Am I writing LitFic? What IS LitFic, anyway? Ask here. http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687 Dragonchilde 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. Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:07:36 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1324 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1324 burningviolas I'm pretty sure I'm about smack halfway between LitFic and Mainstream. My story, The Astrologist, is definitely plot driven- it's about two women who work in a casino and their struggles to find their place in a male-dominated work environment, without sacrificing themselves in the process. But I'm going to use a funky narrative style- one woman is a clairvoyant, and can read everyone's thoughts. And I'll be addressing a lot of feminist issues. I guess what will ultimately decide it is the writing style, which I won't discover until I start writing. But any help would be appreciated! If you have any questions, please ask. I may end up hanging around this forum either way- after all, the help I'm going to need will most likely be related to "higher" issues like characterization and themes- I've already got the plot mapped out. Also, this forum tends to be much busier! Thanks, everyone! -Alejandra Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:32:48 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_2037 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_2037 Miriya S. 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:05:54 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_3540 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_3540 muffinsplanned 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? Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:46:47 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_3885 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_3885 hukdonfonikswrkz 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:38:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_5216 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_5216 Anarcharnate 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:08:38 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_5511 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_5511 Raquelin Why can't it be literary YA? Let me tell you, that was always my favorite thing to read as a kid. I got really tired of everyone having super cool adventures all the time, and really settled into a niche of slice-of-life or coming-of-age fiction. That frequently involved horses or dragons, true, but hey. It's still my favorite to read. :) Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:24:53 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_5679 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_5679 K-A-W 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? Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:24:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_6436 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_6436 Bewitched.Rhapsody 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". Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:45:53 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_7703 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_7703 bethybnny 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? Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:32:00 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_13764 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_13764 redheart7 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." Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:35:44 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_13818 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_13818 Wisagii-Mahigan 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! Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:37:51 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_13862 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_13862 Raquelin Why can't YA be litfic? "If you can't write it for adults, or if it will be too hard, write it for children." (Or something like that.) Honestly, most of my litfic endeavors lately have landed squarely in YA. Given, it's not a <em>nice</em> YA... definitely not the current fad of soft-core romance. But still. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:49:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_14044 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_14044 ALAdams 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:29:24 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_15837 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_15837 twiggilala 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:41:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_16076 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_16076 MissFluffy 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:57:40 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_16397 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_16397 ghk1962 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." Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:09:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_18992 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_18992 Amaikokonut I'm in the same boat; all I ever write is fantasy, and this year I'm trying specifically to not write fantasy in some attempt to broaden my horizons, but now I have absolutely no clue what genre I'm in. Wikipedia states as such: "The term is principally used to distinguish "serious fiction" which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, in comparison from genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon style, psychological depth, and character. This is in contrast to Mainstream commercial fiction, which focuses more on narrative and plot." Maybe that will help a little. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:45:29 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_19719 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_19719 minionygoodness 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:08:15 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_20167 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_20167 DanWells11 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. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:09:38 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_20197 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_20197 inpariswithyou Pigeonholing into a genre is so hard! My story, as you'll see if you go to my NaNo profile, takes place on a world very unlike our own, although the civilization is modeled after ancient Egypt. There's no magic, but it's a story about religion and various gods that are not our own. The reason I ultimately decided upon 'literary fiction" has to do with themes: my story is pretty heavy, meditating on the various forms of slavery, on the ways we handle world-shattering discoveries, and on desire. So it's definitely not mainstream. But without magic, I feel strange calling it fantasy. So I basically slip it into literary fiction since it doesn't really fit anywhere else. Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:12:56 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_20275 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_20275 cmk418 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 &amp; destruction, death &amp; rebirth. So is this LitFic? Or is it too mainstream? Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:02:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_21232 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_21232 Natascha Scrivener 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 :) Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:54:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_24899 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_24899 DanWells11 I haven't decided which time frame to set the story in (picture frame psych visits, revisiting life from the 80's or present day child hood) but the 80's was a strong possibility! I'd love to keep up with the development of your plot and share progress :) Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:15:04 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_28655 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_28655 Miss Katelynne I feel like I'm on the cusp between LitFic and ChickLit as well. My book is about two sisters who have been estranged, until one of them finds out she is dying. They go on a road trip together and along the way one of them falls in love with another passenger they've brought with them. While it has the romance aspect, it's as much about the relationship and the trip and the fact that one of them is facing their own mortality. Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:35:49 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_29735 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_29735 so_new_at_this 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. Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:22:25 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_30350 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_30350 paradoxotaur 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. Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:49:05 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_31755 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_31755 Miss Katelynne After reading everything here and reading the difference between Literary and Mainstream Fiction, I think my genre is Mainstream. Thank you and good luck on your novels, everyone! Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:54:21 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_33685 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_33685 bethybnny Yes, it does! Thank you! I DEFINITELY fit here! Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:17:01 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_36829 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_36829 kitandkat I think mine is lit fic, with a bit of romance and mainstream thrown in... I'm leaning towards lit fic though just because I don't really have a plot. haha Also, the main idea for the novel has always been based around a theme. I just had a conversation with one of my non-writer friends about my thematic goals for the novel maybe a month ago and she just kind-of stared at me... It was originally going to be literary YA, but it kind-of grew a lot on me, and now I think it's going to end up being too old (re: the characters' ages) for YA. There's a new genre/category called "New Adult" and that's where mine fits in I think because it's about the main character's life from 18-28ish. I tend to stalk YA because I can't give it up... I love that genre! I also read the romance section a lot for ideas. So anyway, my book is basically about one girl's life, Cate, and kind-of her journey from teen to adult, I guess. My original goal for this character (originally from one of my other NaNo novels and then she demanded her own book) was to explore what it meant to be a teen with a serious illness. I read tons of books with a child or teen character who has a serious illness (usually leukemia) but then it turns out the book is really about their effect on the other characters, not their own life. I think I'm going to end up writing my senior thesis on this, actually. So anyway, as a person who has also had numerous medical problems, I want to read about that character's life. Not how inspirational they were to the others or whatever. Cate's based on a real person I knew briefly who had leukemia (so yeah... I have to use the stereotype), personality-wise. I just found this girl (the real one) so intriguing because we had a lot of similar experiences but we had totally different outlooks on them. So then I started thinking about why she would have the attitude she did have... for example, why was she mad at God when I was totally at peace with my religion? Stuff like that. Obviously, I liked the character, so now the theme is exploring the identity of a teen/young adult with a serious illness. Ha. Attempting a synopsis: Cate has a form of chronic leukemia that is being controlled by drugs, allowing her to live a relatively normal life. As she moves into adult life, the disease she thought she left behind at eleven still haunts her. Things start spiraling down when she and her best friend start dating on their senior year sailing trip - and then he dumps her because it suddenly dawns on him that she could die if her disease became uncontrollable [yeah, nice one]. Cate puts all her energy into her figure skating career when she returns home, delaying her entrance to college so she can catch up on the preparation time she missed on the trip. Once she starts school, she's faced with the normal freshman problems and a complicated friendship/frenemy, not to mention the pressure to win Nationals and receive a spot on the Olympic team. Cate eventually applies to medical school, where she gets the surprise of her life: her enemy/former best friend/ex boyfriend lives in the same city. And he wants to reconnect. Yay drama!! Without giving anything away future plots include complications from her leukemia treatments, dealing with infertility, intern year, etc. Basically, I have a lot of small plots, but there's no one running plot besides Cate growing into herself and learning to live as a person with a chronic medical condition and occasionally acute illness. Lit fic? I still don't know, could be mainstream... I guess I could see it being marketed either way... Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:19:30 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_37719 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_37719 -Neurion- The best way to describe my plot is that it is a combination of "Up in the Air," "Catch Me if You Can," and "The Bucket List." Put those three movies together, and you have my novel. Am I writing LitFic? Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:37:07 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_37949 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_37949 Noelle_Winters I don't even know how to define my novel. I'm not sure if I have the right idea of lit fic (though, ironically I have a BA in English, lol.) My idea of lit fic is that it is a label that kind of goes on top of any other genre. ANY genre of novel or story can also be a lit-fic. I think every genre has the potential to explore deep themes and have character-driven plot. Even this late into October, I'm deciding between writing a loosely-based fanfic or just transforming it into my own original piece (I will do that someday either way, I'm just deciding what to do for November.) As a fanfic, its actually a deep psychological profile of one of my characters and an exploration of her role in society, which is really meant to be given as backstory for the rest of my fanfics. However, I've grown to love my character and plot so much (and gotten so much positive feed back on it) that I'm thinking about not even tying it to the fandom and just making it its on stand-alone story. As for the story itself, it is set in a fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal setting. It is told from the perspective of a girl that was abducted and forced to become a military member. It is heavily character driven and focuses on the themes of loss of childhood and society forcing someone to conform to a mold that does not fit them. When she cannot reconcile who she is with what others are trying to force her to be, she plummets into despair and insanity as she eventually loses her identity and becomes a killer. It also touches on the theme of whether the ends do justify the means. She is turned into a killer in order to prevent evil from spreading, but the novel questions whether it was they that have created a greater evil. Not only is this debate given by the perspectives of two other characters, one who laments what their society has become, and another who justifies it by stressing the absolute importance of victory, the child herself becomes shattered into three different personalities as part of her insanity, one of them dying as she succumbs to her training. I personally find it to be allegorical to our society today, and the fight against those who seek to suppress the identity of others they don't agree with, and the personal tragedy it is to be forced to live a life that is not your own. At the end of the book she is a blood-thirsty, crazed, insane warrior, but she finds a little spark of hope when she discovers one of her sisters is slated for the same fate as her, and she takes her away and tries to raise her, trying to become mentally better in order to give her sister a good childhood. However, the rest of her journey to personal recovery is chronicled in the rest of the fanfic novels I have planned, if she can recover at all. So yeah. Fanfic? Lit Fic? Sci-Fi? Fantasy? Who knows, lol. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:06:18 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_39119 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_39119 Stark_Raven_Mad This is the big 'I'm not sure what this is' question..... The main story is about two friends taking a winter road trip across the U.S. and dealing with the memories of a fire that tore their lives apart a couple of years before. One girl wants to move on and forget about the past, even though her brother died in the fire, the other (our narrator) is obsessed with the memories, constantly going over it in her mind and trying not to blame her friend but ultimately coming to the conclusion that it is her friends fault. She come to resent her friend more and more over the course of the trip, and takes it out on her silently, by doing petty things like throwing out her toothbrush 'on accident'and spilling drinks on her lap. It begins to get worse, and it becomes clear that our narrator is not in a healthy state of mind when she begins to have dreams in which she takes more violent action against her 'friend'. Ultimately, after much arguments, getting snowed in a book store overnight with some odd characters, and reaching New York, it's revealed that the narrator is not the girl we think she is. In fact she is her friend, and the person we thought she was died in the fire. She was on the road trip by herself the whole time. At the end she realizes her 'insanity' and comes to terms with the past a bit. She decides she wants to open a bookstore someday but first she wants to travel the world- alone. There's a lot more going on in the story character-wise, a lot to do with the dependence of the main character on her parents although she is 19 and quite a bit about figuring out where you fit in the world after you find you don't fit at 'home' anymore. I think this may be literary, due to the emphasis on character, but I've never written anything other than YA fantasy before so I'm not sure. ps. sorry about the massive block of text. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:19:40 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_39747 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_39747 howl_owl I have no idea if my story is mainstream or if it's LitFic. Here's my synopsis - "Florence is a quirky and socially awkward girl and she's the total opposite of her sister, something which her mother hate. Being the outcast of the family, Florence has found refuge in a quaint little café, named The Crystal Owl, where she has found a little spot in the makeshift family that the owner, Mr. August, has "collected" over the years. While working at the café, Florence starts to create different stories for the customers that she encounters. Regulars as well as new customers." I have it as LitFic on my user page as I emphasize on on the different characters, however I'm still not sure.... HELP PLEASE Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:30:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_43496 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_43496 not-a-damsel-in-distress I have no idea if this is LitFic or Mainstream or what, but, hey, no time like the present to find out, right? Right. Basically, the MC "falls down the rabbit hole", so to speak, and ends up in a different world of words. Basically, it's quite Alice in Wonderland-esque, but also more focused on the characters in the fantastical world and of course, the relationships the MC develops with them. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:06:52 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_55530 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_55530 keystrokegraffiti Sounds like we are writing in the same sort of light. My story is going to be about two old men recounting their memories of serving in WWII. Glad to know some people share the idea :) Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:36:09 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_55702 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_55702 K-A-W I didn't think literary fiction was a genre in itself, more a style of writing. It could encompass any genre but the way you tackle it makes it literary fiction. For example, anything by Phillipa Gregory is historical romance but Wolf Hall by Hilllary Mantel is literary fiction. Twilight is YA vampire romance, Interview with a Vampire is literary fiction. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:25:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_57058 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_57058 Jake JD Just an FYI, "astrologist" is a term that is not used. The correct term is "astrologer." I've never heard it any other way (and I am one!). Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:46:38 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_58421 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_58421 RionaDaidouji I think I might be LitFic this year. It's about a set of twins who become alienated from one another after an awkard moment bordering on incest. It follows them through their lives as they learn to forgive and forget, and eventually move on. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:08:49 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_61670 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_61670 parvaregina I think my story might be LitFic, if only because not enough happens for it to be regular crime fiction. It's about a young woman whose father is a serial killer who used her to lure in victims when she was a child. After she called the cops on his last intended victim and sent him to prison, she was put into foster care, convinced she wouldn't see either of them again. Eight years later, she's going to college and runs into the boy her father almost killed. They then proceed to sort-of fall in love, all while trying to cope with their past trauma and the guilt they both have associated with each other. It's more of a story about victims of crime and how they're treated than anything where anything exiting happens. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:22:38 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_65851 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_65851 tally1302 Me three! I think what I'm writing is still considered sci-fi but it only takes place 20 years in the future and all the science fiction elements are things that are really starting to happen already (wired homes etc). I want the focus to be less on the shiny gadgets and more on where we'll be as a people in 20 years, is it still sci-fi? Or is it some weird lit fic sci-fi hybrid? I'd love to know. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:00:58 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_71046 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_71046 tally1302 Yea that's kind of like my situation, except with sci-fi rather than fantasy. There aren't aliens or anything that isn't a few years away from being reality, so is it still sci-fi? :\ Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:04:45 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_71087 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_71087 Milla Berlin I would definitely classify this as lit fic. Your story sounds great! I would love to read something like this. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:53:36 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_73006 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_73006 Rowan-in-ruins I don't think lit fic has to be focused on character or on psychological depth; it could also be focused, for example, on style: perhaps on an unusual way of structuring a story. In a sense, it's defined by what it isn't: it's not a straightforward, plot-driven narrative. I also think lit fic is a natural home for a novel that doesn't quite fit into another genre. My first NaNo was a fantasy. One of the main characters was a faerie, I think. (I never made it explicit, because I wanted to leave some uncertainty about exactly what was going on.) And there were some other fantasy elements, and connections with certain myths. But I was never happy with anything that would take it into one of the big plots that normally goes with that genre. And in the Fantasy forum, there was lots of good stuff, but most of it wasn't very relevant to what I was doing. It was only when I looked in the Lit Fic forum, and realised it could be considered a lit fic fantasy, that I felt at home. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:46:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_74306 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_74306 izzyapayne Hey guys, So, I had a post similar to this in the 'Other Genres' forum asking what genre my story is and I'm starting to think it's a LitFic. Please tell me if I'm dead wrong. Anyway the basic premise is: a group of people from different eras and cultures live on a ship in an alternate universe called 'the lost shore' and are forced to deal and cope with their differences while trying to find their way home. There isn't really a main plot so to speak but a sequence of major (sometimes life altering) events swaying the opinions and beliefs of many of the characters on board. Is this LitFic? If it is, I'd love to join the club. If not, no hard feelings and I'll keep hanging out in the 'Others Genres' forum. Izzy Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:10:21 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_77844 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_77844 Robjames112 I will try and keep a quick synopsis here (I usually write genre fiction but this is by far not genre fiction and mostly character driven): A polyamorous couple loses their third to a car accident, and their privacy. After their lifestyle choice is made public, family, friends, employers, and their community connections are tested. Eventually the wife loses a battle with cancer and the husband must come to terms with being alone in a community that's made him a pariah except for a few close friends. Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:08:37 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_78376 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_78376 Aunt_Dew I am planning on writing a story set in a sort of alternative history, though socially it will be similar to the Regency period. It is about two young women who both end up marrying men they hardly know, one of them to the current king of the made up country, and the other to one of his advisors. The focus of my story will be the relationship between the two women, and their respective husbands, especially within the political pressures they are facing. Also, one of the women will commit a murder, and I want to explore her motivation and also the reaction of the other characters to a woman murdering someone. Does this sound like it fits into LitFic? Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:28:19 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_79913 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_79913 chowchowgrl Miss Katelynne, I'm already interested in your story! How old are they? Who's the other passenger? Hurry up and write it, I want to read it! Lots of juicy meat for plot and character development! Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:34:49 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_79936 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_79936 Lonaneomaflame I have no idea if this is LitFic or not, but here's what I think I'll be writing about. A teen age girl who find out she is pregnant and then some time during the pregnancy she loses her baby. (so not fantasy) In all of my stories my main character has a lot (often to much or so I'm told) of internal ramblings even in the ones that I wanted to be about the magic around them and their cool abilities ect and they normally end up with all that cool stuff I created in the world going to the back burner. My descriptions are normally the main character stating how much he/she likes or doesn't like something and why. And my English teachers are always saying "SHOW NOT TELL" and yet I always tell rather then show. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 03:57:36 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_92679 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_92679 Inachis I think LitFic's my calling. Basically, my plot is just a completely random plan to throw two people together, mix them in a huge mess, then do a crazy amount of introspection every chapter. And I quote my synopsis, "Normal people. Normal lives. They meet. They change. Their thoughts." You know, it just works. And I suppose another huge sign that it's at least 33% LitFic is the fact that every single scene description ends with "Show he/she feels ______ about _______." D'you think it fits in LitFic, then? I could give away plot bunnies, but I doubt that would help. It's more of an investigation about how people of different personalities think and react in some cases, so it isn't really plot focused. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:08:18 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_92965 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_92965 MurderDeathKill Silly question.... is it possible for a gunslinger story to be litfic? The story isn't plot driven at all. It's focused on a character who violently embodies passionate pacifism -- if it sounds irrational, that's because she is. Presentation-wise it reads like a series of encounters which challenge and define her notions of right and wrong. Stylistically I shoot for a Cormac McCarthy feel -- stark, honest, brutal, and very real, but with a little less exposition (thinking mainly of Blood Meridian and the Judge's many many speeches). I'm addressing social issues (mostly gun control and war vs. peace, but plenty of others), but my goal isn't to draw any conclusions from any of that.... so.... I've always humored myself by saying, "It's not just gritty action, it's literary." But now I wonder if that's a line that you can even blur in the first place, let alone ask the question of whether or not I'm the one to blur it. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:16:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_97903 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_97903 MurderDeathKill I think the word I'm looking for is "Overtness," not "exposition." Then again spell-checker tells me "overtness" isn't a word, so who knows... Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:17:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_97922 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_97922 MaryJeddoreBlakney An astrologist must be someone who believes in astrologism, right? Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:15:32 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_98670 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_98670 MaryJeddoreBlakney Me too! Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:18:17 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_98701 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_98701 MaryJeddoreBlakney I'm pretty comfortable saying mine is both Literary saga and Science Fiction. The aliens and interplanetary travel are really just part of the setting: the focus is on personal struggles, ethical dilemmas and the concept of cause and effect or Karma. And there are some pretty big chunks of the book that contain no futuristic science at all. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:28:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_98814 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_98814 lindsey1295 I once had a writing professor tell me my work was literary fiction because it "takes itself very seriously." That's the only definition I've ever heard. Any thoughts? Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:04:09 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_101189 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_101189 lindsey1295 p.s. !kudos! to everyone who, unlike me, already has a story idea. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:12:24 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_101291 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_101291 bibliosylph I still think it has a lot to do with style. Not just a particular style, but maybe I mean focus on style. My stories always have plots and a certain amount of action, but I end up choosing literary fiction here because they're really mostly conversation, thought, and humorous (hopefully) examination of this and that, winding up somewhere else from where I started or maybe exactly back where I started. That's the style I'm naturally into, and it eclipses plot points and the action rollercoaster outliney thing by far. In fact, that is why it is very difficult for me to outline, though I like how it helps keep things moving when they wish to get stuck. Outlining conversation and musings is not easy for me. And someone always ends up drunk, and there's always a storm at some point, though I hope I'm not my own cliche, so the idea that I could just do I A 1 2 a b this is when Abigail falls and breaks her ankle but then meets the cute triage nurse, well. It just doesn't work that way in my head. Because I screwed it up already, didn't I? She has to 1. fall down, a) discover her ankle is broken, b) get to the ER before 2. meeting the cute nurse. Meanwhile, I'm still back on the ambulance, talking about whether there are young men who go to barbershops instead of Great Clips these days. Also, I use really big words sometimes, often. ;-) PS: there is no one named Abigail in my story. You can use all that if you want to. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:52:47 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_101754 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_101754 Broreale My idea might be more fantasy than lit-fic, or it might be the other way around. I can't decide yet. (Warning: wall of text) It's about personal will, and the role it plays in the forming of societies from the top-down. It's about international affairs and globalism isolating and marginalizing local and regional affairs. It might be taken a few steps too far (to the point of hyperbole, I think), but the setting and plot I have to go with that theme appeal to me so much that I can't abandon them. And the setting is completely fictional, either set in the far future or in a universe completely separate from our own (I can't decide which right now). The ideas I hope to touch are "weighty", maybe, and because of that I like the idea of operating in a vacuum, completely fictional and devoid of elements which immediately recall something in the real world. So with that in mind, the novel's set in a huge, deceptively featureless plain that constitutes a huge nation's heartland. And recently many people there have decided that they shouldn't have to pay taxes to, deal with laws/regulations by, or look at haughty migrants from the parent nation. So they begin a revolt, which turns into a revolution, which turns brutal. And in the middle are some interesting and charismatic men who get other men to kill each other and themselves for abstract ideas. Some feel the guilt, some don't. Some win, others lose. And the losers lose quite a bit. Is this LitFic? I know it's fantasy; from what I've envisioned there's a ton of fantasy. And possibly some SciFi. it's different from the majority of litfic ideas I see, which are--for the most part--smaller in scope. This baby's going to be pretty broad, though, and "vivid", kinda taking the idea from George R.R. Martin that fantasy doesn't depend on magic and impossibility so much as a world that's more intense than our own. Brighter colors, more mystery, sweeter/fouler tastes in our mouths. But at the heart I want to communicate some serious, relevant messages about what I see in our world, right now. And I want that to stand out (hopefully without any anvils). Whew, sorry for that rant, but I felt there would be some clarification needed before I could ask the question. And I'll ask it again: is this LitFic? Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:21:58 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_104522 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_104522 bibliosylph If you write that, it is. Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:04:04 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_108034 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_108034 PeterNormal I consistanly get the feeling that LitFic means "Books that are better than yours" and therefore I will never write one, but here is the story I am considering: A teen with Asperger's syndrome is stuck in an oppressive fundamentalist psudo-Christian cult, frustrated with the his lack of control, he experiments with drugs and ends up kicked out of school. Eventually he lands in a mental hospital after a therapist asks leading questions about self-harm. There he must work through his issues with trust and his inability to perceive people's true intentions while trying to convince those in group and individual therapy that the emotional stress of what they see as an idyllic life is unbearable to him. Litfic? YA just because it has a 15 year-old MC? Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:22:26 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_112835 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_112835 Jordan9 I'm wrestling between two ideas. One is a fast-paced, historical romp involving aliens (well, a singular alien, slumbering beneath Cuba), zombies, detective-novel tropes, and the Spanish-American War. That is NOT my Lit-Fic idea. ;) My other idear takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. A Catholic priest, suffering from advanced stages of lung and skin cancer from the nuclear war that devastated civilization, walks along the American-Mexican border, wrestling internally with how a just God could utterly obliterate the world. He wonders, among other things, if it is the "Hour of the Lord", and if it is, why is it so different from what the Bible said? Where are the angels with trumpets? As he contends with the scarred landscape, the packs of raiders and rapers wandering the desert, orphaned children forced to commit macabre deeds in order to survive, and his own eminent death, the Priest finds himself falling further and further from not only God and his Church, but from ideas like justice, morality, and coming dangerously close to accepting the notion that human existence might indeed be a meaningless, mathematical anomaly that has simply come to an end. Broreale, It is interesting that you mention GRRM. The Brienne chapters in "A Feast for Crows" are a principal source of inspiration for the idea I shared above. (Along with the novel "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and, I must confess, the current television zombie-drama series, The Walking Dead.) I've never really felt comfortable assigning something as Lit-Fic [i]before[/i] the work is finished, y'know? A lot of Literary Fiction has to do with the "how" of your writing, and not necessarily with the "what." That said, based on your blurb, I think it probably will turn out LitFic, especially if you are shooting for that style of storytelling. Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:27:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_115733 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_115733 KRKristman I usually write YA fantasy, and I rarely finish projects. I know when my friend told me about this and asked if I wanted to do it with her, she assumed I'd use the opportunity to write up one of those stories I already had plotted out, but I realized quickly that it was not at all my intention. I'm working on a story that is almost completely character driven, with very little plot, about a middle aged woman and her relationships with her three daughters; all four are experiencing their own difficulties. I believe this is literary fiction project. I believe I am in over my head. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:48:13 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_120721 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_120721 groundsofbklyn Quick quesion -- is fictionalized memoir LitFic? The Rebel forum says it's not rebellion... so I wonder if it might be LitFic. Here's what I've got. "In September of 2006, I went to college and met a lot of people who would change my life forever. One of them was a girl named Meghan, and when we met, it was as though we had been twins separated at birth -- all the world was our stage and our oyster, and we were inseparable. Junior year, she went abroad, and when she came back senior year, we had gown somewhat apart, but that wasn't all... She got sick. Really sick. She was sick on and off for the next two years, and this past July of 2011, my Meghan decided that her 23-year-old body was too tired from fighting the cancer, and she passed away. I am reeling from this thing called loss, and I reach out in the dark to find comfort. I call her name, and she does not answer. I see her in my dreams, and I race to catch up to her; although she smiles at me, or squeezes my hand, she does not stay for long. She's gone, and I am not so sure that I'm really even still here myself. There are stories that must be told: stories about her, stories not quite about her, stories for my own self. True stories. Sort-of-true stories. Dreams. Wishings. Formal complaints about the fragility of life to be lodged in the cosmic order of things. These are all stories for her, for my twin who was not my sister, but whose heart occupied a space in my own heart and has now left a hole so wide I sometimes wonder if I'll fall into it forever. This is for Meghan." So some of it's true-true, and some is true only in meaning and in imagination. LitFic or no? Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:51:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_124677 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_124677 ndalder I am trying to decide if I belong in LitFic or mainstream. My MC is a counselor to troubled teens. She deals with teens from broken homes and those who have experienced trauma. She has very definite opinions about how kids should be raised, however she herself is not a parent. Through a traumatic event her best friend is murdered, and because there is no family around, she gives the MC custody of her 16 year old daughter. Throughout the story she starts to understand that some of her opinions about parenting were impractical maybe even impossible. So know she is thrown from the role of "favorite aunt" to guardian and she tries to help the 16 year old as she struggles with the changes in their relationship. My story is also plot driven because the 16 year old feels responsible for the death of her mother because of things she was involved in that lead the murder to her house the day her mother died. My plot isn't fully formed yet, but there is definitely character and plot development that move the story forward. What do you guys think? Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:49:09 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_125360 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_125360 sixleaf I've categorized my novel "sci-fi" but I think it's more literary science fiction. Thoughts? The basic idea is that a young woman inherits her father's job: she has to gather together a group of people that will be placed in a government provided fallout shelter in the event of an apocalypse. The novel covers her coming to grips with her father's death and what she has to do, finding and interviewing potential shelter candidates, deciding who of the candidates will actually get a place in the shelter, and finally bringing the people to the shelter when it becomes apparent that the world is going to end. Since it's more about internal struggles and interactions with characters than "ooh look at this alien society/planet/technology/zombies/spaceship!" maybe it's "literary science fiction"? Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:45:35 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_126061 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_126061 jazzi-bear Hmm. The thing about LitFic is that it is all in the writing style. Will you be focusing more on stylistic choices or on plot, movement, etc? The way your summary is written sounds similar to a movie trailer. Books that are easily adapted into movies sell well, but they are more likely to fall under "mainstream" or "chick lit" category. The idea of a soul mate is not exactly common in LitFic. Literary fiction is less dramatic in that way; it has less action, more subtle conflict, and more focus on characters and relationships. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:44:35 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_126939 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_126939 ConfusedShipper123 I believe what you just described would be considered Literary Fiction. