Slice of Life: Vertical Guide

Slice of Life stories are smaller-stakes romance stories with an episodic structure that focus on character interactions and character growth. While Goals, Motivations, Conflicts and Stakes are still present, the overall structure of the story leans more to shorter, episodic plot arcs with short-term conflict, rather than the big plot arcs of verticals like Hot Encounter or Dangerous Love. The focus in this vertical is on unique, loveable characters, their interactions with each other, and their personal growth across the story. 

Components of Slice of Life

Episodic conflict

The main defining feature of Slice of Life is its approach to conflict. Conflict in this Vertical should be smaller-stakes, character-driven, and repeatable. Rather than taking a whole book to work through, conflicts should arise, escalate, and be resolved over the course of a few chapters. While overarching Series and Season goals and stakes should still be present, the focus of the story is on the smaller-scale conflicts of the day-to-day. Think of it more like a sitcom than a movie. 

Unique characters

Developed, loveable characters with compelling relationships with each other are central to the success of Slice of Life stories. The main draw of the story is watching these characters interact with each other, so the characters should be unique and compelling. The focus of the story is watching how these characters interact and grow over the course of their conflicts. 

Immersive setting

Readers come to Slice of Life for detailed settings they can vividly imagine themselves in. Settings should have some crisp, specific detail that delineates them and brings them to life in the reader’s mind. This is not about writing long passages of description; rather, it’s about picking a few meaningful details to emphasize in order to create a sense of place for the reader. 

GMCS in Slice of Life

Slice of Life conflict is much smaller scale than our other Verticals. In our other Verticals, we are looking for a strong sense of Goals, Motivation, Conflict and Stakes (GMCS) that drive the story overall. In those stories, there should be a single overarching Goal that the characters are driving towards. Whereas in Slice of Life stories, the overarching Goal gives a general shape to the story, but the actual chapter by chapter telling of the story focuses on smaller goals and conflicts. 

Slice of Life stories can be in any subgenre, as long as that subgenre is appropriate to the story. For example, mafia romance does not lend itself very well to slice of life because mafia readers are looking for high-stakes stories with lots of conflict. Whereas a workplace romance or a fantasy romance can offer smaller scale episodic conflicts without breaking the genre. The most common genres we see in Slice of Life are contemporary romance like new adult/college, workplace, and small town. These subgenres lend themselves well to stories with repeated small-scale conflicts. 

Keep in mind that pacing is still very important. You still need to hook your reader in the first chapter with the characters, setting, and voice. If the story is a romance, the main characters should meet in the first chapter. Things should still happen and matter to the characters, it’s just that the scope and scale of the things happening is smaller in this Vertical than it is in others. There should still be a build up and release of conflict and tension in every chapter, even if that’s relatively minor. Even if the stakes of the story are small, they should still matter deeply to the characters so that they will matter to the reader. We do not want to follow characters who float through their lives bored and disconnected. We want to spend time with characters who care about their setting and the people around them in order to create investment and stakes. Character emotions and interactions are what make the small, everyday moments of Slice of Life matter, so be sure to foreground that in your writing in order to draw the reader in.