Maybe Romance is More Than You Thought

Today we're talking about the romance genre. Yes. Romance. Here on the lab! I'd like to welcome Liz Borino, author of Expectations, a novel from LazyDay Publishing. She has some really interesting insights about romance that I think you should read.

The Romance Genre

Contemporary Romance. Romance, Lazy Day? Really? This was my initial (internal) reaction when I asked my newly acquired publisher how they’d classify my debut novel, Expectations. I envisioned the category of literary fiction or just mainstream fiction in the vein of Michael Cunningham. When I thought of romance books, I thought of predictable plotlines and shirtless men on the covers. Don’t get me wrong, I like shirtless men with ripped abs and a happy trail as much as the next straight woman… What was I talking about? My books and the romance genre, right. I decided to do some research before I stomped my bratty writer’s foot and calmly discussed changing the genre with Lazy Day.

The Romance Writers of America define the overall romance genre as having two main elements, “A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel. An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.”

Well…yeah. Expectations and its sequel, What Money Can’t Buy, actually focus on two couples, Chris and Aiden and Matt and Carley. To say their relationships are put through trials would be an understatement. As for the optimistic ending, I believe that’s important you have as many dark themes as I do.

The Romance Genre allows for as many storylines as an author’s creativity can come up with. Looking around the RWA website, I became more and more impressed with not only the quality and variety of writing from the other authors within the genre, but the community. So now, with the impending release of What Money Can’t Buy, I’m proud to call myself a Contemporary Romance author. Now where’s my man with a six pack?

Hah! I love it, Liz! Thank you so much. I think that romance has such a stigma attached to it that many writers aren't willing to look past that stigma to see the possibilities behind that genre. I'm excited about your new book, Money Can't Buy Can't Buy!

Liz is with LazyDay, a small publisher I have talked about over on The Innocent Flower. 

So, Liz, how did you get signed with a small publisher?

I got tired of querying and getting form rejections, so I began exploring other options. As much as I liked the idea of the control of self-publishing, I felt Expectations should be put out by a publisher to give it more 'cred'. A few weeks after I made that decision, Lazy Day began following me on Twitter. From there, I queried and two months later was accepted.

Since you've been with a small publisher, do you have plans to move on eventually? Have you felt the need for an agent?

No, to the agent. If I made a move it would be to self publish. There wouldn't be so much uncertainty. Though, Lazy Day is wonderfully supportive and I don't plan to leave anytime soon, unless they get weary of my neurosis!

That's fantastic! I love my small publisher, too. It's no wonder many authors are going that route these days. Can you tell us a little bit about your first book with them?

Expectations blurb: Ourselves and our familial obligations. The struggle is personified by Chris and Matt Taylor, identical twins, who are trying to win their overbearing father’s approval and acquire their trust funds. Love, money, and desire collide as Matt and Chris decide what’s really important to them.

Can you tell us what's for you on the horizon after your second book release?

Oh wow, um, well I've already started the third book, and I'm building my PR business to help other authors and different kinds of artists promote themselves

That's great! Do you plan to keep writing in the romance genre?

Thanks! It seems my stories tend to have romantic themes to them and I intend to keep this series going as long as makes sense.

It does! Thank you so much, Liz, for guest blogging with us today. You can find Liz on her Author Site and on Facebook. Her second novel, What Money Can't Buy, will be up on Amazon soon for purchase. You can find Expecations here.

To WIN a free eBook of Expectations by Liz Borino, simply leave a comment here! We'll choose a winner and let them know by email that they've won. Thanks, everyone!

What's Good About Being Unpublished

I'm hard at work drafting a new novel. I have a plot outline in Excel that would amaze and confound you were I to share it. Why Excel? Mostly because this novel is very plot-driven, being a detective story. I wanted to not only keep track of each scene in the narrative, but also have a detailed timeline of all the events that take place off-screen, which events the detective (and reader) discover over the course of the investigation. So I needed to write down, for example, that in Act 1 somewhere the murderer tells a joke that the detective overhears, and then in Act 3 the murderer tells the joke again within earshot of the detective, but the detective has in Act 2 learned something that gives new and significant meaning to the joke when she hears it again in Act 3. Not that there's actually this joke-telling in my book. But still, there's a lot of stuff like that going on in the story and I needed to keep it all straight. My first thought was to use index cards, and I even wrote out a few this weekend, but I decided that I wanted to be able to see the whole timeline at once, and be able to insert things and keep track of characters and days and places and of course when I am faced with such a task, I turn to Excel with its nice sorting and filtering features. Yes, just like Shakespeare did.

The point of all this is not that I'm using a hated Microsoft product to plot out a novel. The point of all this is that I'm writing a detective story right now. I admit that I'm actually surprised to find myself writing it. It's not what I do, you know?

I have two literary novels with my fabulous and charming agent at this point, but because I don't have a publisher yet breathing down my neck to meet any sort of expectations, I'm pretty free to do what I like as long as it amuses me. My agreeable agent tells me that she'll read anything I write and by gosh, she's a fan of anything as long as it's well-written so that's all cool. BGut mostly, as an unpublished novelist, nobody has heard of me so there are no barriers to my writing a murder mystery and so that's what I'm doing. Possibly I'll have a career like Iain Pears, who wrote a string of mysteries (the "Jonathan Argyle" art mystery books) and also wrote some dandy literature (The Dream of Scipio and An Instance of the Fingerpost).

Never having written a detective story before, I'm having a lot of fun building the plot mechanism. There is certainly an art to crafting a convincing and intriguing mystery and this is my very first attempt, so this book might be awful and I'm prepared for that. As I say, I have the freedom right now to experiment and have fun. A few knowing fans of detective fiction have already told me that I'm playing too fast and loose with the genre conventions and that, too, is perfectly okay by me because, as I say, I'm mostly amusing myself by writing this book. I have no deadlines, nobody is asking for my next manuscript, and so far I'm having a lot of fun. Plus, Excel! I love spreadsheets.

Anyway, how about you? Are you writing a style/genre/whatever that you wouldn't believe you were writing if you weren't doing it?

Lies You Believe

I get a lot of emails from other writers asking for advice, and most of the time I have no idea what to tell them. Honestly, I'm making things up as I go along, fumbling around the same as everyone else. I suppose, however, that when we reach certain points we forget about things. For instance, I've forgotten how difficult it used to be to start a novel. These days it's nothing. I've written enough first chapters and experimented enough with what kind of outlining and research works for me that starting a novel may still be frightening, but it's not insurmountable by any means. I don't paralyze myself at the thought.

As writers, especially new writers, we believe a lot of things people tell us. Many new writers read blogs like a hungry bear, craving whatever direction they can find. Sadly, I've fed new writers some pretty juicy lies. Not that I knew I was doing such a thing, but I'd like to dispel a few things here today in order to share some advice, in a way.


Lie #1 - write what you know

I am not a spy. I am not Cinderella after she has been married. I do not have a sister with three eyes. I have never been kidnapped or abused.

I don't write what I know. All this deceiving phrase has ever boiled down to is to write confidently. Period.


