YOU SAY POTATO. . . Differentiating Between Literary and Genre Fiction

By Writer X

When I asked my agent how he’d define literary fiction, he said, “I just know it when I see it.”

Okay. That’s helpful.

Unfortunately, that’s the kind of vague explanation you get from experts—the people who read manuscripts all day long and get to decide whether or not a book has publishing potential. Sadly, this ambiguous explanation among the literati is not as uncommon as you think.

Literary fiction isn’t necessarily harder to write than genre fiction (e.g. thrillers, mysteries, romance, chick lit, science fiction), but sometimes it can be more difficult to read—and not because an author went overboard with a dictionary and thesaurus or used a writing style that requires a secret decoder ring. To compare literary to genre fiction is like staring at a Picasso versus a Normal Rockwell painting: The meaning of one may be more difficult to divine than the other. As with a Picasso, sometimes you have to take your time with literary fiction (or read it more than once) to appreciate its meaning.

That’s because, in my opinion, literary fiction is more character-driven while genre fiction is more plot driven, although that doesn’t mean you can get away with writing one-dimensional characters or plot-less stories in genre fiction. It might mean, though, that a literary novel’s characters and conflicts are less obvious; it might require that you look at the world in a different way. And it might also mean that the author takes more liberties with his writing style. Example: I remember reading a book a few years ago by a debut author where she used nouns as verbs thereby creating almost a new language. Quirky book. Now, I can’t remember the author’s name or the book’s title or even what the book was about. And I haven’t seen her work since on the store shelves. That’s probably not a good thing but kudos to the agent/editor who believed in her and tried something new. It doesn’t happen very often.

Additionally, don’t always expect a happy ending with literary fiction or the resolution of every conflict as you do with most genre fiction. Those “loose ends” alone turn off most people to literary fiction.

A publicist told me last week that literary fiction is currently not selling well in today’s marketplace.

Humph…

Truthfully, I’m not sure if literary fiction ever sells consistently well but that shouldn’t discourage anyone from writing it. The world can always use one more good book, don’t you think? The same publicist also told me that if a person isn’t a seriously brilliant writer or doesn’t have at least a Masters of Fine Arts degree from one of the well-known writing colleges like Columbia or Iowa, he shouldn’t even attempt to write, much less sell, literary fiction. To that, I say: Hogwash.

An MFA doesn’t guarantee success just like a Bachelor degree doesn’t mean that a person is instantly employable or a law degree mean that a person will become a brilliant lawyer (Note: LawHawk and Andrew, naturally, are excluded from this analogy as their brilliance knows no bounds). That doesn’t mean college degrees or advanced degrees are a waste of time either. They can help to provide framework but they’re not a guarantee of success.

In my view, a person should write what they love; anything less and the reader will see through it, whether it’s literary fiction or a romance novel. Or even a children’s picture book.

That said, if a novel lacks a story and compelling characters, good luck trying to sell it or worse—trying to find people who’ll plunk down hard-earned cash to buy it. And a publisher may be less inclined to purchase your next manuscript if your last one generated only meager sales, despite the exceptional writing.

So, given a choice, what type of book would you rather curl up with on a couch during a rainy afternoon? The classics? A spicy romance novel? Something from the New York Times bestseller list? More importantly, what holds your attention: The writing or the story?

The answer to that might tell you whether you prefer literary fiction or genre fiction, either as a reader or a writer. Or both.