What if you want to write beautifully AND still tell a gripping story? Is there a middle road that lets you do both?
Shiv posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
When I had first landed on your site, it was a steep learning curve for me. I Quickly learnt the fundamentals of fiction writing like POV and I’ll always be thankful to you for that. Your e-zines helped me overcome the initial “trash writing” period every newbie goes through.
But then, after a few months, I moved on. And thats when my problem started.
Since schooldays I have always read and loved literary fiction. But now when I am writing my own novel, I can’t and don’t want to write purely literary novel. At the same time I also don’t want to write “literary junk” I know the story will remain the same in both the case. But in what style I present the story, also matters. Can you help people like me who want to adopt a “middle path” – not compromising too much with the aesthetics of language and style and yet writing a gripping and entertaining story that provides Powerful Emotional Experience?
Randy sez: There is no reason that literary fiction has to be boring. There is no reason commercial fiction has to be trashy.
For some reason, many writers assume that the world of fiction is one-dimensional. On the far left, you have beautifully written literary fiction that is boring as sand and sells like dogpoop. On the far right, you have the shlocky stuff that’s fun to read and sells like Cheezits.
This is nonsense. In mathematical terms, you have two independent dimensions here. The literary quality has nothing to do with the entertainment value.
It’s entirely possible to write a highly literate novel that’s also massively entertaining. Here are a few (a very few) of my favorites, and I have a ton of them.
THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, by John LeCarre. This is, in the opinion of all right-thinking people, the very best spy novel ever written.
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, by Audrey Niffenegger. Literate and highly engaging. Read it.
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, by Mark Haddon. This is told entirely in the voice of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome. It’s a strong voice and a strong story.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, by Tracy Chevalier. Beautifully written. A compelling story.
MY NAME IS ASHER LEV, by Chaim Potok. Ditto and ditto.
THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins. The third book in the series comes out TODAY! Amazon tells me my copy shipped out yesterday, so I should be getting it today or tomorrow. Some people will ask if this series qualifies as “literary fiction.” Heck if I know. Heck if I care. I teach the craft of fiction writing, and on my first reading of this book, I couldn’t find a single sentence to quibble with. (I found a very few very minor quibbles on later readings.) Draw your own conclusions.
THE CHURCH LADIES, by Lisa Samson. Lisa is a friend of mine and writes Christian fiction. THE CHURCH LADIES was a risk for her–after writing 8 novels, she decided to take a new direction and write something more literary. She succeeded. This book will surprise you, because the title so completely fools you into thinking it’ll be about dull, boring church ladies.
THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold. Literate. Gripping. What more do you want?
THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini. An incredible look inside Afghanistan culture.
OUTLANDER, by Diana Gabaldon. Is this a literary novel? No, but it’s highly literate. Is this a romance novel? Yes, but it’s a whole lot more.
OK, that’s ten novels that rate high on the lit scale and the excitement scale. I’ll bet my Loyal Blog Readers could come up with another hundred. How about it, folks? Wrack your brains and name your favorites. The only rule is they need to be great writing and great reading. Leave a comment here telling which ones you like. We’ll all benefit, and maybe we’ll all line up a few books that we never heard of before.
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.
Woohoo, I’ve read 4 of your 10 picks (one of them on your recommendation, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night). I have 2 others on hold at the library so will be reading those in the near future when some copies are available.
One book I absolutely love that I think does a great job at balancing the indulgent enjoyability of a guilty pleasure and the epic eloquence of a great literary work is Memoirs of a Geisha. I know some people have beefs with this novel because of historical accuracy quibbles or the fact that it was written by a middle-aged white male from Tennessee and not, in fact, a geisha 😛 … but as far as pure storytelling and powerful emotional experience go, it really is extraordinary and beautiful. 🙂
I haven’t read any of those books on your list. I wonder now if I’m missing out on anything! 🙂
A book that I consider to be very literary and yet very entertaining is JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It’s a masterpiece and yet the plot is very engaging. (unlike the Silmarillion which is more literary, less engaging)
Thanks Randy, for the reply! And for the list of novels. Will try to get hold of as many as I can. I loved “Kite Runner” for sure. In fact, that’s the kind of novel I want to write, though I have a long way to go before I can reach that level. I was completely mesmerised by Salman Rushdie’s prose when I read “Midnight’s Children” (my “Holy Grail” in the world of fiction). I’ll name five others, for those of you who are not much familiar with Indian authors writing in English.
1.Vikram Seth’s “A Suitable Boy” – a critically acclaimed gripping Indian family drama of more than 1100 pages!
