If you're working on your own work, reading high-quality works can really tell you how to do things.
Among other things, Ted Chiang is excellent at non-linear storytelling, and at communicating complex and nuanced ideas through narrative.
The actual definition of a genre is based on sales demographics ("do people who buy SciFi buy this book?" - why Vonnegut is in Literature, and LeGuin is in fantasy), but if I had to pick...
SciFi is about consequences (what happens when....)
Fantasy is about narrative (a story about a boy....)
Literature is about a message that cannot be communicated any other way than the story that is told.
I have no idea how to tell you what Arrival was about without retelling the story.
Among other things, Ted Chiang is excellent at non-linear storytelling, and at communicating complex and nuanced ideas through narrative.
The actual definition of a genre is based on sales demographics ("do people who buy SciFi buy this book?" - why Vonnegut is in Literature, and LeGuin is in fantasy), but if I had to pick... SciFi is about consequences (what happens when....) Fantasy is about narrative (a story about a boy....) Literature is about a message that cannot be communicated any other way than the story that is told.
I have no idea how to tell you what Arrival was about without retelling the story.