Lie #2 - you must write like someone else to be successful

No, you must not. Writing like someone (or everyone) else is a Bad Idea. Buried in their actions, I've seen many writers believe that to catch the eye of an agent, they must write like the other popular voices out there. Imitation may be a good writing exercise, but if you continue to ignore your own path and voice you'll never truly stand out. Temporarily, you might make it, but in the long run you will get buried underneath a pile of identical, life-crushing boulders.


Lie #3 - always follow the rules

We've all heard the rules.

Don't use adverbs. Ever.
Flashbacks are bad.
Back story dumping is bad.
Don't use prologues.
Don't ever start a story with your character waking up.
Don't repeat the same word in the same sentence.
You should always outline your book first.

and on and on and on...

The thing to remember is that these are not rules. Rules are things like you must put a period at the end of a sentence or use lay instead of lie if you're talking about an object and not a person. Grammar stuff. Those are rules. Everything else is subject to change. Seriously. You can use adverbs, flashbacks, and a prologue if you want. If you read enough and write enough you'll learn the right balance that works for you. For some writers, flashbacks never work. For others they are a brilliant literary device. Everyone is different. Don't limit yourself to a box made of rules. Experiment. Learn. Write.

More of these "rules" are listed below.


Lie #4 - if you're bored by your own work during the writing process, your reader will be, too

Lie. Lie. Lie. I'm bored by my own work all the time. I work on my novels hours upon hours, days upon days, sometimes years upon years. Yeah, I'm going to get bored. I know things the reader will never know. As writers, we get so close to our work that it's often impossible to judge how a reader will react to certain aspects of the story. We shouldn't be worried about that, anyway. When you're finished, put your book aside for a few months and come back to it later. You'll probably still be bored by certain things, but that gut-feeling inside of you will speak otherwise. Listen to it.

Also, this is why I have a few beta readers. They can often help me spot problematic areas I would never have seen before. I'd like to write in a complete bubble and keep all the credit to myself, but in all honesty, I'll at least need one or two people to see my work before I can call it completely finished.


Lie #5 - your first sentence must hook the reader

Not true, and besides, it's impossible to hook every reader with one sentence.


Lie #6 - your book must fit into a genre

Not true. Genres are best blended, bended, and torn apart, in my opinion.


Lie #7 - you must know your story's theme before you write

Not true. I never discover my story's themes until I've pretty much finished the book. Honestly, I don't think it's any of my business what the themes are. It's my job to write the story, not preach it.


Lie #8 - there must be tension on every page

Not true. Leave your reader room to breathe, for crying out loud.


Lie #9 - here at the literary lab we know everything

We wish.
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So, readers, what are some lies you'd like to dispel today? Go on. Write them out. You'll feel better. Anything here you don't agree with? We're always up for discussion!

Guest Post: Two-Trick Pony

Hi Ladies and Gents and any variation of the two,

Today we have a guest post by the superb Alex MacKenzie!

Alexandra ("Alex") MacKenzie is an author and illustrator from Seattle, WA. She illustrated In My Nature: A Birder's Year at the Montlake Fill (www.constancypress.com), published in November 2009, and she wrote the fantasy novel Immortal Quest: The Trouble with Mages (www.edgewebsite.com), published by Edge SF (Canada) in September 2010. She supports herself as an academic counselor at the University of Washington, where she works down a lengthy hallway from a certain Mr. Scott Bailey.

"Two-Trick Pony"

Many years ago, I wrote a fantasy novel. Many years later, it was published (yay!). That was the culmination of a lifelong dream. But (there is always a “but”), many years ago I also wrote a mystery novel. It has not been published. And herein lies the gist of this post: am I a box of Rice Chex attempting to become a box of Quaker Oats?

My publisher only publishes SF/Fantasy, and has the rights to my next work IF it is SF/F. It’s not. Who do I sell it to? (I don’t have an agent.) Will editors/publishers be put off because I’m switching horses midstream? Will they have no clue how to reach my “market”, such as it is, since the only readers I have so far are all expecting a fantasy novel sequel much the same as the first book?

Now, as a reader, I kind of understand this whole marketing/ branding notion. I have favorite authors who I won’t even jump within genres for – an example is Lindsey Davis, who writes a mystery series set in ancient Rome and who also writes standalone novels. I love the series. I won’t go anywhere near the standalones. Now, I do read quite widely in both fiction and nonfiction, yet when I find an author doing something I enjoy, all I want is for them to keep doing that one thing that I enjoy and not go off experimenting with something different. (Scott, do I hear you groaning down the hallway?)

So, is this more prevalent in mysteries, SF/F et cetera rather than in mainstream/literary fiction? Can the literary fiction folks get away with writing more than one type of novel, or do they, too, lose readers if they vary too much from what the audience has come to expect from them?

One solution often used in mystery and SF/F fiction is for an author to use a pseudonym when trying something new (cite: Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb), though generally they need to be well-established already for this to fly with a publisher, and often the “secret identity” is not so terribly secret.

Your turn: comment on the above, or for an exercise, imagine you sold a horror novel and it did quite well, and your publisher wants another one, but your next book is a cozy mystery. The publisher will give you a nice advance for a horror novel, but won’t even consider the mystery. What do you do? You can be true to your art, though realistically, you also have bills to pay.

And thank you kindly, Literary Lab, for allowing me to play here today!

-Alexandra (“Alex”) MacKenzie, aka mizmak

So You Write YA, Who Cares?

The other day a fellow writer, Beth Revis, put up a post about age limits in Young Adult literature. While I happen to agree with some of the points made in her post, I had a hard time agreeing with others. I'm not here today to argue with Beth, however, or try to make a point that one genre is better than another. Our intention here at The Literary Lab is to try and show readers that literary fiction is not so much a genre as it is a part of all writing. My intention today is to strike up a healthy discussion along these lines. So read carefully!

Beth made some points in her post that I'd like to talk about. We'll  focus on what Beth says Young Adult literature is. Her first point after she quotes Jack Martin: "Teen books are like adult books without all the bullshit."

YA fiction is fast paced. Beth makes it clear that there is no wasted space in Young Adult literature. She also says Proust would not have cut it as a YA author.

Michelle: Most Young Adult fiction I've read is fast paced, but I'm not entirely certain that is because there is no "wasted space." I think part of it may be subject matter, the expected length of YA novels, and the fact that many YA novels I've read deal with highly appealing subjects to their audience, namely subjects that invite a fast paced plot. Teenagers like new, exciting things, exploration, and experimentation. They aren't settling down. They're just getting started with life, and many adults like to stay in this active phase so it's no wonder they love YA fiction, and it's no little wonder that for a long time the YA fiction style/themes/etc. have been crossing over into adult. I personally think this is fun and exciting, especially for adult readers who wouldn't be reading fiction otherwise.

