Wednesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

LITERARYVS. GENRE FICTION: WHICH DO YOU PREFER?

By: Jami Gold

Last time we talked about how our literary education can affect our reading habits later in life. One interesting result of that conversation revealed—once again—just how subjective reading for enjoyment can be. The stories some of us hated, others loved.

Personally, I have no interest in non-genre stories. As I’ve said before, this is not a sign of my inability to think deeply, but rather a personal preference.

At the Desert Dreams conference a week ago, something the delightful Mary Buckham mentioned in her character workshop struck me, and I wondered if her idea could be related to this genre vs. literary preference. Let’s compare notes and find out. *smile*

Literary vs. Commercial (Genre) Fiction

Before we dig into the question, I first want to share what Mary Buckham said in her Down and Dirty Ways to Create Stronger Characters workshop. My note-taking skills aren’t quite what they used to be, so these definitions are paraphrased from her descriptions.

Literary Fiction

The point of the story is for the character(s) to understand themselves better. This is achieved through episodic events that force understanding. However, characters aren’t forced to internally change or to change their situations.

Commercial Fiction

The point of the story is to focus on how people change. This is achieved through external events that trigger choices and force internal changes in the character(s), both of which lead to external changes in their situations.

Obviously, those are simplified definitions, but I think there’s a lot of validity to Mary’s perspective. More importantly for my question, those different approaches create even more diverse themes.

Themes in Literary vs. Commercial (Genre) Fiction

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Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

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11. Anne R. Allen's Blog: 10 Ways Pre-Published Writers Can Start Establishing Their Careers NOW http://ow.ly/vO3t7
12. Literary vs. Genre Fiction: Which Do You Prefer? | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/vPaj1 @MaryBuckham
13. Social Media, Your Business And The Law [INFOGRAPHIC] - AllTwitter http://ow.ly/vPnt2

Happy writing and running, Kathy