(Sorry, for some reason the demons of Mortal Kombat posessed me temporarily…ever play that game in the arcade? I was the ultimate button masher which means I could go about three rounds without a problem and then get my butt kicked repeteadly, and that is so not the point so moving on…)
Deana Barnhart is hosting an awesome monthlong blogfest. If you haven’t read the deets yet, visit here for an overall explanation or here for the week 1 festivities.
I love this premise of covering several aspects of writing over a period of time. Learning the craft, building one’s platform, writing the story (weird, right? 😉 and querying (take that, Oxford comma).
So, week 1’s challenge: “Take the greatest, dumbest, weirdest…just whatever kind of writing question you have, and post it on your blog Wednesday“
What’s the difference between literary and genre fiction?
I ask this because it’s something I’ve been pondering lately. It’s one of those concepts that ask fifty people, you’ll get seventy-five answers, just like ‘What exactly is “voice”?’
I’ve heard so many answers over time. Some people prefer one, other people swing in a different direction…a lot of literary agents want a combination of both…say whu?
As far as I’ve been able to discern, it works kind of like this.
Literary fiction is more about the internal conflict. The character’s struggle and growth (with any luck) as an individual. It’s also frequently more experimental or verbose writing. Something that extends beyond the simple standards we’re taught make up sentence structure and POV as children.
Where genre fiction is, well, for one, based on a specific genre. Romance, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, etc. And tends to focus more on the plot. The things happening around to the character.
But for me, I have a hard time enjoying one without the other. Don’t misunderstand, if a character’s internal journey is compelling and well-written, I don’t need a driving external plot. But it has to be really compelling. And if there’s enough action and drama externally, the first time through I’ll probably overlook the two-dimensional character…(for instance, I loved ‘The Matrix’ the first time I saw it…kapow! bang! boom!)
I look at all that and I think I really need both in my life. So I figure I must be missing some compelling distinction between the two. Help me out. What makes the two so different and distinct so as to draw stark lines in the sand and compell people to debate for days on end about the merits of each?
How do you define literary or genre fiction? Which do you prefer? Why?
Wow – a tough question. For me, I enjoy novels that are faster-paced and plot driven, but only with interesting characters. If I hate the character, I won’t stick around long to see what happens to her/him. On the other hand, I usually don’t like books that wend their way slowly as the character comes to some kind of realization. I often read when I’m unable to write (my brain is tired!) so I need action to keep me hooked. But I think the best books do have both – character experiencing growth and change, with a compelling plot.
Literary fiction is the boring stuff. 😉
I think saying that literary fiction is about internal conflict and genre is about external conflict is a false dichotomy. There’s nothing, other than the author’s skill and desire, preventing all kinds of conflict to be present in genre fiction. And in fact my favorite novel, the sci fi book Dune, has ridiculous amounts of both internal and external conflict. I could name countless other examples.
I do think that literary fiction tends to focus more on writing style. But I don’t really know much about it because other than certain classics, I avoid literary fiction like the plague.
I’m not that much into literary fiction because it strikes me as being TOO descriptive. I can’t read pages and pages of description–it leaves me cold.
Tricky one. The quality of prose has to be very good, and the point of the story tends to be more than what appears on the page. this can often lead to purple prose and pretentious sentiments. But when done right it speaks to something in all of us, rather than just in the MC.
Just made that up, I have no idea if that’s right.
mood
My blogorama question is up at Moody Writing
@mooderino
I think you did a great job of defining the two, Loralie, which isn’t easy to do. I like genre writing with a dash of literary fiction included for depth. Some literary fiction can go overboard with the internal descriptions to the point that I’m not sure there really is a plot any more.
A very challenging question and not one that’s easily answered!
Michelle
I think the difference for me might be whether is is ‘plot driven’ or not.
Genre’s have specific plot things they must do.
Literary…not so much. Literary doesn’t really have to go anywhere or do anything.
That’s what I think, at least.
You’ve got me on this one. Alvina Ling at Little Brown gave a great talk on this subject at a conference I attended last year, but I was so enthralled, I didn’t take notes. Now I’ve forgotten. But I don’t have a preference of one over the other. It all depends on the story.
Literary fiction is for the writers who take great pride in crafting their writing: punctuation, wording, sentence structure, etc. The writing is the star of the book, not the MC. At least, that’s what I’ve learned through reading both literary and genre fiction.
I agree with the other posters. Literary is about the art of the writing while good genre is about the art of story. I think of literary as the abstract art in the writing world. To me, most of it makes no sense partly bc literary sometimes drops punctuation (quotation marks most often, which drives me crazy!) and the MC is usually full of neuroses (think John Updike). Literary fiction generally inhabits a darker, more bleak world than genre fiction.
I actually haven’t really thought about the difference! I think that I enjoy genre fiction more, though. I agree, literary fiction has to be extremely compelling.
Literary fiction is more character driven. There’s a stronger focus on the character’s moral and/or psychological growth (bildungsroman, anyone?). And genre fiction is typically more plot driven, with the focus on a greater external conflict (internal conflict is still present but not the driving force of the plot).
I’m with Lori. Although Stephen King says he always makes you care about the character before the bad stuff happens…
I hate labels. I read and enjoy or write and enjoy. I let others label for me.
Actually, you’ve already answered it. And truth be told, the label is important when it comes to selling and marketing. But I don’t think about it when I’m reading and writing.
Laura
laurabwriter.blogspot.com
Thanks for clearing up the difference between the two–always been a little cloudy in my mind. I despise lengthly, overly descriptive, slow paced writing. Guess that means I prefer genre fiction!
from what I understand, literary fiction is… literary. With metaphors, great word choice, etc, as opposed to pulp/journalistic fiction which is quickly written with a much faster pace etc… My style is NOT literary, and I usually find it boring. Genre can be both literary and dry, according to the author’s taste… I write dry prose set in fantasy worlds… how’s that for originality? 😉
Barb
I agree that terms like ‘literary’ and ‘genre’ are marketing terms, not writing terms. Do some genre writers write to a formula? Sure, but so do some ‘literary’ writers. I think there’s danger when the perception between labels is that one is more valuable than the other. Value/quality isn’t the exclusive domain of any label.
Umm, I want to make a new catergory called literary-genre fiction. Beautiful words with a great plot because I’m like you, I like both!
Hi Loralie! I’m a fellow BlogFester and a new follower. I found you through Deana Barnhart.
I’m no expert, but I’d say that literary fiction is mostly character driven (not much of a plot) while genre fiction is plot driven. Though it must have strong characters, genre fiction is all about the plot and what’s at stake.