Making it in contemporary fiction

Are you really asking if contemporary fiction "has been done to death" and is "boring"??? And then you ask how to sell your book.

I am really not sure what you are looking for with this post. Contemporary fiction is alive and well. But every story needs that extra bang, you mentioned, to set itself apart from the competition.

I just usually post in novels or basic writing because I'd like perspective from all kinds of genres in most of my questions. My questions are usually pretty general I like and read this genre just fine!

As far as I know, mainstream and literary fiction are alive and well. It all comes down to having an interesting story to tell. Lit fic is no different, it's just a matter of the story being more character driven than plot driven, but that doesn't mean plot should suffer. I'm planning on becoming more 'active' here in AW. I notice there's a dearth of mainstream/literary fiction writers in these halls. Maybe I'm not pointed in the right direction?

Oh, we have lots of literary writers, and plenty of mainstream ones, I'm sure! I think most of the literary writers kind of float around (as they would ).

Don't feel at all uncomfortable about asking questions that pertain more to lit fic than other types of fiction. Talking about definitions can get a bit tricky, but you'll get a lot of good answers about craft.

I am not up on marketing and sales, myself. I just write stuff and have advice on that part of things

spentastico said:

I always mention in my queries that it's slathered in sarcasm and snide jokes about pop-culture. Is that enough, or does a MCL story need an extra BANG to it to get it above the fray?

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Actually, that makes it *exactly the same* as everything else.

backslashbaby said:

Oh, we have lots of literary writers, and plenty of mainstream ones, I'm sure! I think most of the literary writers kind of float around (as they would ).

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It is disappointing that we don't have a more active social thread, but I suppose we don't really have any unifying elements, since we're a category rather than a genre. But then so is YA, and they seem to have plenty to talk about...

kuwisdelu said:

It is disappointing that we don't have a more active social thread, but I suppose we don't really have any unifying elements, since we're a category rather than a genre. But then so is YA, and they seem to have plenty to talk about...

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You're not lying. At all.

I think the YA folks are more in touch with their young and chatty side. We lit fic folks are perhaps a little introspective and shy about our works. I know I am, (at least when I'm not being intolerably snooty about my art ).

backslashbaby said:

I think the YA folks are more in touch with their young and chatty side. We lit fic folks are perhaps a little introspective and shy about our works. I know I am, (at least when I'm not being intolerably snooty about my art ).

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This.

Maybe if we started calling it "character-driven fiction" or something, uh, I'm a writer so how come I'm at a loss for words? I mean what do "mainstream, contemporary and literary" really mean?

If I'm writing a character-driven novel set in the real world in the Seventies, it's not contemporary and I don't believe it's literary ... and I'm not sure it's mainstream.

I'm writing a magic realism bildungsroman at the moment.

It takes place in the near future, so maybe it's not contemporary, and it's probably not mainstream. I just call it literary.

Devil Ledbetter said:

This.

Maybe if we started calling it "character-driven fiction" or something, uh, I'm a writer so how come I'm at a loss for words? I mean what do "mainstream, contemporary and literary" really mean?

If I'm writing a character-driven novel set in the real world in the Seventies, it's not contemporary and I don't believe it's literary ... and I'm not sure it's mainstream.

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Yeah, I don't get the 'contemporary' unless there's a known cut-off point when it becomes historical, but then historical can be literary, and so can science fiction/fantasy--Kurt Vonnegut. And of course literary fiction is supposed to address the human condition... Oh the humanity!

I just noticed and joined the lit-fic social group? Is that where we go to address the human condition?

What literary fiction does not have to be is boring, or depressing, or fraught with bad relationships, or alzheimer patients. And literary fiction does not have to be a challenge to read, because if it is then the writer has failed to write clearly. That's why I cringe when writers say they write for themselves. If a writer isn't writing for the sake of the reader, then what's the point? Always ask, is the reader going to understand what I'm trying to say? If not, attempt it again.

kuwisdelu said:

I'm writing a magic realism bildungsroman at the moment.

It takes place in the near future, so maybe it's not contemporary, and it's probably not mainstream. I just call it literary.

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I consider magic realism to be a subgenre of literary fiction.

