In an article for Writer’s Digest, Michael Woodson discusses literary fiction as a writing style, what makes it unique, and how studying it can help writers of all genres. “In my experience, contemporary literary fiction is a creative and unique writing style coming from a truly diverse range of writers where all the rules get to be broken,” he says. “Literary fiction can be any genre and should be for the masses, because at the heart of every work of literary fiction is the human experience.”
Literary fiction isn’t really a genre, but a category. Generally, it focuses on style, character, and theme, rather than plot. It can but does not need to incorporate genre tropes and genre expectations. Margaret Atwood has famously said she doesn’t write science fiction, though readers who are only familiar with The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake would beg to differ.
Literary fiction often has a slower pace, with conflicts arising from internal factors. A literary novel’s plot might meander and its ending might not feel so tidy. Unlike genre fiction, in which readers can expect certain tropes and structures, a literary novel can do whatever it likes. A murder will be solved in a mystery novel, but in a literary novel, who knows? However, this can also make life more difficult for the writer, as there are no agreed-upon formats or structures for a literary novel.
“For me, this is part of the joy of literary fiction,” Woodson says. “Literary fiction can and does employ elements of genre fiction but gets to go in its own direction with it. You might think you’re reading a romance, and then something truly shocking happens that changes the course of the book and changes your perception of what you’re reading.”
While literary fiction has a reputation for being too serious, this isn’t the case. Literary novels can be funny, suspenseful, shocking, and uplifting. “It’s not about subject matter, it’s about writing style,” Woodson says.
