Conspiracy: Twist-filled mysteries involving hidden agendas, coverups, secret societies, and the search for dangerous truths that powerful people want buried.
Cozy: Gentler mysteries typically set in small towns or tight-knit communities, often with lighthearted or humorous tones. These stories avoid graphic violence, focusing instead on puzzles, quirky characters, and everyday detectives—frequently with themes of food, pets, crafts, or books. Murder happens...but usually offscreen.
Dark Academia: Mysteries set within academic environments—boarding schools, universities, or elite intellectual circles—featuring secret societies, cult-like behavior, and morally ambiguous characters.
Detective and Police: Stories centered on professional investigators—detectives, officers, or forensics teams—solving crimes through methodical investigation and criminal profiling. These narratives often include police procedurals, legal elements, or tense interrogations, and may feature rookie cops, seasoned pros, or morally gray justice systems.
Kidnapping: Mysteries where a central crime involves abduction or disappearance—focusing on missing persons, hostage situations, or ransom. These stories often include emotional urgency, suspense, and dramatic stakes, and may follow investigators, victims, or families trying to unravel the case.
Murder: Focused on homicides and the mystery behind who committed them. These stories often center on solving a murder case—through detective work, forensic clues, or unraveling alibis—with high suspense, twists, and “whodunit” reveals.
Noir: Dark, gritty crime tales soaked in shadows, moral ambiguity, and doomed characters. Private eyes, double-crosses, and smoky bars define this classic style.

Paranormal subgenres

Angels and Demons: Stories involving divine and infernal beings—such as angels, demons, devils, fallen angels, or celestial warriors. These narratives explore themes of good vs. evil, redemption, temptation, and cosmic warfare, often set in or referencing realms like Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory.
Ghosts: Stories featuring spirits, hauntings, and the lingering presence of the dead. These may explore unfinished business, cursed spaces, or characters that are ghosts.
Occult & Afterlife: Explores the veil between life and death, from séances and spirits to curses, rituals, and journeys beyond the grave. These stories often blur the line between horror and spirituality.
Omegaverse: A subgenre rooted in alternate biology, where characters fall into social/physical roles such as alpha, beta, or omega. Common themes include fated mates, power dynamics, instinctual behavior (e.g., ruts or heats), and hierarchical pack structures.
Supernatural Creatures: Features a wide variety of mythological and paranormal beings beyond common tropes, such as sirens, reapers, kitsune, succubi, and other culturally specific or hybrid creatures.
Supernatural High School: Set in academic environments where students possess supernatural powers or identities (e.g., witches, vampires, werewolves).
Vampires: Stories centered around vampires and their world—whether romantic, action-packed, or horrifying.
Werewolves: Stories focused on werewolves and pack life, often exploring themes of transformation, dominance, loyalty, and mating bonds.
Witches: Narratives featuring witches and magic in real-world settings. These stories often involve covens, curses, and spellcraft.