LillyPu said:

I consider magic realism to be a subgenre of literary fiction.

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Magic realism is a genre in itself. Literary fiction can't really have subgenres since it isn't a genre. (Calling it a genre is kind of a pet peeve of mine. It's a category, like YA.)

ETA: There's no real reason to group contemporary, mainstream, and literary together besides them being "and everything else."

I write magic realism, too, and I'll probably call it genre fiction. Speculative fiction is a term that covers my work better than straight 'literary', I think. I may not meet all the expectations of a magical realism fanatic, although I'm closer than some folks who say they do MR, imho.

It depends. Is the reader thinking of Chocolat when they think of MR? If so, I don't think the work will sound inaccessible. If they are thinking of pure Garcia Marquez, I'm not that brilliantly complicated

Works that fall into literary fiction have genres, too, of course. The "literary fiction" vs "genre fiction" dichotomy is false. Unfortunately, common usage has left "genre fiction" and "fiction that has a genre" as referring to different things.

kuwisdelu said:

Works that fall into literary fiction have genres, too, of course. The "literary fiction" vs "genre fiction" dichotomy is false. Unfortunately, common usage has left "genre fiction" and "fiction that has a genre" as referring to different things.

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Oh, I agree very much! I personally would call my work literary genre fiction, if that makes sense. I guess what mine isn't is the literary mainstream sort of fiction, where the reader doesn't expect it to be heavy on the speculative stuff. Mine's not Franny and Zooey. The witches in Macbeth are more my style.

kuwisdelu said:

Magic realism is a genre in itself. Literary fiction can't really have subgenres since it isn't a genre. (Calling it a genre is kind of a pet peeve of mine. It's a category, like YA.)

ETA: There's no real reason to group contemporary, mainstream, and literary together besides them being "and everything else."

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You're right. There's literary fiction and genre fiction.

And I agree there's no reason to group literary fiction with mainstream/commercial. Apples and oranges.

backslashbaby said:

I write magic realism, too, and I'll probably call it genre fiction. Speculative fiction is a term that covers my work better than straight 'literary', I think. I may not meet all the expectations of a magical realism fanatic, although I'm closer than some folks who say they do MR, imho.

It depends. Is the reader thinking of Chocolat when they think of MR? If so, I don't think the work will sound inaccessible. If they are thinking of pure Garcia Marquez, I'm not that brilliantly complicated

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I usually think of Italo Calvino. Love, love, love his work. But I like Aimee Bender, too.

Devil Ledbetter said:

This.

Maybe if we started calling it "character-driven fiction" or something, uh, I'm a writer so how come I'm at a loss for words? I mean what do "mainstream, contemporary and literary" really mean?

If I'm writing a character-driven novel set in the real world in the Seventies, it's not contemporary and I don't believe it's literary ... and I'm not sure it's mainstream.

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Yeah, I'm scratching my head 'cuz I'm kinda there. All my stuff is contemporary when it comes down to it, and character-driven. I'm a big advocate for characters. Maybe that's literary vs. plot-driven, Idk. I'm not really striving for literary when writing. I guess more mainstream, but I'd think "critics" and others would determine that. Who knows.

LillyPu said:

I usually think of Italo Calvino. Love, love, love his work. But I like Aimee Bender, too.

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Ooooh! Good choices. I've only heard of Aimee's work, because I ended up buying Amanda Davis instead. I plan on reading her, of course

spentastico said:

Now I don't know the details of your story, of course, but I would consider "magic realism" to fit quite well in the fantasy genre since it's something that we can't normally do in reality. That is, unless, it's a story that kind of masks the reality in that the magic turns out to be ordinary illusion in the end.

To be more concise, I would say my definition of contemporary is "real and recent."

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No, it never turns out to be ordinary illusion! No! I do pull a few Turn of the Screws, but the questions are also mundane, if you know what I mean. No character would get hysterical about my magic, unless that's just to show something else about the character.

Well, 'contemporary' or 'literary' are non-categories in a way. When I think of Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife or Teju Cole's Open City or Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Good Squad, I think of them as wildly disparate examples of contemporary or literary fiction.

And the same holds for 'magic realism': Roberto Bolano is as far from Gabriel Marquez as Zakes Mda.