Davin: Using Proust as the representative for adult fiction in this discussion is a bit extreme. Think of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Tolstoy, who all manage to write incredibly tight fiction. I'd argue that Proust isn't even that bad, given that his words actually add precision to his stories. Stephenie Meyer could learn pooper scooping from any of these writers, just as she could learn from J.K. Rowling. Both YA literature and adult literature can be focused. Honestly, I'm mad about the Jack Martin quote. It's much more accurate to say, "Good books are like bad books without the bullshit."

Scott: There are entire books I don't want to read. There are entire genres I don't want to read. Are they "wasted space?" Swann's Way is something like 180,000 words long, and not a single one of those words is wasted.

Beth's second and third points are that YA fiction has interesting characters and that YA fiction will get the reader emotionally involved in some way, whether that's negative or positive emotions.

Michelle: Absolutely! I've read many YA novels that support this claim. Of course, I've read adult books that support the same claim. Beth says YA readers don't put up with uninteresting characters. I don't think adult readers do, either.

Davin: Dit. to.

Scott: Trit. to.

Beth's final point is that Young Adult literature supports story above tradition.

Michelle: I will admit that YA fiction does seem to throw around extreme genre bending much more than adult literature dares to. This is a really fun side of YA, but I don't think it's unheard of to see this happening in adult literature, as well, as Beth says in her post.

Davin: In a way, genre bending is a bit of a tame art anyway, isn't it? Why simply bend a genre when you can smash through it the way some classic adult fiction has done? Yes, romance combined with sci-fi can be a fun read, but think of the books that totally make you see writing in a different way. One Hundred Years of Solitude did that for me, as did Light In August, Lolita, and Dante's Inferno. None of those books suffer from the need to conform to tradition.

Michelle: Yes! Davin, I agree. Annie Dillard blew me away with her philosophy and literary style. I changed my major from technical writing to creative writing because of her. Flannery O'Connor pretty much made her own genre. I don't think adult literature suffers from tradition. I think some writers might, but not the genre.

Scott: I am not attacking YA, and I would appreciate it if we didn't attack other genres to defend our own. But as Ms. Revis has thrown down the gauntlet, I ask her to show me the YA writers who are as brave and adventurous, as "genre-bending" as Umberto Eco, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, A.S. Byatt, Iain Pears, David Mitchell, Virginia Woolf, Laurence Sterne, Iris Murdoch, Irvine Welsh, Mikhail Bulgakov, Vladimir Nabokov, Victor LaValle, Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Voltaire, Thomas Pynchon, William Burroughs, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood et cetera ad infinitum. Don't make me go on because I could all night. If you want to write YA then do it and don't apologize for it, but don't pee on me to make yourself feel better. [End of Scott's ranty rant.]

Michelle: So as I've thought more and more about all of this, I feel bad that Beth says she doesn't care that YA is slapped onto her book - she's happy just writing what she writes. I feel bad because it doesn't matter what label a book has. There can be exceptions, of course. An example is that my novella, Cinders, is sometimes categorized as Young Adult. I get a little upset about this because the main character is married, so she deals with things some younger readers might not be ready to read about. I think the book is more appropriately labeled as adult simply so younger readers don't pick it up thinking it's something completely different than it is. This, to me, is a good reason for a label/genre classification.

Scott says it's a marketing term, not a literary term. That's exactly what it is. It's CONVENIENT to categorize books into categories. It's CONVENIENT to say, "Yes, this book has a 16 year-old protagonist so let's call it YA". It's convenient because it works for marketing, for bookstore layouts, for giving awards, gifts, for determining if a book might be appropriate for certain readers.

We should all own what we do and what we write, but it's certainly not fair for anyone to say one genre is better than another. I've often felt looked down on for writing adult fiction since I live around and am friends with so many writers who write Young Adult, and I've gone through my little spells of woe-is-me because I feel I'm looked down on for self-publishing a novel. Nobody, however, has ever once said out loud to me that my fiction sucks because it's adult or that my novella sucks because it's self-published. All of that emotion is coming from myself. Even if someone does tell me these things to my face, it does not, nor will it ever make it true.

So you write YA, who cares? I personally think it's awesome! Write any genre. Tell a good story like any good writer, and readers and writers will respect you as just that - a good writer.

What do you all think? We're not trying to start an argument, but a bit of good-natured debate is always fun. We noticed Beth's post got a ton of supportive comments.
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Beth Revis is the author of the novel, Across the Universe, which will be out January 11th, 2011 by Razorbill.

Whatchaaa! Easing Up Our Expectations

I've been thinking about Nathan Bransford's post on never judging a book by what we think it should be, but by what the writer clearly intended. There seems to be two sides of a coin when it comes to writing and reading: what we want and what we actually get.

When we read a book, we carry certain expectations, and if those expectations aren't met, no matter how small, we usually come away from the book disappointed. If the writer exceeds our expectations, we usually love the book and leave some sort of raving review with our husband or spouse or mom or on our blog. My husband happens to be a reader who carries very low expectations for movies and books, so even though something might be truly bad, he doesn't get upset about it. He takes it for what it is and bases his judgment against the product itself, not some ideal standard he had in his head. Because of this, I think he enjoys more creative things than I do, and he's happier for it...instead of me who walks around criticizing everything left and right.

When we write a story, most of us have expectations of what the story should be by the time we finish. I read several posts yesterday that held a running theme: I HATE MY BOOK. I think we all get this feeling at some point if we're working on a novel. But why do we hate our work? Because it's not cooperating? Because it's not measuring up to that ideal we set up in the first place? I know Scott is currently rewriting one of his books because the first drafts didn't measure up to what he had planned to do.

I've rewritten books before. From scratch. Because of this. It sucks.

However, on my last huge project, I promised myself not to rewrite anything. I promised myself not to let more than a few select people beta read the book. I promised myself to let the book be what it would be instead of trying to force it into a corner and make it behave. When I did this, truly amazing things happened and I ended up with a final product that pleases me more than almost everything else I've written.

Also, lately, I've been reading different genres. I've picked up YA books I never would have picked up before. I've read science fiction and fantasy instead of just literary classics I never got to read in college. I've let myself enjoy more things. I've let go of what I think I want and allowed myself to celebrate things as they are. I've stopped being so damn uptight about things, and I'm happier with my creativity. Much happier.

Do you suffer from this type of thing?
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If you haven't already, you should go check out Livia Blackburn's post about The Vulcan Mind Meld. Well, her post isn't actually titled that, but it's about how storytellers force their brain activity on their audience. Yes, very cool. I was going to do a post all about this, but Livia pretty much said it all.

Casting A Wide Net: Scott Begs for Help

My writing project for this fall is a detective novella. I have no idea how it happened, but an eccentric detective character appeared almost full-blown in my imagination, and a few days later I had a setting, some characters including the victim and the murderer, and some other bits and bobs and now I've got a mystery sort of banging around in my head demanding to be written. But here's the thing: I've never written a mystery, and while I have read all the Holmes stories (when I was a kid) and I have also read a few (a very few) other mysteries, I really don't have much of a clue (sorry) about how to put one of these stories together.

