#16 Use Story Type to Unlock Your Middle-Grade Novel

If you’re like a lot of writers, at some point, you’ve been struck by an idea, which you know could make a great middle-grade novel that kids would love. But every time you sit down at your computer, you don’t know where or how to start. Then, once you do find a way into your novel, you find yourself stuck in the middle with no idea of how to get unstuck. Finally, you begin doubting yourself, and start thinking that you’re just not talented enough to write a novel,  or perhaps that you need to get a degree in writing for children first.

Suddenly, all the excitement you were feeling turns into frustration or dread. Does this sound familiar to you?

I want to reassure you that if you’re finding it difficult to start your story or make it through to the end, there’s nothing wrong with you, and you’re not alone. As a developmental editor, I’ve seen this scene play out many times before.

Luckily, there is a solution to help you find your way into your novel, to guide you through the messy middle and to take you over the finish line at the end of your book!

It’s called story type, and by identifying and understanding your novel’s story type, you can use it to guide you through the process of  transforming your story idea it into a fully developed 50,000-word middle-grade novel.

So, in today’s episode on the Middle Grade Made Easy(er) podcast, we’re going to look at what story type is, and why it’s important to choose one when drafting your novel.

Join Me in a Workshop on Story Types

Before we begin, I want to know that this is a big topic, so I’m going to divide it into two parts:

1. this podcast episode that will explain what story type is and why you should use it when writing your middle-grade novel
2. a workshop on November 29, 2025 showing you how you can choose a story type for your novel

In the workshop, I’ll choose one story type and show you how we can identify it in a published book, and how the guidelines for that type help shape the narrative and pull readers through the pages from one scene to the next. Then, as there are ten story types, I’ll give you the guidelines for the others too so you can choose the one best suited to your story idea.

If you want to sign up to the wait list for the workshop, or just download a worksheet that sums up everything we’ll be looking at in this podcast episode today, you can do that at loupiccolo.com/storytype, and if you’re listening to this podcast after November 2025, you can access the replay at the same link.

What is Story Type?

Let’s begin by talking about what story type is not. Story type is not genre.

Genre is a word that describes the categories that publishers and librarians use to sell or shelve books. It’s also how writers talk about their books in queries or pitches to agents or directly to publishers.

So, genre is how we talk about types of books that share certain elements when we’re selling a book, whether it be a writer selling to a publisher or a publisher selling to a bookshop or a bookshop selling to a reader. Examples of genre are fantasy, science fiction, thriller, mystery, historical fiction and so on.

Story type, on the other hand, is the word I use when I’m talking about writing types of books that share certain elements, not selling them. Story type is a framework made up of a collection of logical scenes and guidelines that you can use to shape your novel so you can write a story that tells itself. 

Two Examples of Story Type in Published Middle-Grade Novels

Let’s see what story type looks like using two examples in middle-grade novels: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is an action story type.

Kids reading Hatchet will be expecting an exciting story about a character who finds himself in a life and death situation and needs to survive against all odds. There will be dangerous obstacles to overcome, and the protagonist will experience low points and almost give up before he adapts and develops inner strength to finally overcome the challenges he faces.

Although kids reading Hatchet wouldn’t necessarily be able to put all that into their own words, they’ll intuitively be expecting all of these scenes because Hatchet is an action story, and they recognize that action stories work that way.

• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a worldview story type.

Kids reading the back cover of Anne of Green Gables will intuitively know that this book is about personal growth, and that all the things that happen to the protagonist in the novel will cause her to change the way she sees the world and herself. These events will make her realize that living in a bubble of her own perspective isn’t serving her, and that change needs to come from within if she wants to survive because the world isn’t going to change to accommodate her.

They’ll also know that what the protagonist learns through the events of the story is going to help them learn something about the world they live in, and themselves too, by the time they finish reading the book. Why? Because Anne of Green Gables is a worldview story, and that’s the way worldview story types work.

I used the word ‘intuitively’ when talking about kids recognizing that Hatchet is an action story and Anne of Green Gables is a worldview story because the concept of story type is not new. It can be found in storytelling since the beginning of time because human brains are wired for narrative that follows a certain logic or pattern which makes sense to us and very often mirrors real life. I’m sure that when I was talking about how Hatchet and Anne of Green Gables would unfold, you recognized the patterns of both story types too, didn’t you?

Ten Story Types to Help You Shape Your Middle-Grade Novel

So, what are these story types which we all universally recognize and that can help you write your middle-grade novel?

I’m going to talk about ten story types as defined by Shawn Coyne in his book, The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know. But Coyne doesn’t call them story type; he calls them genre. So, just know that, if you read his book, his ten genres are the same story types as I’m talking about here.

Here are the ten story types and a few examples of each.

1. Crime – The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, Greenglass House by Kate Milford
2. Thriller – Framed! by James Ponti, Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
3. Horror – Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
4. Action – Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Alone by Megan. E Freeman
5. Society – The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, The Last Storyteller by Donna Barba Higuera
6. Performance – Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty
7. Love – Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
8. Worldview – The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly, The War That Saved My Life by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
9. Status – Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, Front Desk by Kelly Yang
10. Morality – The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Some FAQs about Story Type

You may have noticed that I didn’t talk about fantasy, science-fiction or historical story types in that list. The reason is that those are genres that are used for selling books, not story types used for writing them. They are also labels used to describe settings for novels, but not story type. You may be shaking your head, and thinking,

Wait a minute! That’s not true. I’m writing fantasy. I have a made-up world with dragons in it!

