7 Tips for Literary Fiction Writers

From Jaqui Murray's Worddreams blog

I'm still working on the Iron Man analysis, but Act 2 isn't ready yet, so I thought I'd post this as an in-betweener while we wait.

Jaqui Murray is another of the helpful LitFic chicks I'm getting my info from (so far it's all been from women with blogs, aside from the books which have been about poetic film really). I hope she doesn't mind people posting sections of her content, or being called a LitFic chick.

At the top is the link to the entire post, but I'll just drop the main points here:

1. aim for transcendence–make your story bigger than the plot. It’s about ideas, not action. If you see yourself as that writer hunched over his/her computer, thinking deep thoughts that explain why characters do this or that, you have a LitFic soul. If you’re a James Bond fan, well, there’s always the possibility of a new genre–the LitFic thriller.
2. develop characters well–LitFic is more likely character-driven than other genres. Make your characters interesting, unusual, appealing, vulnerable, relatable. Spend time on them. Have them reflect on circumstances, share with readers what makes them do whatever they do. Internal monologues are common and critical in LitFic.
3. theme is as important as plot. What is your theme? Good vs. evil? Individual vs. Big Government? Human forgiveness? Whatever it is, develop it well with setting, dialogue, characters, and all other story pieces. Make it central to your novel.
4. share opinions, but don’t get preachy. LitFic is more likely to have complicated ideas that are thoroughly discussed throughout the plot. Don’t be afraid to state your thoughts, but do give all sides to the idea. Otherwise, you’ll appeal only to the choir, not the Renaissance readers who favor Literary Fiction novels.
5. understand that LitFic is as much about producing a tome that is cerebrally beautiful as popular. Embrace that. Don’t worry if it takes you a while to get that concept down on paper. Expect it to. You’ll know when you’ve finished.
6. expect your writing to be described as ‘elegant’, ‘lyrical’, ‘thought-provoking’, or ‘high-brow’. If it is, and you like that, you are probably a literary fiction writer.
7. take time in the plot to thoroughly explore characters, ideas, motivation, feelings. That means, your plot will be slower than other genres. Accept that. It’s a good thing if this is your genre.

Personally I don't agree that Literature is a genre. It's a category, sort of a category of categories. A meta-category if you will. So is Genre Fiction. How could 'genre fiction' itself be a genre? And if it can't then how could Literary Fiction, which is its antithesis/counterpart?

Interesting (but not surprising) to see Transcendence listed as an important element. Transcendental Film is the technical term for what I usually call Poetic Film. It's good to get confirmation that my own ideas are actually headed in the right direction and not completely off-base.