In the last couple of months I've read four Agatha Christie "Poirot" books. I've read all of Iain Pears' "Jonathan Argyll" mysteries. And I'm sure I've read one or two other detective stories over the years, but I mostly don't remember who or what or when. Poe's "Rue Morgue" and "Purloined Letter," of course. "The Gold Bug," and that sort of thing.

The Christies are enjoyable enough, but I don't think I want to use her as my model for the story structure. I like her beginnings and I like her characters and some of her digressions are really very nice (the four or so pages about gardens in "Halloween Party" are gorgeous prose that any writer would be proud to have written), but the middles of her books are an inchoate hash of evidence and interviews and they bore me because there's no real story and no movement until Poirot is ready to confront the murderer. Also, you know, I'm not pleased as punch with the way Christie gets her detective to the solution to the mystery.

The Pears books are interesting and a bit more linear in their construction, but even though they have a good set of main characters (who doesn't love Flavia?), they seem a bit fluff. And I really hated the final book in the series, Mr. Pears. Hate is a strong word best used infrequently, and I use it here about your last art mystery book. Yes, I do.

Anyway, dear reader, I am a bit stuck. I don't know my genre well enough to go a-trolling for new ideas elsewhere, so I turn to you who are smarter and more widely-read than I am and ask for some recommendations. I'm looking at cosies, if I understand the term correctly, and not action-packed spy stories or serial killers or paranormal mysteries. More like modern classic detective novels, if you know what I mean. Maybe historical stuff (Dorothy Dunnett has been waved about in front of me while I dithered pointlessly) is it's a real detective-looks-at-evidence-and-human-nature stuff, new or old but probably I'm interested in what's going on now in the genre. I just don't know. Point me in a direction, I beg you.

The Power Of Pity and Fear

As I mentioned before, I started studying Aristotle's Poetics this weekend. The first half of this work discusses the art of writing tragedy, and one of the things Aristotle stresses is that all tragedy should evoke both pity and fear.

The concept of having both of these emotions at play in a story was eye-opening for me. Aristotle argued that pity was important because it resulted from readers sympathizing with the character. Fear, on the other hand, results from readers putting themselves in the character's place and worrying about themselves.

For me, what's powerful about this idea is that a writer who evokes both pity and fear has engaged their reader on two levels. And these two levels work on two different planes, one "inside" the story, relating to the character, and another "outside."

I imagine the two emotions don't have to be only pity and fear. For those writers who aren't working on Tragedy, the concept of getting readers to feel emotions for both the character and for themselves still applies. It seems like sympathy for the character applies to every genre. But, the pairing with that sympathy might be desire in the case of romance, or joy in the case of comedy. I'm honestly not sure. But, either way, this allows us to transcend the world of our book into real life.

So, has anyone been able to create these two levels of emotions in their writing? If so, do you have tips on how you did it?

Mowing Grass and Other Random Things

I've been reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and before I started I finished a Young Adult book. Talk about a difference in writing styles! If anyone ever asks me what "literary" means I tell them I have no idea. I've been in the debate one too many times to even care any more. McCarthy is spoken of everywhere as a literary genius. Maybe he is. I've enjoyed his book on so many different (not better, just different) levels than I enjoyed the Young Adult book. The Young Adult book I couldn't put down. I read it in a day. It was fun and fast and had depth, but The Road...it's like a rich dessert and it's getting hard to swallow at some points. That's not a bad thing. It just means I have to read it slowly.

For me, any writing that makes me feel this way is great (not better than other writing, just greater for me) writing. I don't run across it too often, but when I do it's a treat. If I feel like I want to read the book again to catch more of that dessert I missed the first time around, that's great writing. If it makes me jealous, that's great writing. If it makes me want to stop reading and go write something, that's great writing.

That's all for me, though. You may be different. So there's a thought for Friday. And now for some random.

Don't miss the writing contest going on over at The Clarity of Night!

Don't forget to vote about where the proceeds for our Notes from Underground anthology should go. It's down below on Thursday's post.

Don't forget to check out the fun giveaway on my author site for the release of my novella, Cinders. (Yes, that's a shameless plug)

I'm house/dog sitting for my parents while they're gone for two weeks, and I just mowed the lawn. I haven't mowed grass for years. Oh, the smell. It's the essence of summer. That, and some watermelon. I'm savoring it before the months of snow return. What's your favorite summer thing?

Linked Short Stories in Genre Fiction

I'm currently reading Let The Great World Spin, a collection of linked stories by Colum McCann. This book won the National Book Award, was a big bestseller, and also has a really cool cover design. I should also say that I'm enjoying it immensely and it is--so far--an amazing book.

But it is not a novel. When I picked it up at the shop I knew nothing about Let the Great World Spin except that it had won the NBA and that lots of people had read it and that it was highly recommended by some sites I respect. I thought it was a novel about Manhattan, and when I realized it was a dozen stories and not a novel, I was disappointed. "Oh," I thought. "Another one of those."

Don't get me wrong. I've read some fine books of stories lately. Jhumpa Lahiri's The Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer; so did Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. Antonia Byatt has written several collections of linked stories (Little Black Book of Stories, Angels and Insects, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye and The Matisse Stories). And there is a fairly well-established tradition in literary fiction of authors writing books of linked short stories. Yes, agents all say they don't want to see any of them, but they keep getting published, don't they?

What I was wondering, though, is if this tradition extends past literary fiction. I can think of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, and that's as far as I can get. I am aware that there are piles of collections of SF/F and mystery and horror and other types of fiction, but those were collected from a variety of sources and are from a wide group of authors. What I mean is, do genre fiction authors write sets of stories that are all published together as a single book, and are all connected thematically? If so, have these been popular? Do you read them?

As I say above, I was put off when I saw that Let the Great World Spin was a collection. At the end of the first story, I felt cheated. "Hey, what's this? You mean that's all? You mean I have to start over again with a new story? That's not what I signed on for, mister." As a rule, I choose novels over short stories (though I have a collection of stories at my bedside that I read from most every night; so much for my rules). Happily, all the stories in Let the Great World Spin are truly pretty great and I have forgiven Mr. McCann his transgression.

So tell me about story collections in the genres. Also, tell Lady Glamis how much you like the new look of the blog. I didn't know where I was when I first logged on today, but I like it a lot. Thanks, Michelle!

A Question of Genre

I am about 40 pages away from finishing Victor LaValle's novel Big Machine. I don't know how well this book sold, but it did well enough to be reprinted as trade paperback after its run in cloth*, so it must have done respectably enough, and it's won awards and been reviewed well here and there. Which comes as no surprise, because it's pretty good, so go read it.

What does surprise me, however, is that it's been marketed as a work of literary fiction. I don't deny that it is, mind you: the language is wonderful and the book deals with such deep subjects as identity, doubt, trust and the existence of God. But it also veers sharply into "X-Files" territory, with some Edgar Allen Poe thrown in for good measure. So this is like a paranormal literary fiction.

It's not sold as paranormal, and on the jacket copy the suspense is played up and the theology/weirdness is played down, but this is a strange novel about strange events, the real world's edges and underbelly being home to supernatural activity and beings. But you won't find Big Machine in the "horror" or whatever section of Barnes & Noble, you'll find it in the general fiction section, and the book is being discussed as literature.