While I understand that you’ll be pitching your book as a fantasy novel to agents and publishers, and setting your narrative in a fantastical world, I also know that you’ll be writing a certain type of story within that setting.

Here’s an example to show you what I mean: Harry Potter is fantasy, right? If you were looking for it at the bookshop, you’d find it shelved in the middle-grade fantasy section. But, in terms of story type, it’s an action story that follows the pattern of life and death stakes, and a hero that not only challenges the antagonist, but wins in the end.

So, as you can see, even if you’re writing fantasy, historical or science fiction, your narrative will still belong to one of the ten story types, and you can use whichever story type it is as a guide to help you draft your book.

That said, when some writers hear about story type for the first time, they worry that it means using a formula to write their books. But story type isn’t about formulaic writing at all! You can be as creative as you want with your characters, setting, dialogue, story events and plot while still being aware of and using story type as a guide to craft a novel that satisfies readers. Have a look at the examples of books I gave you with the list of story types. The books in each category are not at all alike in narrative even though they may share the same story type. Not only does story type have nothing to do with formulaic writing, but understanding and using story type to guide you when writing your middle-grade novel will actually help you write a better story than you would if you weren’t aware of it.

You might also have noticed that I listed a story type called Love. We all know that romance doesn’t have a place in middle-grade fiction other than to maybe touch lightly on a crush, but the love story type doesn’t deal only with romance and intimacy. It can also describe any type of novel in which the main character wants to be loved, or has lost love and is grieving, or wants to be worthy of love but doesn’t feel that they are. There are many middle-grade novels with protagonists who want these things.

External and Internal Story Types

These story types can be further divided up into two categories. Novels can have an external story type, an internal story type, or use both simultaneously, which actually makes for a stronger, more layered narrative!

If your book has both external and internal story types, then one needs to be the primary story type, and the other the secondary story type. The reason for this is that you need to know which framework to give more importance to when shaping your main story arc.

What’s the difference between external and internal story types?

• External story types normally make up the plot-driven novels in which conflict comes from the world outside of a character. For example: In Hatchet, there is a plane crash, and Brian, the protagonist, has to find a way to survive in nature while alone, with all the dangers that represents. This is a typical external story type.
• Internal story types, on the other hand, make up the novels in which the conflict normally comes from within a character. For example: in Anne of Green Gables, Anne’s need to be loved and accepted for who she is can only be fulfilled when she learns that real connection doesn’t come from being admired for her imagination or charm, but from being trustworthy and responsible instead.

Which story types are external and which are internal? Worldview, status and morality story types are all internal while the other seven are external.

Why is it so important to choose a story type?

Now that you know what story type is, why should you use it?

If you know your middle-grade novel’s story type before you begin writing, it will specifically help you:

1. outline, plot and find your way into your novel
2. understand how your protagonist must change throughout the novel
3. draft your protagonist’s wants and needs that make the most sense for your novel, and that have the greatest impact on the story
4. understand the specific scenes and type of events that need to happen in your novel
5. find the best-suited theme for your novel

Also, if you use story type as a narrative framework to guide you when writing your middle-grade novel, you’ll be able to give kids the types of stories they’re expecting when they choose a book of a certain story type. All readers (and that includes you) have a favourite type of book they like to read because they’re looking for something specific from the books they choose. Those specific things are heavily influenced by story type and can include:

• a desire to experience certain types of characters, settings, or events
• wanting to feeling a certain way when they read a book
• looking for a way to make sense of the world they live in
• a desire to escape the world they’re living in and pretending to be someone else for a while

To sum up

Story type is a framework made up of a collection of logical scenes and guidelines that you can use to shape your novel so you can write a story that tells itself. It will help you transform your story idea into a fully developed middle-grade novel with all the scenes that kids are expecting when they choose to read your book.

Story type is universal and wired into the human brain. It can be divided up into ten types of which seven are external and three are internal. The seven external story types are: crime, thriller, horror, action, society, performance and love. The three internal story types are worldview, status and morality.

If you can identify and understand your novel’s story type, you can use it as a guide to help you outline and plot your novel, shape your protagonist’s character arc, understand the types of scenes and events that must take place in your novel, find the theme best suited to your novel, and give the kids reading your book the experience they came for when choosing your middle-grade novel.

I’ll be hosting a workshop on November 29th in which I’ll show you how to choose a story type for your middle-grade novel. I’ll pick one of the ten story types and show you how we can identify it in a published book, and how the guidelines for that type help shape the narrative and pull readers through the pages from one scene to the next. Then, I’ll give you the guidelines for the other story types too so you can choose the one best suited to your story idea.

If you want to sign up to the wait list for that workshop, or just get a worksheet that sums up everything we’ve looked at in this podcast episode today, you can do that at loupiccolo.com/storytype, and if you’re listening to this podcast after November 2025, you can access the replay at the same link.

Links

• Workshop: loupiccolo.com/storytype
• Middle Grade Made Easy(er) podcast
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Laud Montgomery
• The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne
• The Kidlitter Letter Newsletter