Romance subgenres

Bad Boy: Dangerous charm and irresistible rebellion. These love interests push boundaries and break hearts, but there’s always more behind the bad attitude.
Billionaires and CEOs: Romance stories centered around powerful, wealthy figures—typically CEOs, billionaires, millionaires or high-status businesspeople.
College and University: Set within academic environments, these romances feature students navigating love, friendship, and identity during their formative college years.
Contract Relationship: Romances built around fake or formal relationships—such as arranged marriages, marriage of convenience, or fake dating—that slowly turn into real emotional connections.
Cowboy: Rustic charm, rugged strength, and wide-open romance. These stories take place in small towns, ranches, and rodeos with emotionally grounded love stories.
Dark Romance: Explores the darker, more taboo side of relationships—including toxic dynamics, obsession, and power imbalances. Often involves morally grey characters, trauma, and emotional intensity.
Destined Love: Love that’s written in the stars. These stories center on fate, soulmates, and the kind of love that defies time, space, or logic.
Enemies to Lovers: Opposites-attract stories where characters start as rivals, adversaries, or even outright enemies—only to fall in love.
Erotica: Explicit content themes, often involving BDSM or kinks. While emotional intimacy and a narrative arch exist, consensual erotic experience and physical desire take center stage. For mature audiences only (18+).
First Love: Sweet, awkward, and unforgettable. These stories capture the intensity and innocence of falling in love for the very first time.
Friends to Lovers: Sweet, heartfelt stories where love blossoms from deep friendship—often childhood companions, roommates, or best friends who slowly realize their romantic feelings.
Happy Ending: Stories where love ultimately triumphs, ending with “happily ever after” (HEA) or “happy for now” (HFN).
High School: Teen romances centered around first love, crushes, and coming-of-age experiences during high school years.
Holiday: Romance wrapped in festive magic. These stories unfold around holidays like Christmas, New Year’s, or Diwali—bringing together cozy settings, seasonal traditions, and warm-hearted love. Whether it’s a hometown reunion under the mistletoe or a surprise Valentine’s confession, Holiday romances are filled with joy, charm, and second chances during the most meaningful times of the year.
Love Triangle: Three hearts, one choice. These romantic dilemmas pit characters against their feelings—and each other—in a tangled web of loyalty and desire.
Mafia: Romantic stories set in the dangerous world of organized crime—often involving powerful, morally grey love interests, forbidden love, and high-stakes loyalty.
Marriage and Divorce: Explores relationships navigating the complexities of marriage, being a single parent, separation, or rebuilding after heartbreak.
Opposites Attract: Two people from different worlds who shouldn't work—but somehow do. Sparks fly when personalities clash and love bridges every difference.
Romantic Comedy: Light-hearted romances with humorous misunderstandings, awkward situations, and witty banter. These stories blend laugh-out-loud moments with swoon-worthy romantic arcs.
Second Chance: Rekindled love between characters with a shared past—whether exes, childhood sweethearts, or lost loves.
Secret/Surprise Baby: A twist of fate brings unexpected parenthood into the picture. From hidden pregnancies to shocking reveals, these stories center love, responsibility, and second chances.
Slice of Life: Realistic and fluffy stories that focus on everyday moments in relationships—highlighting subtle emotional beats, domestic life, and slow-growing love rooted in daily experiences.
Slow Burn: Romantic tension builds gradually over time, emphasizing growing emotional intimacy and a slowly developing romantic relationship.
Small town: Set in close-knit communities, these romances often feature themes of returning home, second chances, found family, and childhood sweethearts. Settings like cafes, bookstores, and local events are common.
Sports: Romance involving athletes or sports-related environments. Can focus on team dynamics, training, fame, or competition, with love interests who are players, coaches, or heated rivals.
Suspense: Combines romantic tension with external danger—such as stalkers, bodyguards, kidnappings, or investigations.
Tragedy: Love stories that end in heartbreak. These emotionally intense tales explore loss, sacrifice, fate, and the price of love when it’s not meant to last.
Vacation: Love away from home. These stories follow characters who fall for someone while on a trip—whether it's a tropical escape, spontaneous road trip, cruise adventure, or summer abroad. Think holiday flings, beachside tension, or falling in love on unfamiliar soil—romance that's tied to the journey.
Workplace: Set in professional environments, where coworkers, bosses, or rivals fall in love.

Science Fiction subgenres

Aliens: Stories that center on extraterrestrial life—whether as invaders, explorers, allies, or unknown mysteries. These narratives may explore alien societies, biology, technology, or culture, and often deal with the implications of interspecies contact, abductions, colonization, or co-existence.
Apocalyptic and Dystopian: Set in worlds devastated by collapse, catastrophe, or authoritarian regimes. These stories explore survival after nuclear war, pandemics, climate disasters, or oppressive futures.
Cyberpunk: Stories set in a dystopian futuristic setting, which focused on how technology changes culture —often in neon-lit cities dominated by mega-corporations and systemic inequality.
LitRPG: Blends science fiction with role-playing game (RPG) mechanics, where characters live in or are transported into digital game worlds.
Pandemic: Stories of deadly outbreaks and the collapse—or survival—of civilization. These tales explore bio-engineered viruses, global quarantines, and the moral chaos of a world in crisis.
Robots and AI: Stories exploring artificial intelligence, robotics, androids, and ethical dilemmas in human-machine relationships.
Space Exploration: Adventures set in outer space, focused on interstellar travel, planetary colonization, and cosmic discovery.
Steampunk: Retro-futuristic fiction set in alternate Victorian-style worlds powered by steam technology. Combines gears, airships, and goggles with invention, imperial intrigue, and mad science.
Superheroes: Stories featuring characters with superhuman abilities—often gained through mutation, experiments, alien origins, or technology.
Time Travel: Narratives where characters move through time—via machines, portals, or anomalies. Explores paradoxes, alternate timelines, and the consequences of changing the past or future.
War and Military: Stories focused on futuristic warfare—whether between planets, species, or empires. These narratives explore tactics, technology, and the human (or alien) cost of large-scale conflict.
Zombies: Futuristic takes on zombie outbreaks caused by viruses, bioweapons, or failed experiments. Themes include survival horror, post-apocalyptic societies, moral decay, and the collapse of civilization due to the spread of the undead.