I also can't help noticing that in the YA section of book shops, there is a lot of zombie/vampire/supernatural activity going on, and it's all called "YA" and not "science fiction" or "horror" or anything. And it further seems to me that there are few people who read only zombie novels, or only police procedurals, or only vampire romances, or only literary fiction about estrangement from parents or whatever. I do not believe in the idea that I hear often from agents and editors that people don't stray from "their" section of book stores, and so I begin to strongly doubt the notion--again, one we hear often from agents--that your book had better fit into a neatly-defined genre.

Because readers don't read like that. If you ask readers what their genre tastes are, I think most of them are going to look at you as if you're speaking a foreign language. Readers, I think, don't think about "genre," they think about books and authors that they like. And bookstore workers are generally well- and widely-read enough that they aren't afraid of a book if it doesn't fit neatly into one of their previously-defined genre slots. They do, after all, have that big "general fiction" area.

Where, really, am I going with this? I think that what I realized while reading Big Machine is that whenever someone tells you that you are ill-advised to mix genres in your work, that you really need to focus on one style or another, they are full of it. Writers lead the way; agents and editors all follow, always. They follow writers and they follow buying trends begun by...writers, yes, that's right. As my very own agent says about agents, "We're all sheep." If you are writing a really cool, really good book, you should follow your instincts and just write that really cool, really good book.

Yes, at some point you will need to market it to an agent who will have to sell it to a publisher, but you do NOT have to say what genre it is in your query, as long as you send it to an agent who you think will be interested in your book. My agent and I have never once discussed the genre of my book, and I didn't say "literary fiction" in my queries. I just talked about how really cool my book is.

And now, kids, I have to work. Which sucks, because I really want to go finish Big Machine.

* Yo, Victor LaValle: I bought your book in cloth to help you earn out your advance. Just saying.

The Misunderstood Novella

London - Auction - World's Smallest Books ~ March 9, 2006. The entire collection was expected to fetch around £60,000.


Novella. It's not a small book, a short novel, or easy to write.

I recently read a post on Chronicles of a Novice Writer titled Novellas - Real or Myth? This got me thinking about novellas and how many writers misunderstand them completely. They are not a myth, and they are not just based on word count. (Hint, they can be longer than 40 or 50k, or shorter). Here's a generalized rundown of word count for you so we know how things stand. This, of course, discounts general word counts for more specific genres like Young Adult and Children's Literature.

Micro Fiction
up to 100

Flash Fiction
100 - 1,000

Short Story
1,000 - 7,500

Novelette
7,500 - 20,000

Novella
20,000 - 50,000

Novel
50,000 - 110,000

Epics & Sequels
over 110,000

Novellas are a genre in their own right. I tried to find some good information about them on the Internet, but didn't find a whole lot. From his essay, Briefly, the Case for the Novella, George Fetherling (author of the novella, Tales of Two Cities) says it best:

If size were the only consideration, however, there might be reason to revive what American magazine and pocketbook publishers of the 1940s and ’50s called a novelette. We can’t do this, however, because the term doesn’t take complexity into account. The novella isn’t simply longer than even a long short story and shorter than a novel, it’s also more complex than the first but not so complex as the second—in structure, in characterization: the works. Cariou is dead right in pointing out that the novella “is most often concerned with personal and psychological development rather than with the larger social sphere [and] generally retains something of the unity of the short story [but also] the more highly developed characterization and more luxuriant description” of the novel.

I found it interesting that novellas are generally categorized as being serious in nature. Perhaps this is because they deal with personal and psychological development. They often lack subplots, large casts of characters, and usually take place in one location. They are unified, as one source from mantex.co.uk indicates:

The essence of a novella is that it has a concentrated unity of purpose and design. That is, character, incident, theme, and language are all focussed on contributing to a single issue which will be of a serious nature and universal significance.

Many of the classic novellas are concerned with people learning important lessons or making significant journeys. They might even do both at the same time, as do Gustave von Eschenbach in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and Gregor Samsa in Kafka's Metamorphosis - both of whom make journeys towards death.

I set out to find some good examples of novellas. I found a fun site that keeps a growing list of most "classic" novellas.

novellas.org

My friend Marisol gave me some good examples that she's read.

The Night Watch books by Sergei Lukyanenko
Apt Pupil by Steven King

Two of my favorite novellas are:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (read it online here)
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Copote

And can I just say that I hate how Amazon describes Breakfast at Tiffany's as a short novel. Come on, people.

You know, I like short. A novella is something I can curl up on the couch with and read in an afternoon. It quickly satisfies my craving for good fiction, complex characters, and rich settings. As for writing a novella, I'm thinking I might tackle one for my next work! The idea of writing something tight and unified, filled with symbolism and focused on a serious subject - that's not 80,000 words - is appealing.

Pimp My Novel did a post awhile ago about how things specific things sell. I'm not so sure a novella would be easy to sell as a first book, but it wouldn't hurt to write one! I can't imagine that it would be any easier to write than a novel. In fact, it would probably be more challenging to make all that focus work. Focus is good.

Question For The Day: Have you misunderstood novellas in the past? Do you have any favorite novellas? Have you written one?


~MDA (aka Glam)

Michelle McLean on Genre Definitions

This week The Literary Lab presents a series of guest posts exploring the conventions of different genres and what writers love and loath about each of them. We're continuing with Michelle McLean on...

Genre Definitions

Genre – basic definition – a literary term used to describe a group of works with similar characteristics such as characters, themes, and setting.

There are more genres than you can shake a stick at – really. So this list is nowhere near completes the possibilities, but these are the most common.

Action/Adventure: Often, though not always, aimed at a male audience. Contains elements of physical action, violence, danger (physical, global, etc), hazards, travel to exotic locations (jungles, deserts, tropical islands). Storylines often contain use of weapons, technology, martial arts. Can and often do contain elements of humor. Examples include the James Bond films, Indiana Jones, the Die Hard movies, the Rush Hour movies, The Mummy movies.

Chick-Lit: geared toward women, often urban settings, includes elements of romance, humor, professional struggles, relationships. Examples include Bridget Jones’s Diary and Sex and the City.

Contemporary: Mostly used to denote the setting. If you have a mystery that is set in present time, on this planet, etc, you could call it a Contemporary Mystery.

Experimental: Usually edgy in style or content. Pulp Fiction would be a good example.

Fantasy: Fantasy stories are set on other worlds or in other realities. You can have vampires or werewolves or fairies, but in general, fantasy creatures tend to be more…fantastic, mythological – dragons, gryphons, three-headed dog beasts. Magic is a huge element of fantasy stories. Here is a little test: if you can take away the “weird” in the story (i.e. the beasts, the magic) and the world you are left with is still not the normal, everyday world you know, it’s a fantasy story. Lord of the Rings is a fantasy.

--Urban Fantasy – this genre is actually closer to a paranormal than a fantasy. These stories deal with magical or paranormal elements in a real world, contemporary (or urban) setting. Many paranormal books could also be classified as Urban Fantasy, including Twilight, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series, and The Dresden Files.