2.Amitav Ghosh’s “The Glass Palace” – a historical drama about kings and elephants
3.Khushwant Singh’s “Train to Pakistan” – A gripping tale of the horrors of the partition of India during a fateful train journey.
4.Arvind Adiga’s “White Tiger” – an extraordinary story of an ordinary Indian cab driver, with is both a Booker winner and a commercial success in India. A masterpiece of “black humor”.
Yeah Randy, I agree with you that literary fiction need not be boring or commercial fiction need not be trashy. It’s just that sometimes I become doubtful because of the immense popularity of a few authors (both American and Indian), whom I don’t want to name.
I’ll add Robert Charles Wilson – Spin. Great writing, great SF.
I’m privileged to do some over-the-transom reading for a small publishing house.
I just read a proposed novel that qualifies. It’s set in WWII and can compete with John LeCarre’s Spy on equal terms. I can hardly wait for it to be published. And there is at least one sequel in the works. I get goose-bumps just thinking about it.
I’ve been promised that I can read the sequel. I’m absolutely salivating. During the read, my editing eye found only about three minor tweaks/word usages that I’d change were I editing.
There is no reason fiction cannot be both commercial and literate. It’s a shame to waste trees on schlock.
This is a bit off topic, but only a bit.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time has a very interesting literary foundation. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will recognise the title as a quote from one of Sherlock’s mysteries, Silver Blaze, the story of a missing race horse.
Haddon’s book is a remarkable ‘flip’ of Silver Blaze. All the elements of the story are there, but some are turned backward on themselves. It’s a bit difficult to explain, but if you like Curious Incident, download Silver Blaze (it’s out of copyright) and read it. You will find another dimension to one of the remarkable books of recent years.
It’s as if Haddon set the title in place as a clue, but only Sherlock Holmes fans will get it and pursue it to the end.
I find my taste in books leans toward literary, not heavily, but a notable tip that way. I of course want a great story, but I love the added treat of great word craft. I find it interesting how people differ in their taste in books. I attended a workshop recently where opening paragraphs were read and discussed. One book I recognized, remembering well how the prose captured me immediately when I first read it. When the speaker asked us how we felt about the opening, another writer burst out with her dislike and her opinion that it bored her to death, saw no potential for story and had no interest. Wow. Sad too, because it (The Secret Life of Bees) is a fabulous story as well as a work of art. SO weird to me that one person figured that book too dull, and yet I, who find so few books that really grab me, latched onto that one and remember it well.
An author who I think does a good job blending great story with great word craft is Athol Dickson. I read River Rising and now have a fav new author. He does break a few craft rules, and I don’t give a rip. When I crack a book and there is something mesmerizing about the flow of words, something sparkly and lyrical and engaging, I’ll read on. If the story isn’t there, I’ll drop it sooner or later. I will read a book that seems intent on throwing me into a story with all the correct commercial tools, but I don’t usually enjoy the read as well as I do those with that extra something that comes from beautifully woven words. To me, that’s a treat. I guess to others, it’s a flat out bore. Go figure.
How about “Remains of the Day”, Ishiguro’s third published novel? It’s a fabulous story, beautifully written.
Randy, I’ve always had trouble with how to define literary as opposed to commercial (I think commercial is more easily recognizable). I know you know Tosca Lee. Although she is a fairly “new” writer, her style and phrasing are exquisite. And the talent carries through in both books thus far. I’ve read both DEMON, A Memoir, and HAVAH, The Story of Eve, and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of ISCARIOT. How would you classify her writing?
Another new writer with beautiful style is Kerry Nietz, whose A STAR CURIOUSLY RISING, and THE SUPERLATIVE STREAM (two of a trilogy of speculative genre from Marcher Lord Press). I doubt the genre would ever be called literary, but this writer is, proving Randy’s point that quality overrides classification.
Randy sez: My definition of literary fiction is that the language is beautiful. I’m not sure if this is true of all literary fiction, but it seems to cover most of it. Yes, Tosca’s a good friend of mine. I’d classify her writing as being highly literate. Tosca writes for the Christian market, which has grown explosively since the early 1990s, but she tends to transcend her market niche and I think just about anybody who likes good writing would enjoy her work. If you like Chaim Potok, you’ll probably like Tosca Lee. Her work is interesting to me because it explores dark themes.
Most of Elizabeth George’s stuff. In particular, her “What came before he shot her” is a tour de force.
@Shiv, clearly you are reading lots of Indian writer and may be even Indian judging by name.
“Premchand”(India) has written lot of literary novels in Hindi and all were highly entertaining and very sensible.