Social Themes subgenres

Abuse and Trauma: Stories that address physical, emotional, or psychological abuse—within families, relationships, or institutions—and the trauma that follows. These narratives often focus on survival, recovery, and the long-term effects of harm, offering either catharsis, awareness, or healing.
Body Positivity: Stories that celebrate diverse body types and challenge beauty standards. Often centered on characters learning to embrace self-love, navigate body shaming, or overcome societal pressure.
Coming of Age: Narratives that follow young characters navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood. These stories explore growth, self-discovery, identity, and the emotional intensity of youth.
Disability: Stories that center on characters living with physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. These narratives offer visibility, nuance, and depth—highlighting independence, accessibility, resilience, and the richness of disabled identities.
Discrimination and Bullying: Stories focused on the experiences of being targeted, marginalized, or harassed due to appearance, race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, or ability.
Family Life: Stories that explore the complexity of family relationships—including parenthood, sibling dynamics, blended families, divorce, and adoption.
Grief and Bereavement: Narratives that explore the emotional journey of losing a loved one—whether from illness, accident, or trauma. These stories often focus on mourning, memory, coping, and finding meaning in the aftermath of loss.
Growth and Self-Discovery: Stories centered on personal transformation, emotional resilience, and finding one’s true path. These narratives often follow characters through life transitions, heartbreak, career changes, grief, or identity struggles. Whether it’s a slow-burning journey to self-acceptance or a major turning point that reshapes everything, these stories explore what it means to grow, heal, and rediscover yourself.
Illness: Stories centered on characters living with or affected by physical or chronic illnesses or conditions—whether temporary, long-term, or terminal (e.g. endometriosis, cancer, multiple sclerosis, organ failure)
Immigration and Refugees: Explores the personal and generational experiences of migration, displacement, and rebuilding life in a new land.
Mental Health and Neurodiverse: Stories about characters navigating mental health conditions or neurodivergent identities (e.g., ADHD, autism, PTSD, addiction).
Religion and Spirituality: Stories rooted in personal faith, spiritual journeys, religious identity, or existential exploration (e.g., Christian, Muslim, Jewish).

Fanfiction

Fictional works written by fans who create their own content using pre-existing stories, celebrities, and well-known characters:

Fandoms

The specific subject, media property, or interest around which the story is focused.

Fandom Topic

The central media, subject, or figure that a fanfiction is based on. Multiple topics can apply to a single story, reflecting the range of source inspirations.

Fanfiction Format

The narrative structure or stylistic approach used in fanfiction, often reflecting how a story engages with or diverges from canon. These formats help set expectations for tone, setting, perspective, or creative intent.

Non-Fiction

Writing based on real experiences, facts, or commentary, encompassing personal reflections, informational content, recommendations, critiques, discussion, contests, and updates. Non-fiction categories include:

Autobiography

A story about the writer's life in their own words.

Awards & Contests

Stories to explain the rules and information for contests and awards

Book Club

Stories for discussing other stories on Wattpad.

Informational and Guide

Non-fiction writing that provides information or advice

Interviews

Interviews with writers discussing their work and lives.

Journal / Diary

Non-narrative writing detailing the writer's day or internal thoughts and feelings.

Recommendations

Suggestions of things to read, watch, or listen to.

Reflection

Non-narrative writing focused on a past event or topic, exploring and examining what occurred.

Reviews

Stories for reviewing and critiquing other stories on Wattpad.

Updates

Communications from a writer to their readers that provide new information, such as release dates or hiatuses.

Workshop and Feedback

Stories centered on providing feedback and help with writing, editing, and cover creation.

Poetry

Literary expression through rhythm, imagery, and carefully chosen language to express emotions, ideas, or moments. Poetry categories include:

Collection

A grouping of more than one poem, often exploring a theme.

Epic

A longform narrative poem, often telling the story of heroic deeds (such as The Iliad or The Odyssey)

Free Verse

A poem that does not follow a specified form, structure, or rhyming scheme.

Haiku

A poem written in three lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables for a total of seventeen, originating in Japan.

Limerick

An often humorous poem in which the longer first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other (A) and the shorter third and fourth lines rhyme with each other (B), for a rhyming pattern of AABBA.

Lyrics / Lyrical

A poem expressing emotion or feeling, or the literal lyrics of a song.

Prose / Narrative

A story presented in metered verse (like The Canterbury Tales)

Sonnet

A poem of fourteen lines set to a rhyming scheme, often expressing an emotion.

Type

The broadest classification used to define the nature of a story’s content and its intended audience. Format captures the fundamental structure and creative intent of the work.

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