General: This is kind of a blanket genre for anything that doesn’t fit in any of the other categories. On Golden Pond is an example of general fiction.

Historical: Portrays fictionalized accounts of real life historical events or people. In non-fiction and fiction, a story set in the 1940s or 1950s could be considered historical, and definitely anything set early than that. Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Sister and Anchee Min’s The Last Emperor are examples of historical fiction. This does not apply to Historical Romance. For Romance, anything after 1910 is still contemporary (for now…this may change the farther into the 2000s we get).

Horror: The plot usually contains threats to the main characters that include things like death, mutilation and torture. Horror stories try to create a sense of horror, terror, and revulsion in its readers and have a tendency to be gory. The hero doesn’t always make it out alive in a horror story. Stephen King's The Shining is a great example. Well, any of Stephen King’s books.

Humor/Comedy: The purpose of this genre, as you can probably guess, is to make the reader laugh. Often combined with other elements such as romance and action/adventure. Fletch, Men In Black and Get Smart are examples of humor.

Inspirational: Mostly Christian-based storylines, though points of view of other religions are becoming more popular. Stories contain elements of faith and religion; working through life problems with a focus on a character’s beliefs and religion. An example of inspirational fiction is Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series.

Literary: This one can be hard to define. Nathan Bransford has an excellent post about this. Literary fiction tends to be more geared to the characters, the inner workings of their minds and hearts. It does need to have a plot, but as Nathan states, the plot is often beneath the surface, whereas in commercial fiction, the plot is on the surface. Examples would be Out of Africa and Gilead.

Middle Grade: Geared toward preteens. Often have a moral message or lesson; the character learn about self-esteem, confidence, friendship, etc. Charlotte’s Web and Nim’s Island are examples.

Mystery: The plot is geared toward the solving of a problem, often, but not always, murder. Subplots are fine (many have a romantic element), but the “problem” (i.e. the mystery) presented at the beginning must be resolved. The Sherlock Holmes stories are an example.

Niche: This type of book will only appeal to a certain niche of reader. For example, if I wrote a fiction book about frogs that lived in Texas, and that was all the book was about, it would only appeal to those that liked frogs or the state of Texas. So, I would query my hypothetical book Frogs of Texas as Niche Fiction.

Paranormal: Paranormal stories are set in the real world, the world as we know it…with a little extra thrown in. Vampires, shapeshifters, fairies, elves, witches, demons, gargoyles, ghosts, psychics, mediums, telepaths, time travelers…these all belong in the paranormal world. Use the same test as we used for the fantasy worlds…if you can take away the “weird” factors and you are left with our everyday world = paranormal. For example, if you take away the sparkling, gorgeous vampire, or vengeful ghost, or the time portal the main characters travel through, and you are left with everyday Earth – your story is paranormal fiction. Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files and Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse vampire books are examples of paranormal fiction.

Romance: The plot of a romance centers around a couple that fall in love and have a “happily ever after” ending. This is a must; there are no exceptions. If your couple is not happily in love and together at the end of your book, it’s not a romance. It might be a love story (in which case, it would go under women’s fiction) but a romance has to have a HEA. You can have subplots, but the main plotline must be about the couple’s romance. Now, there are so many subgenres to the Romance genre (many totally unique to romance) that I will do a separate post on these next week, so stay tuned.

Science-Fiction: This one is actually pretty self-explanatory. It’s fiction about science. The plot usually has something to do with science or technology and has to be within the realm of possibility. Stories are often set in the future or on other planets. Star Wars, Stargate and Star Trek fall in this category, as do I, Robot, Starship Troopers, Dune, Ender’s Game, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Wrinkle in Time, and Jurassic Park.

Suspense: While often lumped together, suspense novels are generally not as intense as thrillers. The threat is often directed at the main character. Can include many elements but often includes mystery, murder, a little romance, danger, action.

Thriller: More intense than suspense; the threat is often against a larger group than just the main character (threats against the community, a city, a country, the world). Usually about life and death situations where ordinary heroes are up against mastermind villains. Generally lots of action and plot twists. The Da Vinci Code, The Hunt for Red October and Enemy of the State are examples.

Western: These are generally set in the Western United States before 1900. There are also contemporary westerns. An example of a Western is The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

Women's: There are several different sub-genres, but in general this genre is geared toward women; a woman is the main character and her development, life, experiences, etc, are the backbone of the story. Think Fried Green Tomatoes or The First Wives Club.

Young Adult: These books can include any genre but the main character should be the same age as the readers the story is geared toward (teens, 13-18). There can be romance but this element is usually on the tame side. Examples are the Harry Potter books, Twilight, Vampire Academy, and Wicked Lovely.

Once you have your genre down, you can pick your subgenres if necessary. However, do not list your book with more than three genres. If at all possible, keep it to two. You have to be able to narrow your book down. What shelf should it be on in a bookstore? You might have six different elements in your book, but stick to the main two.

Really the only two instances three genres might be necessary is for historicals and Young Adults. One because it tells the time period and the other because it tells the age the book is geared toward. My current book is YA Urban Fantasy. This isn’t overboard, but querying your book as a Mystery Thriller Urban Women’s fiction with romantic and science fiction elements is a bit much. Your book may contain all of those but you don’t need to give it all away.

Erin Anderson (aka The Screaming Guppy) on Science Fiction

This week The Literary Lab presents a series of guest posts exploring the conventions of different genres and what writers love and loath about each of them. We're continuing with The Screaming Guppy on...

Sci-fi you say?

The Screaming Guppy here, weighing in on what makes science fiction (both in reading and writing) awesome!

I needed to come up with a clever and educated opening. So I went to Wikipedia. ;)

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and capitalization) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, magazines, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media. In organizational or marketing contexts, science fiction can be synonymous with the broader definition of speculative fiction, encompassing creative works incorporating imaginative elements not found in contemporary reality; this includes fantasy, horror, and related genres.

Science fiction differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation). Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas". Science fiction is largely based on writing entertainingly and rationally about alternate possibilities in settings that are contrary to known reality.

These may include:

• A setting in the future, in alternative time lines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archeological record
• A setting in outer space, on other worlds, or involving aliens
• Stories that involve technology or scientific principles that contradict known laws of nature
• Stories that involve discovery or application of new scientific principles, such as time travel or psionics, or new technology, such as nanotechnology, faster-than-light travel or robots, or of new and different political or social systems (e.g., a dystopia, or a situation where organized society has collapsed)

There are subcategories as well, but the biggest divide is what could be called “space opera” and “hard sci-fi.” All of the above pretty much applies to both, but hard sci-fi focuses more on real science and making up things inside the scope of what is actually-maybe possible. Space opera is more about cool ideas, epic storylines and made-up science without taking the time to explain things on a deeply scientific level. It’s like watching Star Wars verses watching the Discovery Channel (but with a plot).

