Catégorie : Writing Tips

Writing a novel: literary fiction vs… everything else

Disclaimer: I know, I should write « fiction » instead of literary fiction. But « fiction » does make any sense to my francophone book-geek brain. Every novel is fiction (even the autofiction novels are fictions… in a way… don’t get me started). Not every novel is literary fiction.

Moving on.

For an upcoming writing project, I really dig deep into literary genres. I considered writing out of my comfort genres zone, simply to challenge myself.
I flirted with the idea of writing a literary fiction novel… for about a second and a half.

I got a bit mad about the whole literary fiction vs everything else, genres fictions novels I mean, the first being seen as more serious, valuable work, then the later.
I always thought, I still do, that every novel, no matter its genre (Romance, Horror, Historical, etc…) is, in my very humble opinion, literary fiction. Periode.
Whether I like it or not, whether the writing is to my liking or not, a novel is a literary work, words on a page, a story.
Yes, some novels are better than others… all genres included.

That being said: this post is not meant to spark a debate, but to assess what is a literary fiction novel.

Literary fiction: no beat-sheets allowed

Considered as more valuable, in an intellectual way, than every other literary genre novels, Literary fiction novels are not written to be solely entertaining, nor to please a large audience.
A Literary novel is all about human characters and how they deal with that. Being human, that is.
It’s about what it is, for a character, to be, to exist, to change (or not) in the world it was born into, or pushed into, or forced into.

The language will be different, more sought out, specific. The story focuses on character development, which impacts the pacing of the story, often slow, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes deliberately dense, filled with subtext, etc.

A Literary fiction novel questions, as well as it explores, the real world: politics, social issues, themes who challenge the readers, push boundaries.

It often does NOT follow any beat-sheets, nor does it provide a happy ending, in the classic happy-ever-after sense.

It does not use formatting formulas, of conventional tropes.

A literary fiction novel is free.

Though crowd

One thing for sure, writing on the source of all literary genres reminded me of how hard it is, not only to write but to sell a literary fiction novel.
While it is aiming for all the adult readers of the whole wide world, it is usually reaching smaller crowds.
A super good literary fiction novel might have excellent critics and still not sale well. After all, the book world is over-crowded and noisier than ever.

If you’re looking for more details on what is literary fiction, I found this NY Book Editors post quite interesting.

Thanks for reading this post. Until next time !

Tested Writing Tip: Off with distractions!

I adapted this tip from a prolific indie author to my reality.
My adapted tip certainly seems a little, well, easy and not really worth to talk about. But again, it’s very useful, simple and attainable, the three things I’m looking for in a writing tip.
I’ve been using this one for several weeks now, and it’s a keeper. It was so easy to implement in my existing writing routine.

Off with distractions!

Here it is, so simple I actually never tough of it as an actual writing tip.

Get rid of distractions before writing.

No phone, no emails, no social media. And for the mama writers: no shopping for kids clothes between sentences. (Staying away from the cuteness is hard)
Clear whatever you can off that never ending to-do list of yours (another « ps » for the writer mama’s: it never hurt anybody to leave dishes sit in the dishwasher for a night, or pick up the toys in the morning; I pinky swear).
Once all the distractions are dealt with, it is so much easier to focus on the writing, and the writing only.

I say « tip adapted to my reality » because, in the first place, this writing tips goes way further. The indie author I got the tip from actually bans his loves one from coming in his office (a smart idea), which is not a possibility for this lower middle-class mother of a young kid.

Et voilà, my tested writing tip for today: getting rid of distractions to be able to focus more on writing.

Thanks for reading this post. Until next time!

Writing a novel: Horror vs Spooky

To the point: my current WIP required serious questioning about genre. The story I have in mind could fit in three YA sub-categories. What’s a writer to do, but research and try to find a good answer?
Here’s the result of my research about Horror vs Spooky (Spooky is not a literary genres nor a sub-genre or categories of novels per say, but I like it; I like the definition I came up with anyway. I hope it make sense…).

Spooky

A spooky novel is, in my humble opinion, a story where tolerable fears, scary clowns and zombie baby-sitters are conquered at the end.
Spooky novels are scary in a way, but the hero saves the day and blood is spared… more or less.
Best example of what is a spooky story in my mind is not with a book, but with the tv show « Stranger things« . Spooky, thrilling, awesome. But after binge watching it, I wasn’t scared. I was over excited and I wanted to watch it again. And again.

I do like Spooky stories. I like spooky elements spread out in a good adventure/mystery novel even more.

Horror

On the other end, Horror novels, Horror stories is the pinnacle. Horror goes beyond fear itself. You don’t go back to horror, simply because horror haunts you. It makes you feel uneasy period, even unsafe in your own bathroom at night. Heck, during the day too.

Horror digs deep into our most profound fears as human being; and successfully make things way, way worst.
In a horror novels, nobody needs to tell the reader « things are pretty scary now, aren’t they? » Horror is there, in the words, behind that slowly moving door-nob, on the shoulder of the little moaning thing the character is approaching slow-ly.

Last note for Horror novels

I can’t write horror novels. Impossible. The urban legends I heard back when I was a kid still haunts me to this day (ridiculous, I know, I know).

And if I were to write an horror novel, I wouldn’t actually pitch it as a horror novel. Because the genre in itself is not doing super well.

In his thorough blog post, author Chuck Wendig talks about the dead of the straight off horror novel sections in bookstore and even in the indie market.

Things tend to go dark instead. Dark mystery, dark suspense, dark thriller…

Same goes for many genres. The only trick here is to read a lot and to keep writing!

I hope this post helped clarified a thing or two about the differences between spooky novels and horror novels. Until next time !