Am I writing LitFic? What IS LitFic, anyway? Ask here.

So are you wanting to know if you're writing LitFic and looking around for a corner of the room to hunker down in, but are nervous if you're really home? Ask here!

This is a judgment free thread to ask folks who are writing LitFic if they think you're writing LitFic. Responders are encouraged to be nice, and if something doesn't quite sound LitFicish, point them in the right direction.

Also use this thread to discuss what exactly LitFic Is, to you.

I -think- I'm writing something like LitFic - at the very least, a blend of LitFic and ChickLit, with some drama and romance dashed in.

My story is mostly character driven, with my FMC recounting her life in first person from her childhood to her adulthood. Kind of in the same vein as She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb. I have no idea what that novel is considered either, but it gave me the jump-off idea to do some super character exploration.

I might be writing LitFic, but I am unsure.

My story is character driven, with few exceptions. It's about a young girl whose life has taken an unexpected turn, and she's about to spiral into depression when she meets a young boy who is much like her young self, so she decides to take him under her wings. The story is mostly about the FMC who fights with her demons from the past and present, and about the boy who is teacher her a lot about life.

It's either LitFic or YA, I think?

I feel like my NaNo plans mesh a lot of genres, but LitFic sounds like it might fit the most...?

It'll focus mostly on a handful of characters and their journey across country, though the setting is an alternate-present version of America (where, instead of refuting the 2012 theory, scientists confirmed it-- humanity was basically given one year to live, anarchy descended, etc). Character A is confronting her atheism, her perhaps wasted life until this point, and whether or not to lose her virginity before the world dies. Character B is reflecting on what could have been and trying to knock some things off hastily-put-together bucket list of sorts, while also trying to take care of a pregnant woman she picked up along the way. Character A will also be traveling with Character C, who probably has social anxiety and depression, but who in the face of certain death is discovering that he really, really doesn't want to die. They're all getting together to watch the world end and smoke a lot of pot.

I generally lean towards allegorical fantasy and magical realism in my short stories (this is my first year trying nanowrimo). I thought I'd push myself and try a hard realist novel, with a romantic main plot, but my planning is all allegorical and character based; it's become a re-telling of some of the myths of Diana, combining Acteon and the Rex Nemorensis. The feelings of the main characters are planned go through the stages of Alchemical transformation. And the plot notes are mostly "They argue for 5k words."
I guess I'll see when it's written. I don't think I'd be able to sell it as romance, though.

Mine is LitFic with a historical setting. I guess literary historical fiction would cover it? it's less about history and mire about the characters that history can provide me with, if that makes sense?

I honestly have no idea. But I think LitFic fits. Why?

The lack of actual plot. The focus on the characters. The conflict being other people, society, and the majority of it being purely internal. The fact that my outline says more often than not, "And then she ponders about this for a bit," before going onto the next scene.

However, it also could be classified as YA. Somebody said once YA LitFic would be a hard one to do, but I don't think I quite agree. At least, maybe it's hard but it is do-able, right? Once in a while, I'll think ,"Well maybe I'm mainstream fiction after all."

... it takes about two seconds to really throw that idea into the trash can. It just doesn't contain typical stuff. Maybe the set-up seems that way, but the actual story doesn't (looking at my wonderful shiny outline). Maybe I'm in my own genre of "other".

Okay, I'll be the first to ask...what *IS* LitFic??? I've been a permanent dweller of "fantasy" for the past 4 years, and am now delving into something new. When told to pick my genre, I scrolled down to find "fiction" and discovered that fiction is divided into more than just "realistic fiction" and "fantasy".

What are the differences between all these new genres??? LitFic? Mainstream?

Um, I'm wondering if I might belong here. I'm not sure I'd fit into Romance because altho things settle down to being relatively happy at the end, it's still complicated and it's definitely not a classic happy ending. Copying and pasting the clumsy summary I managed to come up with for my profile:

"What happens when soulmates meet too late?

A young woman returns to her family in liberated Paris, proud of having done the right thing by her country, but she soon discovers the price she has paid.

Her brother-in-law, who she only saw once previously in an exhausted stupor at his wedding to her sister, turns out to be the only man she wants, and their love proves to be too strong to resist.

In the end, the family discovers that it is possible to adapt when life is not a fairytale, and that there is more than one kind of love."

As my fellows up there, I have no idea what genre I am in but I -think- it's litfic. Or fantasy. Or religious. I don't know.

My story in a couple of words: Remastered native american tales in the point of view of the spirit of madness.

I'd go in fantasy just with this but the thing is, I don't have a protagonist (or I have many, as my MC just walk around and watch others' stories unfold), I don't have an antagonist (appart from things like madness, fears or the whole world, if you look close enough) and I don't have a plot. Well, the very base of a bunch of tales but actions are more of a subplot. The closest I have from a plot is ''madness watches things happen and has mental struggles about them''.