In India all the famous writers are mainly literary ones now a days as people here take novel reading also as educational textbooks a lot of times:) And pleasure reading is not at the same level as USA or UK. That also may have confused you. When I was buying “LOR of the Rings” in India a lady seriously asked me if I was going to gift it to somebody as it is expensive and expensive book should not be read and only gifted to people who keep them for getting dust, and entertainment has no value. Do not read novels for pleasure and waste your time, instead read your science textbook for 100th time so that you may earn money is very famous mentality here:) Amazingly few people realize they can make money writing quality fiction also:)
As Randy very clearly points out Literary is length and Entertainment is breadth and a nice square has both dimensions strong.
I am reading “Wild Seed” by Octavia butler, which while being a literary novel is also very entertaining. And actually I read it in reviews and wikipedia that it is regarded as literary. But most important to me the reader is that it is every bit worth the time I spent reading it.
Another novel “Dune – Frank Herbert” is widely regarded as very entertaining best seller, but clearly reading it gives ever sense of literary.
There is really no hard and fast dividing line.
A novel is all interesting story first and foremost, it is always forward moving in motion, and everything ties in with the story, that is Fiction. literay, non-fiction research info, themes and implications, opinions, comparisons, allegory all are secondary(which are on another dimension and should be put if wanted, and they many time crop out themselves.
Also I will suggest to read wide variety from Indian Premchand, R K Narayanan, German Franz Kafka, British Harry Potter J K Rowling, American Gone with the wind. Figure how many of this are literary and how many are entertainment things.(As you have pointed all the 4 books of Indian writers which while being good, some of them are not very high in Global rankings)
There are cheap novels which are published in massive quantities, whose writers are also not paid much which are just produced in fanatical numbers, but the good ones can be easily distinguished as they are regarded as good by majority and you will certainly know about them by news, word of mouth etc.
Just write the best story, work every bit hard on it to make it good and if you want it to be literary too, go about it. Literary and entertaining are both can be together and stand-alone as you want. Good stories will find place in people’s heart.
I am reading “Drenai – Legend” and it has sense in every dialogue and event. And it just fuses with my heart. In such a case who cares about literary.
@ Jenni, I also like Lord of the rings very much (you may want to read “Sword of Shannara”(Terry Brooks) right after that and if you do not mind some violence then “Drenai – Legend”(David Gemmell) is the next good one, “Belgariad – Pawn of Prophecy”(David Eddings) and “Wheels of time”(Robert Jordan) also come in at third place, ‘all are epic high fantasy’).
LOR is more entertaining and close to my heart, while being literary(for which I do not care).
Silmarillion is just plain history textbook according to Tolkien(though of middle earth or “Arda”) and as such feels like well, history textbook.
I love these books so much, fills my heart with joy:)
@ Shiv,
“Yeah Randy, I agree with you that literary fiction need not be boring or commercial fiction need not be trashy. It’s just that sometimes I become doubtful because of the immense popularity of a few authors (both American and Indian), whom I don’t want to name.”
It seems like you are writing more for “popularity” instead of “writing”. Do not fall into that pitfall, as “writing” done with all the heart for the sake of “writing” becomes “popular”. Their is no secret formula here except hard work. Learn the craft well and tell your story with all of your talent, and work hard on it. If you write your best work, and give it 100% you will definitely become successful.
“My definition of literary fiction is that the language is beautiful. I’m not sure if this is true of all literary fiction, but it seems to cover most of it.”
– is the major difference which I also have noticed. There seems nothing different. Literary may have flowery language whereas non – literary generally have straight forward to the point but GOOD language. Non-Literary does not mean cheap. It is every bit entertaining, respectable and good. I also noted the flowery language in “Dune – Frank Herbert” first and my mind signaled me it was literary and then I was lost in the story and did not remember anything else:)
I nominate almost anything by Terry Pratchett or Ursula LeGuin.
Hello, this is my first time posting here, although I’ve been subcribing to your ezine for about a year now. I want to say thank you very much for all your advice; it’s nothing short of excellent and I feel so encouraged by it 🙂
For anyone who isn’t familiar with her work, I’d like to recommend the fantasy writer Patricia A. McKillip, in particular The Book of Atrix Wolfe, The Changeling Sea and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (her first published novel). The first two are YA; all are written beautifully. Now I don’t know if they’re considered ‘literary’ or not and it makes no difference to me because her books are works of art. They’re thrilling, with characters you genuinely care about, her language is poetic and mesmerising – I would be overjoyed if I were able to write with even half her skill.