I fall into the “space opera” side of things, with a strong aversion to actually having to justify my fake science with chemical equations and physics (of course, there is a balance to keep things believable within the world you create. More on that in a sec). I think this comes from my roots – I used to write almost entirely high fantasy. The draw of the genre (the broader umbrella of “speculative fiction”) for me was that I could create my own worlds, my own magic, races, and societies. Then I realized that guns can be a lot of fun. And I can write sci-fi and still create my own worlds.

The real world is fun, sure. But what happens if the world as we know it collapses? What happens when we met aliens from light years away? What happens when the zombie apocalypse starts? And how do people – humans and humanity – handle the pressure of the world we know becoming something different?

I like big questions, character dilemmas, love, loss, struggle and triumph. I like throwing obstacles in front of my characters and watching them crawl through and come out with cuts and bruises, or, um, dead. Of course, any genre can have these things.

It comes down to world building for me and my fascination with all things fantastic. I live real life everyday, so when I write and read I’m looking for characters I can relate to – in a world different from my own.

World building is a challenge. Anyone who writes fantasy or sci-fi knows what I mean. It adds a new dimension to the creation process. I build my plot; I dream up my characters; I see the conflicts. Now, I get the added amazing task of creating the ENTIRE universe that they live in. But with it comes great responsibility, young Jedi (sorry, too dorky? And I’m not even that big of a Star Wars fan, I promise).

Building your own universe, with your own rules and everything else requires dedication and consistency to trap your reader. Writing in a genre like this means you have to explain everything – and do so in the careful craft of writing something without making it sound like an info dump. Immersion is important in any genre, and I enjoy the challenge of making my reader believe that humans now live only in spaceships and have no planets, or that broken cities now make up arenas for zombie gladiators.

A cliché, but part of the excitement of writing and reading sci-fi is to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before. To take your characters to places yet unknown to people outside your own head and then take your readers with them on the journey. To make your characters face the complications of this new reality. The what-if beyond our backyards and the Earth we know. That’s what keeps me interested in this genre: all the depth beyond the pew pew pew.

I like most of the conventions of my genre, though I don’t feel like sci-fi is restricted to space and aliens. And I don’t think sci-fi can’t tell a deep and meaningful story just because you’re zooming around on spaceships blowing up people…rather, biped humanoids.

A few good examples of the type of sci-fi I enjoy reading (and attempting to write):

Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon

This is one crazy book – it’s almost like a sci-fi fantasy hybrid. But, the point is, the world building is amazing! It didn’t matter if I was in the alternate universe or the future Earth. I believed it.

Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Bigger ideas, neatly wrapped up in a floating space station school for elite children in an alternate future of Earth.

Helix by Eric Brown

A completely CRAZY idea about a fictional structure of a solar system. Insane, impossible, but the way he wrote it made me believe I was there.

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Dune world is a new venture for me, but the first book was enough to hook me into the world.

Some other things that tackle the genre in an awesome way include:

Star Trek – the series and the new movie

Star Wars – the original space opera (referring to the first three movies)

Sunshine – movie, alternative/possible future of Earth, with space ship and character trauma

28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later – technically horror movies, but fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction

Mass Effect – video game. It doesn’t get much more epic than this storyline. Period.

Babylon AD (the movie) and Babylon Babies (the book the movie is based on) – bad ending, but the world building is so cool. I’m still reading the book (it’s a French author, so some stuff is a little strange) but so far the world building, again, is very neat.

The Island – perfect example of a sci-fi dystopian future, with big guns, complicated characters and awesome world building.

Rick Daley on Suspense/Thriller Writing

This week The Literary Lab presents a series of guest posts exploring the conventions of different genres and what writers love and loath about each of them. We're continuing with Rick Daley on...

Suspense and Thriller Writing

First off, thanks to The Three Moderators for considering my contribution to this blog, and to all the readers who lurk and participate in the group discussions. I’ve been following The Literary Lab for quite some time, and it’s really starting to take off. You done good, Davin ;-)

Now to the point: Genre Fiction – Suspense / Thrillers.

Suspense novels and thrillers are similar to mysteries. The main difference is that in a mystery, the reader is trying to figure out whodunit, but in the suspense novel you may know all along whodunit and how. The protagonist in a suspense / thriller faces dire consequences should they fail against the antagonist. The antagonist may be a person, but it may also be an abstract such as time. There are many sub-genres for Suspense / Thriller. Medical, legal, financial, spy, supernatural…the list goes on and on.

These novels are your quintessential page-turners. They are fast paced, and while they do not need to be devoid of rich descriptions of people and places, they typically contain more action and dialogue than lyrical prose. It’s all a part of the pacing. In a thriller, you don’t stop to sniff the daisies- they will either poison you, or you’ll get shot because you stopped moving.

The plot is the key driver, and the challenge to the writer is to know what to reveal and when. Tell too much at the beginning, and you kill the suspense. Wait too long, and you fail to generate suspense in the first place. Too much non-stop action and the reader gets exhausted. Balance is paramount.

There are several things to be cautious of when writing in this genre:

Unappealing characters. If your protagonist is in a race against time to save his life, you’d better be sure your readers want him to live!

Slow Pace. This story needs to move. White knuckles gripping the edge of the book. Page corners torn because they were turned with such fervor. Eyes red because “one more chapter” turned into five more chapters and your readers were up to the wee hours of the night.

Dues Ex Machina. This is an ending where the protagonist is saved at the last minute by something that did not exist in the story beforehand. Don’t do it. Ever.

Predictability. This challenge is for the established author, who is on Medical Thriller Number Seven and is really just retelling Number Four, but with the Protagonist from Number Three and the Antagonist from Number Five. Oh, and the twist is from Number Two. The reader has it all pegged at the end of Chapter One.

Flat writing. This is a pitfall for all writers, really. Genre fiction should be written as well as literary fiction. Symbolism, high concept themes, and characters with layers can all be incorporated into a good thriller.

Suggested Reading

Harlan Coben- TELL NO ONE, GONE FOR GOOD are two of my favorites. His plotting it top notch, and his endings have plausible twists.

John Grisham- THE RAINMAKER. Witty prose, endearing characters, and a very realistic story.

Tom Clancy- WITHOUT REMORSE. This is a tale of vengeance that Dirty Harry would be proud of. You want the bad guys to get it. And do they ever.

Tess Hilmo on Middle Grade Books

This week The Literary Lab presents a series of guest posts exploring the conventions of different genres and what writers love and loath about each of them. We're continuing with Tess Hilmo on...

What is Middle Grade?

It’s probably easiest to start with a list of some popular middle grade books. These include

The Giver City of Ember

Spiderwick Chronicles

Harry Potter Artemis Fowl

The Graveyard Book

Island of the Blue Dolphins

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys

Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events

The Tale of Despereaux

FableHaven series

Just to name a few.

The best part about Middle Grade is that it encompasses many genres….fantasy, science fiction, literary, humorous, action adventure, mystery, even basic romance.

There are exceptions to every rule, but some distinguishing features of Middle Grade include:

Age of Protagonist – Middle grade fiction is aimed at children ages 8-13, so the protagonist is usually around the 12-13 age range.