So; I'd say fantasy because there's fantasy-ish spirits. I'd say religious because it's on Native american tales/religion. And I'd say literary for everything else.

Is there a kind soul somewhere who could help a newbie? Please? And thanks in advance!

I'm pretty much in the same boat as everyone else here. I'm not sure where mine should go. I feel it's too complex to call a romance because it doesn't really focus on the relationship itself.

It's about two people who are connected at birth via an invisible thread. Lucas and Jade. This thread allows them to talk to each other and through it they help each other with their problems. Lucas is the male foster kid who, being the typical teenager, feels like the world hates him. Jade's family used to live in a small down and had a humble sum of money, but through business her father has gotten rich. He's always busy and never seems to have any time for Jade. Eventually the link they have goes public and they are thrown into a world of fame. A world they don't want to be in. They do fall in love but the focus is more on their family problems rather than them falling in love.

Like many of you, I struggle with how to define literary fiction. It is quite the slippery little beast; however, I tend to think of it as modernism and post-modernism, because of my specific background and training. This of course does not account for the vast array of things that fit into literary fiction, but I think they tend to do some very specific things that are generally recognized as literary. I do not think, like anything written, there is a general definition for what is literature and what is not.

I want to recommend a fantastic text by Terry Eagleton called "Literary Theory: An Introduction," where the introductory essay grapples with this question of what is literature (and as such, what is literary). I believe you can find a large portion of the text on Google Books.

I am of the mind that if you think what you are writing is literary fiction then it just might be.

I believe I'm squarely in LitFic. My story is a woman's recounting of how she remembers her mother and her childhood. There's no plot, everything just jumps about and goes where it wants.

I think I am LitFic...as I am unsure where else I would put my upcoming 50K.

I'm going to write about someone who goes back to where he grew up, to find out what happened to a "friend" he once knew. Character driven for sure. Then again, this is the 1st time I have ever tried writing anything really. 1st time Wrimo person here...likely I am over my head...but then again, my mantra in life has always been, "why let common sense get in your way of things."

I first classified my novel as a suspense/thriller, but now I've reclassified it as a LitFic. It's both, really. I'm not sure how orthodox it is to combine LitFic with action and suspense; but hey, when was LitFic ever orthodox?

It does have a lot of excitement going on, and probably a bit more of a plot than most LitFic has. But the focus is still on the characters, their psychological development and growth, and their reaction to the events more than the events themselves.

I think I fit comfortably into LitFic, but I'm knee-deep in mainstream too. I think of LitFic as something like 'Catcher in the Rye' - something that wouldn't fit comfortably into YA? Please be the judge. :)

'The Society of Broken Nails.' (Third Person)
A 13-year-old boy is told that he will be attending summer school for the first time. I'm intending to portray the boy as a sexless boy that is thrown into the summer school by his parents that fear he is homosexual. I hope to undertake a study of gender-based stereotypes through a boy that is watched, studied and dissected by the camp's staff. Once he comprehends why he is at the camp, the boy will join the society of broken nails with other boys, which will come to question their sexuality, sexuality within science, and then the worth of such studies within existence itself.

I see literary fiction as anything set in a realistic perspective of a modern/post modern setting that focuses on the ideological development of it's time. I'm writing about a child that could be homosexual that discovers for himself what it is to be homosexual, which leads him to analyze society and existence. LitFic SEEMS to fit, but I'm also on the cusp of mainstream.

I'm writing about a society where the green space is very limited and the way the main character has adapted to it. There's a tiny bit of a plot/reversal where he's forced to go against the rules that society has established to accomplish a certain task. Major themes are creation & destruction, death & rebirth.

So is this LitFic? Or is it too mainstream?

I think the novel that I am mulling over at the moment (the same one that I will be attempting for NaNoWriMo) may be LitFic...possibly?

It's about a homosexual man in his early twenties. It's based in the eighties, and it's about his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality, and the journey of emotions that he embarks on when he meets his potential first love.

@DanWells, it sounds as though we are working with similar themes, it will be interesting to see what we come up with :)

Would this qualify as LitFic?

So far my plan for the book seems to be a fictionalized memoir of my life based on the hardships of growing up possibly mixed in with some historical fiction also based on my heritage to add a little breather to the books harsher scenes.

I'm not sure if what I'm planning on writing is Mainstream of LitFic. But that's what this thread is for, isn't it? :D

I plan to write about a group of four college theater students on a Neil Gaimain-themed road trip who get in a crash and end up stranded in the tiny town of Lebanon, Kansas, where the MC's estranged father lives. I want to explore concepts of fate and destiny a bit, but what I really want to focus on is exploring the relationships between the characters and how they change and grow. Most obvious is the relationship between the MC and his father, but I'm not planning on that one relationship overshadowing what's going on with the rest of the cast. I'm not even sure if the MC is really the MC. More than anything, it's about the characters, and that's what has me thinking LitFic, but who knows.