Subject Matter – You’ll find stories of death/illness, relationships, divorce - even murder within the covers of a middle grade book. Typically, scenes are less graphic and more skewed for the appropriateness of the intended reader.

Word Count – At one time, Middle Grade books had lower word counts. That is no longer the case. Some of the fantasy series are up in the 400 page range and kids still gobble them up! I was asking an editor about this very thing a couple of years ago at a conference, and she said that younger middle grade stories still fall in the 30-50k range. Older middle grade runs the gamut.

Language – you won’t find much swearing in Middle Grade as a rule.

Tess’ Soapbox Moment

Middle Grade books require the author to provide the same quality of writing as other novels. Those of us who desire to write successful MG novels still pay attention to issues of characterization, plot, atmosphere, dialogue, etc. There are fantastic and beautifully written MG books and there are lousy ones – just as with any other genre. Personally, when I think of a great MG book, I think of one that child and parent would both enjoy reading.

How awards distinguish Picture Book, Middle Grade and Young Adult literature:

The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the ‘best’ picture book each year.

The Newbery: Oh, the precious Newbery. Every Middle Grade author dreams about it (at least this one does!). Started in 1922 and named after John Newbery, a publisher, it is generally awarded to one of the top Middle Grade novels every year. Newbery Honors are also given each year.

The Printz Award is specifically for YA. Young Adult literature usually has an older protagonist, more serious themes, more opportunity for language, sex, etc… I’ll let another writer tackle this subject as I am no expert!

Tara Maya on Epic Fantasy

This week The Literary Lab presents a series of guest posts exploring the conventions of different genres and what writers love and loath about each of them. We're starting off with Tara Maya on...

Fiction is brain food.

Different parts of our brain crave different flavors of fiction. We label these flavors genre. It's common to say that genres are the invention of Marketing, and perhaps this is true, but then the same could be said of the deli and the bakery sections of the supermarket. Different aisles are set aside for meats and breads because the differences between these kinds of foods are real; the same is true of brain food.

Some writers can't stand genre restrictions. Fine -- this is what goulash is for.

I like genres. I'm curious to know why there are certain flavors. I, for instance, write epic fantasy. But why is fantasy pleasing to some palettes (and not to others)? Why is it often dismissed as adolescent wish-fulfillment (and is there any truth to the allegation)? I think the key to finding out involves asking what part of the brain craves the nourishment of epic fantasy.

The roots of fantasy are in the fairytales, legends and epic sagas which are found in all cultures all over the world. On the surface, fairytales look much like religious stories, in that both involve strange, miraculous events, unusual people, sometimes even gods. But there is a difference. Religious beliefs are held to be true by the communities which propagate them (even if outsiders may call those same stories "myths" or "superstitions.") Fairytales are not believed even by the people who tell them, no matter how "primitive" the people may be. In a sense, fantasy is THE oldest form of fiction.

Clearly, the appeal to the brain of ordinary objects doing impossible things (flying rugs, pumpkin coaches), people who shift shape (swan maidens, wolf men) and heroes who battle monsters is quite strong. Modern fantasy shares all of these tropes with ancient fairytales.

Perhaps the closest to modern fairytales is Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, which presents the "real" world, with the slight addition of a surreal element. The appeal of Twilight may be that it is a modern fairytale, pure and simple. (Sorry, no layers! But does Cinderella need layers?)

I would like to suggest, however, that epic fantasy goes beyond modern fairytales. There is another layer.

Epic fantasy draws on sagas and histories and even anthropologies of other cultures. Masters of the field, such as Tolkien and Lewis, were actually medievalists who had read many of these works (in their original tongues, no less). Tolkien, for instance, studied Beowulf, the Norse sagas Volsunga, Hervarar and Edda, the Finnish Kalevala, and of course, the German cycle of the Nibelungenlied (of Wagnerian magic ring fame).

However, in creating an entire world with its own mythology (which, in this imagined world is not a fairytale but a history), the epic fantasy writer is actually demanding more of the reader than to imagine a single fantastic element in the otherwise ordinary world. The epic fantasy actually demands that the reader consent to becoming an anthropologist or historian of an imagined world. The reason so many epic fantasies portray quests is because the travel structure enables the reader to explore the world, just as a visitor to a new country would; likewise, the reason so many fantasies involve kings and knights fighting great wars is because this is precisely what tends to go down in the annals of real histories. Why do fantasies insist on polysyllabic names, which begin with "Xh-" and include apostrophes and umlauts? Because foreign and ancient tongues are strange and difficult to pronounce, yet exotic, beautiful and ultimately logical in their own way.

Crack open a fantasy book, and you will be asked—with greater or lesser graciousness, depending on the skill of the writer—to pronounce odd names, learn a specialized vocabulary, remember convoluted genealogies, appreciate arcane details such as how dwarven armor differs from elvish armor, envision the anatomy of impossible zoologies and unravel byzantium magical systems. It’s uncomfortable at first, even for experienced fantasy readers.

I think this discomfort is deliberate. For fantasy readers, it is -- ironically -- indispensable to the pleasure of the genre. One of the primary rewards of fantasy is the same reward we get when we travel to a new and totally strange culture. In other words, it's a whole genre devoted to recreating Culture Shock.

There's an old saying attributed to some Great One in The Field that "the Golden Age of Science Fiction is twelve." (Amusing discussion found here.)

Many more people read fantasy and science when they are young than latter in life. This has always puzzled (and annoyed) writers in the genre, who obviously represent the few social nimwits who didn't outgrow the phase. My theory is that children and adolescents are naturally more adept at exploring new cultures. Adolescence is a time when new cultures, including new names, new vocabularies, are tried on and discarded again in quick succession. Most people will tire of this fairly quickly, and move on to other genres. The remainder will be cursed to read, and maybe write, fantasy.

This may also be the reason much fantasy is (considered) puerile. If the last time one read a fantasy, one was twelve, one will have only have taken from the story what a twelve year old would. (Those whose only experience of literary fiction is what they were forced to read in school have a similar problem). And, of course, much of the genre is written for twelve-year olds. There's nothing wrong with this. I love to visit Narnia and Hogwarts. There is also such a thing as fantasy written for adults however, although even this is often mistakenly foisted on children. For instance, I read The Last Unicorn in Middle School, and didn't much care for it, except I liked the cartoon version of the unicorn girl, because she was pretty and angsty. Not until many years later did I re-read the classic and realize it wasn't a children's story at all, nor a coming-of-age story as so many epic fantasies are, but a coming-of-middle-age story. I enjoyed it much more on the second reading.

When I write fantasy, my goal is to keep all the mind candy: the shape shifters, the absurd battles against outrageous monsters, the unbelievable coincidence that the hero is really the heir to the lost throne and the only one who can save the world. I also try to build a world with bizarre names, strange foods, customs, clothing and attitudes, to induce culture shock in my reader, followed... if I am ever successful... by the odd sense, known to any sojourner in a strange land, that the new culture has over time become the more familiar, and it is our world, mundania, which gives us culture shock when we close the book.