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:04:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_127235 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_127235 ConfusedShipper123 I typically write Young Adult realistic fiction, and most of my writing experience comes from roleplaying, so what I'm doing this year is sort of different from anything else I've ever written. I don't have a fully-formed outline, and I'm still trying to figure out what I actually want to focus on in the story, or if I should even focus on one thing, but I do intend for the story to be character-driven and character-focused, as the plot so far (I confess to cheating, as I have already written five potential chapters in typed form, with potential for others in a notebook), has been written out of order. I wasn't sure whether my story was literary or mainstream, but looking at mainstream's emphasis on plot, I'm wary to classify my story as such. The story so far focuses on my twenty-one year old protagonist as he deals with the aftermath of an accident that severely injured both of his parents three years before the potential first chapter, and how those effects continue to impact their lives to that point, and the relationship with a girl who left for college the year before, who made his focus shift from those defining and traumatic moments in his life, to a possible future with the girl. The story was originally more focused on the relationship between the protagonist and the girl, making it more of a romance between two protagonists with a history in dealing with grief and loss, but now the focus has shifted to the relationship between the protagonist and his family as well as his friends. There was a plot, but now every chapter seems to shift perspective and nothing seems to go in order anymore. The format is simply different, and I've put a lot of emphasis on this extended weather metaphor that represents the protagonist's mood and his relationship with the girl. Theme-wise, I'd say the story will/does deal with grief, loss, guilt, and adjustment to situations in life. What it means to be "stuck" in life, and the potential destructiveness of relying on another person for one's self-development or even self-worth. The girl is not exactly a foil to the protagonist, yet there are some stark contrasts between her actions and his. It might have a lot to say psychologically, though I still have a lot of research to do to pull off what I might do for the story. I apologize for the sheer amount of text I've written here. Any thoughts? http://www.procrastinator-writer.blogspot.com/ (first five chapters can be found somewhere around here). Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:20:25 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_127497 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_127497 ConfusedShipper123 That sounds fantastic! And I'd say the emphasis on characters might fit this story into LitFic. An emphasis on plot or storytelling might fit it into mainstream, but as you've described it, it may be somewhere in between. I'd say classify it wherever you feel it leans more toward. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:23:08 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_127536 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_127536 colleengreenbean Can someone tell me if this sounds like Literary Fiction? or point me in the right direction? I'm writing a story about a girl named Katie (post college, I think), and I don't know her very well. one summer she stays on Cape Cod with a crazy cat lady artist, steals from her, breaks hearts, and leaves. and changes that small town forever. The thing about Katie is that she is not the good guy. My synopsis goes "Katie steals. Katie cries. Katie leaves. Katie lies." The story is more an exploration of this dark soul that I'm getting to know in my head, than an actual plot. Here's how it starts: "No one was really sure where Pam Westwood found Katie. The cats made sense. She was always bringing in stray cats from the docks and giving them names that don’t belong to cats, like Paul, or Dr. Zhivago. We never thought someday she would adopt a human, because she always said she didn’t want children, but then Katie wasn’t a child. In a way she was a lot like those stray cats. Most people when they adopt a kitten, they get it because it is small and fluffy and they think it will be like a dog. But cats aren’t dogs and they never will be. Cats make messes and don’t say they’re sorry and they pee on the floor and they only cuddle when their feet are cold, and when people realize that they throw cats out. But Pam always thought cats were just as good as dogs, only in different ways. And Pam saw something like that in Katie. But I’ll never know what it was." Thanks! Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:00:51 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_129107 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_129107 RubyMarlin I think that, seeing as how my novel focuses on how the people she is with change my FMC, I'm going to make my home hear. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:23:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_129495 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_129495 Sing2you This is my first time doing NaNo, and really my first time at writing anything longer than a college essay. I'm not sure if I fall into LitFic, Mainstream or Erotic, so can you guys please point me in the right direction? :) My story is about a woman who, on her 29th birthday, decides to spend the next year exploring herself and her sexuality through a series of one night stands. Each chapter will be the story of another "episode", and some will be quite explicit. Obviously, sex will be the focus of the book, but it will also lead to her exploring herself and her choices in life based on those encounters. What do you think? Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:11:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_130331 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_130331 CraezieLady I think it may sound like a mix of LitFic and Chick Fic, with some New Age influence. Sounds enticing! Happy writing! Victoria Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:48:14 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_130961 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_130961 foreverindigo Same boat as you! I'm leaning towards lit fic. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:44:20 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_134318 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_134318 Wil_deRoadie Reading over this board, I agree with many of you. This is my first NaNoWriMo attempt, but will be my second "novel." (The first was actually a novella, written in 3 weeks, and I wrote it the first year I heard about NaNoWriMo but didn't have the time to start in November.) However, all of my previous work falls into, at best, magical realism, but really more just like fun stories about good people making poor decisions and what happens then + a touch of the supernatural. However, when people ask me about this one, I don't know what to call it. But my general idea is that it's about 5 brothers who are dealing with the recent loss of their mother, and how it intially pulls them apart, but over time makes them stronger. Lots of character work, lots of drama, and mainly internal conflicts plus perhaps a shoving match or two. Is this LitFic? Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:38:11 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136090 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136090 ghk1962 Literary fiction . . . and Literary truth. This sounds a great read . . and write. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:38:48 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136097 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136097 Broreale Aha, thank you. And the Brienne chapters in Crows are pretty great, especially the scene in the Whispers. It's probably true that the best way to judge if something's litfic is before, not after, it's written. Definitely has something to do with the manner in which it's written. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:39:07 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136100 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136100 ghk1962 I think whatever someone wants to classify it, it sounds like a great idea and write. Someone who's ideas get challenged not just intellectually, but in reality. Nice. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:53:33 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136299 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_136299 awake Alright, I need your guidance! My novel sounds so lame in synopsis form but alas, I'm aiming to recreate Ken Kesey's Magic Trip in modern times. Granted, this isn't going to be a drug story. It's going to focus on the characters, their interactions with themselves, each other, and society. The big conflict I want to focus on is how interconnected we are yet so ironically disconnected at the same time. Can we truly reach enlightened or aware status anymore? It's sort of adventure, but there's no hero's journey, it's sort of historical fiction but only in a very general sense, spiritual? Possibly... Any other ideas? Thanks for the input in advance! Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:29:47 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_137397 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_137397 kimfujioka I really liked that book She's Come Undone Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:51:05 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_138087 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_138087 kimfujioka I like that plot. In Chinese history, there is a story(myth) about an invisible red thread that connects two people at birth. Wherever they go,they are always connected. My husband who is Japanese told me that story when we were dating 16 years ago. I have often thought of that concept myself. The literary implications are immense. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:56:20 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_138117 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_138117 kimfujioka I'm reading everybody's posts and now I am confused about what is lit. fiction. I think mine is literary fiction but I'm not sure. It is character driven and focuses on the relationships between the two main characters who are brothers. The 2 brother are very different. One is loud and bossy and outgoing. The other brother is quiet and inward. These two work together but get on each others nerves. The outgoing one thinks the other brother is too reclusive; the quiet brother thinks the other one is noisy, bossy and tiring. In the end they learn to accept each other and live together. It is that eternal juxtaposition between "being" and "doing". "Being" who we are and engaging in actions that show us who we are, to ourselves. I guess it should be a balance. But in my novel the two brothers are extreme opposites. Of course, there is conflict in that situation. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:04:49 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_138165 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_138165 CappuccinoBird I think I might be writing literary fiction this year, but I'm not entirely sure what LitFic is, so... My story is basically going to be about a box filled with mementos that a group of friends put together when they were all grown up and about to move far away from each other. Someone is chosen to keep the box in their attic, and they'll take it down when they all get together again one day in the future. Most chapters will follow the same pattern; a short description of an object in the box, then the story of what happened to the characters to make it important, and finally the object being put in the box. I think there might be short chapters about the box being taken down from the attic and the friends arriving one by one, and it'll end with all of them together again. I'm not sure if they'll open the box or not. The mementos will tell the story of how they all became friends and grew from teenagers to adults together, but only really giving snippets of their lives. Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to writing it. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:32:31 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_140210 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_140210 studentofrhythm CappuccinoBird, your novel sounds like one I would like to read. Your synopsis causes me to reflect on the selective nature of archival memory and reminds me that I was going to read Derrida's _Archive Fever_ one of these days . . . This is the latest genre forum that I've looked into. My plan for my novel is to set up my characters in the scenario described in my synopsis (on my profile) and then see what happens, with plenty of metafictional reflections and/or noodlings along the way. So I don't know if that makes it litfic, but I think it's closer to it than Romance, since the relationships between the characters will, I hope, be more complex than what I imagine Romance novels show and they might not End Up together. Still, I'm trying to approach this with a playful and carefree attitude - I know NaNo's supposed to be like that, but every time I've done it before I've ended up caring deeply about my characters. Already I know that despite silly elements in my setup, I mean to look at matters I take very seriously. The main challenge then that I see is to let go of attachments to how I think things should go between the characters . . . which is one reason why my plan is so sketchy. Well I hope I haven't killed this thread like I did another one. But hey, if I did, then I'll just know my planned novel is too literary for even you all to handle . . . I'm really not an arrogant person in real life. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:57:04 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_141666 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_141666 Anfaenger My story is actually both scifi, manifesto (I am writing with a viewpoint and an agenda this year) and possible can fall into litfic. The plot is a family meeting their estranged daughter and her child for the first time since decades because of the illness of her mother, there are attempts to reconcilliate but in the end they fail and she returns to the space station she lives in with her child, while doing so she takes her mother to a space station in orbit of earth which offers the kind of treatments which are illegal in every nation of earth. So, there is not much plot, there is however a lot of description of the characters and their hopes and fears and a lot of description of the setting (I follow the marxist idea that the circumstances of being determine the states of mind). Would that be litfic? Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:02:20 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_141720 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_141720 KatieKorucho I have no idea what genre my (very cliché) story will be in... It's very character driven, focusing on a woman with anti-social personality disorder who uses her disorder to an advantage in her job as a contract killer. The male MC will be a homicide cop (told you it was cliché) who wants to put my female MC behind bars, without knowing she is in fact the mysterious woman he's in love with. There'll be lots of flashbacks, and my male MC will be extremely confused about who's who and stuff like that. Gah, I have no idea if this is even close to LitFic. Anyone have any opinions? Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:13:36 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_142598 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_142598 The_Halla And what, may I ask, is wrong with "genre" fiction? Sorry, but that's a particular sore spot for me as someone who freely reads and writes on both sides of the realistic/speculative divide. (For instance, I see writers who have earned their reputations writing realistic fiction release a speculative novel and all the critics are gushing over how "original" and "experimental" it is, when many "genre" writers have already covered most of the same territory, often with the same level of craft and power...) I think it's more a perception thing than any real meaning of "genre"; I'd argue that YA/middle grade, science fiction/fantasy, mystery/adventure/thriller, etc. all deserve a place at the "literary" table if they're good enough. That said, I'm writing what appears to be, on the surface, a steampunk-ish alternate history, but beneath that surface it's a political novel, a pointed critique of social inequality and the dogmatic belief in the hierarchical division of humanity, a rumination on the transformative power of technology, and a set of character studies--and it's structurally experimental and a bit metafictional, as well. I'm trying to challenge the dismissive assumptions people tend to have about "genre" fiction by making my own writing as "literary" as possible. And if I can help lift a few of my fellow authors out of the genre ghetto while I'm at it, so much the better. (Of course, I'm also enough of a realist about the publishing industry to know that I have a snowball's chance in hell of pulling it off, but you never know...) Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:04:13 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_145016 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_145016 The_Halla I dunno... I've read a lot of books that take themselves far <em>too</em> seriously. Some of the very best and most literary novels have a definite sense of humor about themselves. <em>Catch-22</em>, <em>Candide</em>, <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>, anything by Vonnegut, etc. I guess my definition of "literary" depends on this question: does it have something valuable to say, and is it any good at saying it? Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:13:30 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_145130 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_145130 The_Halla [quote]I consistanly get the feeling that LitFic means "Books that are better than yours"[/quote] Ha! Good point. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:17:00 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_145172 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_145172 The_Halla "Literary Science Fiction" is just fine. There are a lot of truly great novels out there that would fit into any reasonable definition of "Science Fiction" (or any other kind of genre) but instead get categorized as "Literary Fiction" for whatever reason. (The reverse is also true.) Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:22:09 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_145240 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_145240 MrHeywire I reckon that idea is lit-fic if you want it to be. You're tossing up between LF and YA, which are both pretty vague genres, so it's impossible to determine in any definite way. I'd say it's lit-fic. That way, you can hang out with us! Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:54:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_150135 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_150135 MrHeywire I'd say you're most likely lit-fic. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:59:31 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_150204 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_150204 jojothepirate This sounds awesome!! Haven't we all wondered what we would do in that situation? I know I have. Happy NaNo'ing! Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:39:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_153640 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_153640 jojothepirate This sounds somewhat similar to themes/approaches I'm planning to take. I'm glad at least one person seems to agree this can be LitFic, as I had no other idea what genre to stick my baby in. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:00:25 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_153742 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_153742 theindefiniteone According to what I know of LitFic, unless you'll be putting emphasis on the characters, their backstories and their emotions/thoughts, this wouldn't really fit into the genre. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:36:56 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_154992 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_154992 artisticthoughts My story is about an autistic girl who has to overcome her autism and show her parents that she can make it into the college of her choice, but I don't know if this is LitFic, Mainstream, or something else. What do you guys think? Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:28:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_155860 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_155860 bibliosylph It's not so much the story, as how you tell it. That would certainly be a fine literary topic. Is there an overriding theme that's important to you? Lots of character examination, or internal dialogue, perhaps? A story that unfolds in an uncommon or less-than-straightforward way? Etc. :-) Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:15:24 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_157600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_157600 Jennifer Baldwin Not sure if this is the place for me, but that is why I am asking. The idea in my head is the story of a Male college student who went away to college leaving behind a drunk father and a much younger brother. (Mother was "unstable" and left when she had younger brother.) Drunk father gets himself killed and runaway mother can not be found, leaving College student to take care of brother or send brother to a foster home. Even though college student blames brother for mother leaving he decides to take care of his brother because they are family. Story tells of college students struggle with emotions on his mother leaving, his father's drinking, and coming to terms with brother all the while trying to keep up his grades and a job. Well, that is the general idea. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:21:26 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_157692 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_157692 inkymama Thank you for this thread. My story (still being hashed out) A woman wakes up in a hospital bed. She's been in a coma for three weeks. When she comes to, she learns that she and her 18 month old son were in a car crash. Her son is dead. The accident was a hit and run and the driver hasn't been found. She also finds out she's roughly 7 weeks pregnant. so...do I stay and play or find another genre forum? Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:55:01 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_158862 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_158862 uncreativecarly This might be YA litfic. I don't know. It's pretty ambiguous as of right now, but two high school students - Cameron, a transman, and Ava, his best friend - start their junior year after Cameron's FtM transition. Ava is my narrator and loves Cameron like a brother, and has to deal with the hate coming toward not only Cam but toward her, and decide how much of it she can handle whilst her relationship with Cam becomes strained. Does that make any sense? And if so, its it YA/LitFic? Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:30:52 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_160838 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_160838 Naphthaturisas Frankly, I have no clue what genre my idea falls into. This happens to me all the time no matter what my choices are, hahah. As of right now, the story I have in mind revolves around a power/thrash metal band in an alternate version of the European Union, whose government is characterized by behind-the-scenes corruption. The band, having already recorded and released three concept albums centered on fantasy or cyberpunk stories, is about to start touring for their upcoming fourth album, which is supposed to allude to more relevant political issues in its lyrics. Hopefully the message will go across as planned, because if worse comes to worst and it falls to them to start a revolution (and it may if nobody more important notices or cares), the band wants to have a mob of supportive fans to help them make it happen. I want to explain why I don't think this fits elsewhere. I feel it's not historical because this would basically be current time and day, but with a few altered-universe traces just so that no government figures are harmed in the writing of this novel. I want to use the characters and their experiences to present issues that are applicable to real life (although hopefully the novel will still be enjoyable without it being read as an allegory by most), but I don't intend to use that much satire as a way to express these points. There may be traces of cyberpunk, but probably not enough to qualify as sci-fi. I'm also aiming for more of an adult audience, so I think it's between LitFic and MainFic, but I don't understand the distinction at all, to be honest. I hope I gave enough detail for people to judge, and if I did, let me know if I'm completely off, hahah. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:15:54 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_162808 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_162808 Invisibly-Visible So, like many on this on this thread, am not sure if what I'm going to write is Mainstream or LitFic. My story focuses on Arthur - an unpublished English writer who just needs an escape from reality. For some reason (the details aren't all worked out yet) he ends up in France, looking for inspiration for a novel and a relaxing escape. Upon arriving, his wallet and passport are stolen by pickpockets and he's left stranded. He meets a young French woman who agrees to take him in - on the condition he helps work at her struggling cafe in return. The entire story will switch back and forth from what's happening to Arthur's blog and Arthur's writing/poems whenever inspiration strikes him. What I want to focus on in the relationships formed between Arthur and the woman, Jeannette, as well as a young girl (and worker at the cafe) Madeleine and a young American boy traveling abroad. It will also (hopefully) focus on the struggles Arthur's had in the past and the messed up family he's come from, and how he learns to actually let people in and get over whatever it is. I'm thinking it's probably LitFic as it's more character-driven than plot-driven. Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:32:17 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_163030 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_163030 ad_meliora My novel originally was pure litfic...a woman reflecting on the small tragedies of her mediocre life, lots of internal dialouge, little action, plenty of social themes....and then out of nowhere an element of fantasy jumped through the window and is so ingrained in my conscience that I can't root it out. Am I still writing litfic? Here's the gist: Meg Frazier disappears. No one knows where. One day she's an average college student, and the next she's gone. She wasn't kidnapped or murdered, and she didn't run away. She simply disappeared. Her best friend and boyfriend are frantic, and her best friend's family, to whom she was a second daughter, begins to fall apart. Flashbacks to my previous pure litfic idea, lots of societal themes and internal dialogue, and her best friend and boyfriend create huge drama by getting together. But there's a second arc about where Meg goes...and the magic she tampered with that caused her disappearence. Really there would be two stories, one gritty and realistic, and one totally fantastic and loosely-drawn, and two parallel protagonists as well, but my universal motifs are pain, loneliness, and I deal a lot with the human condition, which makes me think it's a lot more litfic that it might appear. Is this litfic? Any helpful advice or comments are appreciated, of course. :) Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:48:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_166618 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_166618 MrJiff I really can't say for sure if I'm writing LitFic but it just doesn't feel mainstream enough for, well, mainstream. The main draw for my story, In/Out, is not necessarily in the style of writing but in the presentation. It begins with a car crash that sends the main character, Chris, hurtling into a pole. The rest of the story covers the next 5-8 minutes between the accident and Chris' eventual death. It's written as a first-person reflection on everything that got him into the car and everything he's going to lose when the final breath actually comes. This is represented by each page's heading, which is either "In" or "Out" (with a few exceptions). Essentially, each page is a breath, and it gives me an opportunity to do some interesting things with his consciousness and the irregularity of his breath. Chris definitely isn't a remarkable man and his story isn't exciting or punchy. There is definitely a plot "structure" but I would argue it's not the centrepoint of the story. It's not about how amazing Chris' life is or how unusual the events that occur are. It's about how the brain works in those final moments of anyone's life and how under those circumstances even the most inconsequential thing can be significant. Any thoughts on where my story belongs would be appreciated! :) Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:53:08 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_167082 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_167082 MrJiff [Accidentely posted this as reply instead of a comment. Let's try that again!] I really can't say for sure if I'm writing LitFic but it just doesn't feel mainstream enough for, well, mainstream. The main draw for my story, In/Out, is not necessarily in the style of writing but in the presentation. It begins with a car crash that sends the main character, Chris, hurtling into a pole. The rest of the story covers the next 5-8 minutes between the accident and Chris' eventual death. It's written as a first-person reflection on everything that got him into the car and everything he's going to lose when the final breath actually comes. This is represented by each page's heading, which is either "In" or "Out" (with a few exceptions). Essentially, each page is a breath, and it gives me an opportunity to do some interesting things with his consciousness and the irregularity of his breath. Chris definitely isn't a remarkable man and his story isn't exciting or punchy. There is definitely a plot "structure" but I would argue it's not the centrepoint of the story. It's not about how amazing Chris' life is or how unusual the events that occur are. It's about how the brain works in those final moments of anyone's life and how under those circumstances even the most inconsequential thing can be significant. Any thoughts on where my story belongs would be appreciated! :) Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:08:44 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_167175 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_167175 calleensky Hello all! I'm new to nanowrimo but I think that what I'm going to write will be lit fic mainly because that's what i like to read (other than agatha christie obvs, i love ac) and they all say 'write what you want to read' right? Although I wonder if it's a little pompous and arrogant to say 'I'm writing literary fiction' as if all fiction isn't literary, what does that term even mean? As far as I can see it designates fiction that doesn't fit into any other genre per se but is quite psychological and character driven. Sorry if I'm bringing up a really pedantic point or if there's already been a discussion about this, I just think it's interesting because it's difficult to define, and it seems that lots of people on the thread are unsure about whether what they're writing is in fact lit fic. I don't know if anyone else has anything to say about it? Anyway I have a starting point of an idea in my mind: a whale washes up on a beach and dies. The novel is about how this event indirectly affects the isolated rural community who witness it. Suddenly surreal things start to happen; things disappearing and appearing, people acting out of the ordinary etc, and the characters gradually give in to their personal obsessions and madnesses, all becoming increasingly cut off from each other. I think I'll write it as a series of loosely related episodes or threads that eventually come together. Looking forward to november and getting to know you other wrimos! Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:34:35 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_170606 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_170606 bibliosylph That sounds pretty interesting to me, particularly the idea of loosely related episodes that tie together in the end. And yes, there are a couple other discussions in this section on what it means to call something literary fiction, and how our views of it overlap. Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:08:54 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_170957 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_170957 chickyscratch I have no idea where it belongs but I love the idea! Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:00:59 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_172307 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_172307 mariah125 This forum makes me question the genre of my novel like Naya Rivera makes me question my sexuality. xD Technically, I'm writing Young Adult - my MC is fifteen years old, and most of the other characters are adolescents. And I've been posting up a storm in that forum. But I'd also like to find a place where my novel relates to the others in more ways than targeted demographic. At first I thought I was sci-fi. I've never really liked that genre, though, and although my novel's universe is technologically advanced, it's not the focus of the story. What I'm really writing about is psychology, sociology, and sexuality in an autistic-majority dystopia. There is a plot (girl falls in love, tries to become neurotypical, makes mind-altering decision) but it all really revolves around the characters and their complicated, morally riveting arcs. All signs point to literary fiction! What do you guys think? I'm so glad it's also YA, though - I'll actually have a market for it! Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:42:13 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_172774 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_172774 Mikita5510 i was told my story sounded mainstream but to me it does not seem plot driven so help me out pls. all i have so far is my MC wakes up after a car accident she has massive head trauma and a broken arm, she has to figure who she is etc..that is all i have so far.. Mind you it is possible that the story can change for some weird reason these characters are writing this story and i am just the voice for them Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:10:51 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_173783 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_173783 Jennifer Baldwin So does anyone have any thoughts? Am I in the right place with this, or is it more of another genre? Sun, 23 Oct 2011 07:17:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_181460 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_181460 katiereynolds Not really sure where mine fits, but someone suggested perhaps LitFic so I thought I'd come over here and see what you all think. It's a series of inter-connected short stories, each offering a glimpse into the life of a character (or characters). There is no real "plot", the characters are quirky and loveable (and sometimes tragic) but I'm hoping that the joy of writing them will translate into an enjoyable read. I'm hoping to highlight a kind of universal warmth and "human-ness" that everyone will be able to relate to. As a few examples: There is a woman who, for whatever reason, believes herself to be dead and living out an afterlife. A couple struggling to stay together when disagreements over the fate of their garden gnome collection are threatening to tear them apart. I suppose that's quite a vague synopsis, and probably sounds absolutely insane but that's all I have right now and it makes a lot more sense in my head! Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:37:37 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_182239 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_182239 Emdog THE AWARDS Readers of literary fiction are very often interested in the major literary awards. These would include The Booker Prize for Fiction, The National Book Awards, The National Book Critics Circle Awards, The Nobel Prize for Literature, The Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction and The Pulitzer Prize. There are many excellent, comprehensive websites to refer to when looking for information on the recipients of these awards. Among the best are, The National Book Foundation, BookWeb.org, Booklist Center, and ALA Notable Books. from:http://www.conknet.com/~fullerlibrary/ReadersAdvisory/A%20GUIDE%20TO%20LITERARY%20FICTION.htm Here's WIKI's take: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_fiction Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:52:01 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_186158 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_186158 Carolyn Branch I looked through the mainstream fiction forum and I'm sure my story doesn't fit there. But I'm not sure it fits here, either. What do you think? Abandoned by her mother, betrayed by her father, Rose grows up fiercely independent. She is proud to be able to take care of herself and refuses to be dependent on anyone, even her husband, Jim, who has loved her and tried to care for her since she was a lonely five year old. Although she loves Jim, she is unable to trust enough to let him know how much she cares for him. He tries to give her the space she thinks she needs, and they drift apart, married but living separate lives in the same house. Tired of always striving for a closeness she won't let him have, Jim gives up and leaves without saying a word. Although she thought she didn't need him, Jim's departure pushes Rose into a physical and emotional journey to find her mother, understand her father, and make peace with her broken childhood. Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:38:01 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_188407 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_188407 Carolyn Branch You're in the right place. I would definitely read this story. It could be YA if written from the VP of the younger brother, but if the VP is college age it is Literary Fiction. Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:49:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_188581 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_188581 Carolyn Branch This reminds me of the Diana Gabaldon "Outlander" series. If you haven't read Outlander, you definitely should. GREAT book, wildly successful and has spawned a ton of imitators. That series has never been classified. In book stores and libraries you may find it in Science Fiction, or Romance, or Historical Fiction. I call it literary fiction because it focuses so closely on family dynamics and relationships in both the worlds Claire lives in. Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:59:53 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_188746 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_188746 CorneliusFingers That sounds like LitFic to me! Although I'm not exactly an expert, I'm only really in this thread as I put 'LitFic' as my genre and I'm checking to see if I got it right! But from what I can gather, your story(s) is focused on character development and relationships more than an over-arching plot. For example, it's not about a single dude trying to uncover some kind of epic conspiracy, your characters are much more prominent to the novel than that. It also sounds like you're trying to explore a more philosophical theme with bringing out this universal trait of humanity with each of your stories. So from the understanding I've gathered so far, that sounds like LitFic to me. And good luck with it as it sounds interesting :) Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:16:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_189013 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_189013 Jennifer Baldwin Thank you so much. I almost picked the vp of the younger brother, but thought it to be more fun to write from the vp of the college brother. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:15:28 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_195935 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_195935 calleensky This sounds cool, reminds me of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan? Makes sense to me, I love reading this kind of thing. Good luck! Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:58:36 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_199191 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_199191 Fiona W I would say that your story belongs in Literary Fiction, Carolyn, but then I'm going to say that of any story that doesn't just jump up &amp; down &amp; scream "I'm horror!" or "I'm science fiction!" or whatever. I say it's LitFic if you want it to be LitFic. It's your choice, not someone else's. You've read a fair sampling of novels that call themselves LitFic. You know what the animal looks like. If you aim to write your novel in a way that resembles the LitFic you admire, you're writing LitFic. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:04:39 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_199293 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_199293 groundsofbklyn Thanks, both. I think it's LitFic (insomuch as it can be called fiction). Whatever it is, it's necessary to write... I can't keep it all bottled in much longer. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:05:54 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_199317 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=3#forum_thread_comment_199317 lindsey1295 Could be, but then I would think in that case that everyone sets out to write literary fiction. And I don't think my professor meant that literary fiction is self-important fiction without a sense of humor or irony--just that it takes itself seriously enough to be distinctive, I suppose. Hmm....maybe I should've asked him what he meant.... Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:03:08 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_203013 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=2#forum_thread_comment_203013 katiereynolds Just looked that up and it's now on my to-read list! Thanks! Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:49:20 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_203691 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_203691 Madkat2 My story follows a chunk of my MC's life, her name is Illiana, and the story is told from a third person limited perspective - you can see into someother character's minds when Illiana interacts with them. She was the fiance of a lord in some still unnamed land - which consists very much of beautiful landscape, green rolling hills, and forests. It is also based in a medieval time period but in a fictional land. Anyway, she and this lord are in love and then his mother - who wants only to gain a higher social status by marrying her son off to a royal family - basically makes him change his mind. Illiana is banished from their lands and in her rage she vows revenge on the lord and his mother. Then she goes on a journey - physical and mental - growing as a person. Is it LitFic? Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:05:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_203942 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_203942 moiraking I guess my rule of thumb would be; if your story focuses mostly on plot, this isn't the genre for you. Don't quote me on this, because I also get confused with this topic, but i believe lit fic focuses more on INTERACTION BETWEEN PEOPLES rather than what happens in the story. How characters speak and act is more important than what they are doing or where they're going. Literary Fiction says something about the human condition, it tends to be psychological, going deep into the human mindset to tell us something about ourselves. What's key in this genre is the focus on the writing itself and (again) not on the actual plot. I mean like sentence structure, use of metaphor, language and sequencing- this is all more important here than many other genres. One "literary lick" is the absence of quotation marks in dialogue Also, like in magical realism, another important aspect is use of ambiguity. My advisor once told me "you want a fantasy-minded reader to see fantasy, and a realistic-minded reader to see reality or metaphor." --&gt; Example: "the girl in the mirror stared back with eyes too knowledgeable to be hers." Has the girl changed so much she doesn't recognize herself anymore? Has she broken away from reality? Is the mirror possessed? Is the girl possessed? Is it a metaphor for not knowing oneself? I don't tell you, but i give you little hints to help you make up your own explanation. So yeah, I tried channeling my creative writing professor... I hope I've helped shed some light Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:37:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_210200 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_210200 moiraking It doesn't mean you can't have a plot though. Writing is all about knowing the "rules" on how to write and then figuring out a innovative way to break them. If you want a plot in your story, I say power to ya! Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:41:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_210231 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_210231 amanda.keogh I adore this concept. Your summary takes my breath away. When you're published, drop me a note! Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:55:09 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_211827 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_211827 MrJiff Thanks to both of you for your positive feedback! I'm definitely looking forward to writing it! Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:51:48 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_212130 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_212130 Lisa.Vail I don't have a clue what I'm writing... even after reading this forum I still can't define LitFic, or even pick out key things that identify it! So I'll post my synopsis on here, can someone please tell me, what am I writing?! :( Following Merrill Rothschild, the son of Lord and Lady Rothschild. Merrill is an unhappy soul, ignored and underappreciated by his weak-willed mother and overbearing father. He seeks comfort and solace from the servants and his horses, but still begs for something to happen to change his world. Luckily, the Manor house's serving staff set out an elaborate plan to free the unwitting young man and allow him to start his life anew, as he always desired. By faking his death, housemaid Clee and kitchen hand Ewan allow him to taste freedom for the first time. They grant him a single month of enjoyment before he has to make a choice - return, miraculously alive, to his parents - or run away with the serving staff and begin a new life. Given this Ultimatum, Merrill embarks on life as a servant, with all the work, conversation and cheap alcohol that it has to offer. He soon discovers part of himself he didn't know, including his loud, raucous laughter, silly grins, and romantic feelings. However, running away is never as easy as it sounds. When his mother discovers the truth and his father falls ill, what will Merrill decide to do? Will the Poor Little Rich Boy run to happiness, or fight another day with misery? Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:59:36 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_213394 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_213394 Lumynescence I would really love to read this when you are done with it. I almost died in a car accident a month ago...and I can certainly assure you that the mind goes in a completely different place during something like that. So I am really interested in reading this. :) And I think it does belong in literary fiction. Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:25:17 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_217767 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_217767 Lumynescence It depends on how your story is being run. If it is mostly character driven, and you feel that your characters are the main push of the novel instead of the plot, you are in the right place. :) Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:27:51 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217803 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217803 Lumynescence Oh yes, that sounds like it is in the right place. I would love to read it when you are done! :) Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:28:39 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217815 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217815 Lumynescence Hey I replied to this on the first page, so you can look back there. :) Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:29:26 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217832 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217832 Lumynescence That definitely sounds like a LitFic to me! :) Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:31:08 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217857 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_217857 uncreativecarly that sounds incredible. Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:06:04 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_218323 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_218323 mjh2395 If anyone could help me determine if LitFic is the correct genre of my soon-to-be story, it would be greatly appreciated: An amateur boxer, Dennis, 17, struggles with the fact that he feels completely alone. He's incredibly intelligent but socially insecure. He lives with his alcoholic, abusive father, and has no other family or friends. His insecurities are plentiful, and the only thing he gets any enjoyment out of is boxing. That is, until he sparks up a friendship with a classmate, Lars. Dennis finds himself attracted to Lars but is not comfortable with his feelings, and this, along with him wondering if there is something psychologically wrong with him for enjoying fighting so much, cause him great inner turmoil. Lars lets Dennis stay with him when Dennis's home problems get to be too much to bear, and their bond grows, and eventually their romantic feelings for each other come to light. While all this is going on, Dennis is working towards winning a huge boxing tournament under the direction of a coach, whose unethical behavior Dennis finds fault with. The story mostly focuses on Dennis's inner conflicts and on how great an impact Lars has on his life. Additionally, there is a running theme based upon the boys' mutual love of the books "the Catcher in the Rye" and "A Separate Peace", and how those characters and storylines tie in to their lives. --I can see how this may be seen as romance, and although the "love story" part will be important, I feel like it doesn't fit in the romance genre because of all the other elements. I don't know, any thought out there? Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:30:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_221544 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_221544 Hinfallend Um, this is my first year trying this and I need some help ^^; I was wondering if my story fits under LitFic. From what I've read, I feel like it does, but I'm not sure. I have two ideas, actually. It is about three teenagers who all come from bad homes. They are seventeen and fighting to get out of their homes. They would run away, but two of them have younger siblings that they don't want to leave behind. Social workers think that they are being dramatic, because the oldest of the three is constantly causing trouble, so they won't come out and look. Eventually, the oldest of the three teenagers meets her real mom and gets the inheritances from her dead father. She forces the other two into moving four states away and leaving their siblings behind. The story ends with the youngest of the teenagers falling off of a fire escape from three levels up. The second story is told from one of the sibling's (from the first story) POV. It is a blog that he created when he was twelve and follows his thoughts on what is going on from the first story. It continues longer than the first story though and shows his reaction to his brother disappearing and leaving him. It then continues to show how he copes with it and eventually moves on. The last chapter is an epilogue of sorts and is set two or three years in the future where he sees his brother again. The first one is supposed to be around at least 205,000 words, while the second will barely breach 50,000 words. Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:37:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_223363 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_223363 AddysonRae This is the first year i have been a part of NaNo, and I don't know if mine is LitFic or not. I just feel like it doesn't fit in anywhere else. The story is set in a small town in Virginia and 7 people who live seemingly perfect lives start to unravel when they reveal to each other their secrets and pasts. They are all connected and they do this by writing letters to each other, but not all the characters know the other. One character reveals her abuse, another is battling the early stages of Alzheimer's. I know writing an epistolary is very risky, and so, is some of the topics I get in to, but some things just need to be said. Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:42:42 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_225924 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_225924 RobinGRosenthal Isn't litfic just better writing? :P Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:40:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_228085 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_228085 calleensky This sounds really interesting. I think it could go both ways to be honest, literary or romance- it's entirely up to you and which genre label you feel more comfortable with! There are enough other themes and issues going on to mean that the romantic component isn't necessarily the most important. To me it seems that the fundamental issues in your story are the moral dilemmas your MC has to struggle with and his emotional 'journey' if you will. I find the boxing/fighting idea really original and I think it has serious potential! Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:24:20 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_229133 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_229133 Overtures Kind of. I generally use the term 'literature' to distinguish between modern and contemporary books, and western canon, although arguably literature can be used as a bracket term for any form of writing at all. As such, the term 'LitFic' as I understand it from the Nanowrimo community, describes a novel that places thematic devices above traditional devices of its genre. However, just as all 'LitFic' conforms to some genre conventions, all genres of writing conform to 'LitFic' conventions. That is, all texts have themes and issues present - it's just that this is highlighted in some more than others. But measuring just how 'literary' or thematic a text is, is somewhat guesswork, as there's no real measurements to base it on, or points of comparison, or even real conventions of 'LitFic' at all. 'LitFic', in all it's pretentious glory, just seems like an overused buzzword to me. Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:50:53 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_233213 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_233213 mjh2395 Thanks! This was really helpful and encouraging :) Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:56:43 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_235274 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_235274 MariekeZ81 Wow... your idea sounds absolutely amazing. If I'd read a summary like this on Amazon.com I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I'd love to read it when you're done! It sounds lit fit because it's character-driven. Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:54:28 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_236325 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_236325 fm92.9 Hey, love it. Kind of similar to my this-year-novel, which is (intro. excerpt) "about how each one, being an actor in its own life, does everything we call barbarities and atrocities in others, but when we do them is because we have to, even knowing that they're the same thing. It's about what happens if, instead of just acting on stage, once in a while we sat in the audience and we saw how we live, and how we see the difference in ourselves because the limelight is falling on us rather than on the rest, until someone tells us that there is no limelighte. That's when we don't understand anything, and when all we've done to get what we want goes straight to hell." What do you think? Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:07:39 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_236588 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_236588 Scribamour Wow that's interesting, I wrote a short story several years ago and 2 of the main characters were named Lucas and Jade. Love the names! :D Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:00:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_241224 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_241224 Invisibly-Visible Glad to know I'm in the right place. :D Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:06:25 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_241317 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=4#forum_thread_comment_241317 Fiona W Your novel is LitFic if (1) you write it with that intent, (2) it gets marketed that way. A whole whole lot depends on how it gets packaged, and who reviews it, in what publications. In other words, so much depends on what happens after you send it to an agent, all you should be worrying about right now is writing a good rough draft, that you can edit and rewrite into a better second draft, that you can go over very carefully to create an excellent final draft. One time I heard the process described as the Down Draft, the Up Draft, and the Dental Draft. The Down Draft is just getting a big chunk of words down. The Up Draft is fixing it up, punching it up, until it's really good. And the Dental Draft is picking over each and every sentence with precision instruments until they're as perfect as you can make them. NaNoWriMo is the Down Draft. Go for it! Write the best rough draft you possibly can! Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:52:44 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_243629 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_243629 Neroli Krumlov Omg, I think I found my genre! My novel is based on true events about one family's repeating cycle of abuse. I'm not sure who the main character is yet. At the moment, the story is largely episodic and spans at least two generations. It begins in 1950's Southern Italy. The daughter of a wealthy landowner disgraces herself by becoming pregnant. Knowing he can not arrange a properly politically advantageous marriage for her, her father arranges for her to marry one of his share croppers. The sharecropper takes his new bride back to the village of his birth. I will be addressing feminist issues, issues of abuse, alcoholism, and mental illness. Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:50:16 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_244585 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_244585 erainah So, I'm new about this. It might be my second year, but I must say that my previous was utterly failed. I've been thinking of a plot, and now questioning on what genre it could be. It's about a FMC who cares for a boy that resembles her in her childhood, and so their relationship goes on. The little boy becomes attached to her, and they're getting to know more about each other. I think I'll start with the MC's memoir, and how she regretted her life. Well, I'm still deciding if I'm going to make the MC teacher or not. Soo.. What do you think it would fall to? Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:19:20 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_245063 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_245063 Rubber_ducky Question: Can LitFic be funny? My novel is mostly (well at this planning stage anyway) a discussion of reality/relationships/madness but also has aspects of magical realism/meta as the protagonist’s sense of self and her sanity disintegrates. However, it begins as a satire with humorous interludes so maybe it is more of a tragicomedy? Confused as to whether this would be considered Litfic or not... Any help appreciated! Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:41:52 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_250148 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_250148 iymcool Good afternoon, I was wondering if someone could confirm if my idea would fit into LitFic or perhaps SciFi, please? I'm still in the planning stages (despite how late it is to just be starting), however, I wanted to center my novel around a set of countries that are divided up, to the point of physical Berlin Wall style barriers, by the varying schools of psychological thought. The citizens in each country act and live within the confines of their own particular school: Jungian/Freudian/Aestheticist/etc. The FMC is named Evelyn, a young graduate from a Jungian school who sets out on a traveling sabbatical through the varying countries to try and define the "Influence" (the God-like figure in this world) that founded these schools, and to better understand why they are all divided. Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:07:06 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_250501 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_250501 iymcool [Duplicate Post] Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:07:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_250504 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_250504 lvs2read My story is about a family with a dad who left for the military and a year later, he comes back. The family has grown into grown into almost not needing him anymore. Kind of a story of them letting him back into the family. Is this LitFic? Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:47:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_254662 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_254662 kcar Here's my definition and others can argue. I've seen some here posit that lit fic doesn't have a plot. That is wrong. Lit fic has a plot, but it is CHARACTER-driven. Lit fic writers write in such a way that we care about the characters and their well-being (or lack therof if it's a nasty character) to the extent that plot becomes secondary and we care first and foremost about character arc. Of course something has to happen...and it best be something major...or it isn't a story. But what seperates literary from genre fiction is that characters instead of plot drive the action. We identify with the people, not the action.We feel personally involved with the narrator(s) and his/her/their growth or lack thereof, It's usually characterized by a close third or first-person narrative style where we get into the narrators head, his/her thoughts and dreams. An elaborate plot with many twists and turns is not necessary because the twists and turns are within the characters abd drilling down into their psyches. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:46:44 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_258934 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_258934 iymcool Thank you very much for calrifying. This definition is quite helpful and makes me think that I am on the cusp of LitFic and perhaps something else, as my story is about mental development, in a sense. However, my character does travel to explore varying aspects of the mind. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:28:57 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_262738 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_262738 Rubber_ducky Oh, if that's the case then mine is definitely LitFic since it is in an enclosed place and most events are emotional. Those that aren’t emotional events are imaginary ones... Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:09:19 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_264244 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_264244 Blue Hope I really like your idea, fm92.9 ! Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:23:21 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_266316 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_266316 hope247 Am I writing LitFic? I'm writing a story in journal form about the life of a crohnically ill teen. I think that would be kinda LitFic and kinda YA. What do you guys think? Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:24:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_267328 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_267328 Word-Smith Okay... bear with me... there are some definite elements that say supernatural, but I don't want it to be presented as fiction. I actually believe in the things that I'll be writing about, and I want that to be shown in the genre. The free love movement is sweeping across the nation. It never stops pulling young minds in, hookinging the corners of their consciousness with bait of psychadelics, drugs, and sex with whomever they want. Especially in Chicago, Illinois, the opened minds are welcoming in anything, except the visions of a young girl living without a mother, without a father, and without a voice. The only one that will listen is a boy who has heard it all before, and doesn't really care anymore. But once he learns what she can see, he is forced to question whether everything anyone has ever said is true, or just a false way of coping. The girl's visions are due to a schizophrenic condition, and she literally has no voice because she has functional dysphonia due to fire smoke trauma in early childhood. She believes in crop circles, and everything that they represent. The perfect symmetry, the simplicity of the answer to life, the potential of human beings, all of the things that crop circle experts talk about. Not only that, but she believes they are directly contacting her through her art, which is in the form of graffiti all over the city. Um... any comments? Do I belong in LitFic, or does my intent not matter over the content? Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:58:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_273211 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_273211 Gray Nomad My novel could fit into LitFic and touch on several other genres as well. Dreaming Billabong. I am writing book 2 of the series for NaNoWriMo 2011 having written the draft for Book one in NaNoWriMo 2010 About the series of novels The dreaming spirits assist two children end a violent and corrupt payback culture that has harmed four generations of their families and their inland town. So it is a coming of age of the town and its people, especially the children, there is definitely a strong plot involved and sub plots. I do not like novels just telling domestic stories about a family not romance. As my own life is interesting, I don't have the time to just read a story about people without a compelling plot, therefore while I LOVE a good coming of age story, I want MORE for my time investment and that is what I am striving to give as a writer. I do not plan to call my novels finished until I feel I have 'honed' this plot story telling combined with the coming of age story. I see my readers as being too busy too, to just read about kids and a town growing up for the sake of filling in time reading. It is because of this plot, I was unsure where to position myself re the choice of my genre and I'm not going to flatter myself enough to consider my writing style good enough to win the Booker prize or any of the other great LitFic prizes, though :-)...lol...yes I would LOVE t win a prize for the encouragement value that would give as I complete my break away from writing non-fiction which had been my main writing domain before my Dreaming Billabong Series.. , Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:21:50 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_275956 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_275956 Kentridge202012 I'd consider my novel LitFic, to some extent - it deals mostly with interpersonal relationships and real-world themes, like mistrust and the boundaries of society. That said, it might come across as slightly unreal, seeing as its setting isn't any specific location, more like a collection of elements from border regions across the world. I was originally going to make one of the families living in the border region Hispanic, but that would have made the story seem to be about the US-Mexico border, which it isn't. Broadly, I'd say anything which focuses on human themes and more complex characters to be Lit-Fic, even if there are thriller/fantasy/sci-fi elements in the setting. Narrative doesn't have to be sacrificed either - LitFic can have a good, pacy plot, so long as it doesn't ignore the wider themes, or neglect character development. Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:53:44 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_276325 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_276325 Kentridge202012 A coming of age story with romance and a well-paced plot certainly fits the LitFic genre - as long as you have strong characters dealing with real-world themes, it can include elements of any number of other genres. Personally, I'm glad you're aiming for a strong plot; some literary fiction ignores narrative too much, and can become slow and aimless as a result, because characters become interesting through their experiences and how they react to them. Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:58:35 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_276389 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_276389 Gray Nomad Thank you, this forum post has been very helpful to me :-). Sat, 29 Oct 2011 03:54:47 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_277363 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_277363 Mary_Ellen Hi, not sure where I should "hunker" down as you all put it.....I consider the book I am writing as autobiographical/realistic fiction. I am writing about my family and it begins with the birth of my youngest brother who was born profoundly disabled in 1984. There are 8 children in my family (a yours-mine-and ours family - if you know that reference) and I really wanted to focus on the struggles and the triumphs of growing up during that time frame and the unimaginable impact that he has had on our life even now, 14 years after he has passed away. I don't want it to be a woah-is-me, have pity on this family kind of story, but more like to lend support to other families. I also had a realization that he would have been 30 in 3 years and I want to keep his memory alive, literally (so we don't forget little things) and figuratively. I don't want the book to be completely autobiographical I have been working with outlining everything out and have started writing some but to be honest this whole novel writing is new to me. I have had poetry and short stories published in high school and during my undergrad work but that was it. So I am writing in 2 fold, to see if this is where my story and I belong, and to ask, if anyone has any advice, please feel free to share...Thanks yall! Sat, 29 Oct 2011 05:55:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_278058 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_278058 SVEllis I'm really not sure what genre I am writing. At first, when I started conceptualizing my plot I called it 'fiction' cause I didn't even know better. Than a website told me that if it focuses more on characters than on streamlined plot it's literary fiction so I began adopting that phrase. Now I'm not sure but I'll lay it out for you... My novel is about a town more than anything. Raaf is a recent high school graduate who decided to spend his summer trying to find father who'd abandoned the family 13 years before by roadtripping to some of his town's old haunts. Now when the story begins, his car breaks down in the town of Majestic, West Virginia and over the three days he's in town he is introduced to different characters (local bartender, hotel clerk, local political afficiado, etc. etc.) and his interactions with these characters begins exposing the lies that surround these characters. Some are lying about fidelity while others are lying about identity and so forth and so on but in the end of his time there relationships have been forever altered, one character has died, etc. The reason people have suggested it is LitFic is becauseit deals more with relationships than streamlined plot and also there is no clear antagonist, protagonist, or even MC. From the way I describe it people assume Raaf is the MC but he's really a static character who only serves as a foil to the majority of the other characters. I'm really not sure whatsoever where this novel falls... Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:15:58 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_280057 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_280057 cityscapes101 I'm not sure what my genre is. I'm a bit of a procrastinator so I don't have a definitive plan of where my story is going to go, but the general idea is that a young woman named Armistead is trying to find a purpose in her life after quitting her job as an English teacher, and she ends up taking care of her dead sister's seven year old son named Matthew and and old student named Giac who is an war veteran who has lost his leg. Armistead has no purpose because she has no friends, no job, and nothing to fall back on. Matthew has no family except for Armistead, and Giac is disabled and suffers from the mental after effects of the war. So the whole story is about purpose and having a niche in life. But then again, it's not. Armistead begins to find her purpose because Giac begins to tell Matthew these fantastical tales, and Armistead begins to write them down. The three become so invested in the tales because it's all they have to cling to. In these parts, the story sort of becomes a fantasy. So it could actually go under the fantasy genre. I'm not sure. Any ideas as to what I should aim more towards? Lit Fiction or Fantasy? Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:25:05 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_282754 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_282754 Lucien Jay Hello there, I'm also trying to figure out if my plot is LitFic. I'm not sure if it's the most gripping tale, but I'll try my best to summarize: "Aurelius is a carefree young boy who is being cornered into marriage by his single father. Unable to truly love because of a childhood incident, Aurelius makes a deal with his parent that he will marry, but only if he finds someone that he has the potential to love and trust. Although the boy is hopeful, he knows that he is only buying time so he can figure out how is supposed to give his heart to a person he rarely knows. Still desperate, his father makes the fatal decision of inviting Aurelius's 'romance-expert' best friend to aid him. A grand ball and several horrific confrontations, including the realization that the family fortune might disappear if he doesn't marry, begin to endanger Aurelius's life as he endeavors to understand a concept that he can barely grasp." Still working on it. My apologies if it doesn't seem to be too interesting (I did not want to give too much away in the synopsis!). Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:33:53 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_283923 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_283923 weirdlittlekc Can someone tell me if LitFic is my home? The main premise of my story revolves around the idea that 'nothing is crueler than a child'. Ophelia, my MC, inherits the title of Duchess at the age of eleven in a society that hates children and young adults. She has to deal with the anger and frustration all the adults are directing at her without the help of her peers, who've all been sent to the Academy. My story explores different aspects of cruelty and violence. For example, a child may hit another child when angry, but is that better or worse than an adult lying to a child? LitFic or Historical Fiction? Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:18:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_284603 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_284603 Word-Smith This is the best advice I think I've ever gotten about how to do rough drafts in relation to manuscripts. No one has ever been able to explain it! Thank you SO MUCH! Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:47:01 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_287831 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_287831 upnadam Decided again to change my story - pretty sure it fits into LitFic, but just want to make sure. It's the present day. Our worst fears have been realised - the apocalypse has sent the world into chaos. Five men and women have banded together, as they make the trip across country. It is a long and lonesome road, and each one reflects on their pasts, and the events leading up to the apocalypse. Each individual has a primary circumstance they look on - whether that be family, addiction, revenge etc. Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:53:26 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_293700 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_293700 NothingButWords In my personal opinion, that is LitFic. Honestly, it doesn't matter though -- your synopsis sounds like it would make a wonderful novel. That's all that matters. Sun, 30 Oct 2011 06:12:48 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_294205 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_294205 ddevotchka So I've been reading all the genres that my story might belong to but I'm still confused. You see, my story has a story within itself. I wouldn't say it's a story within a story because unlike those, mine focuses more more on first level of the story and uses the second level to highlight the struggles of the main character (her name is Mal). Mal knows that she is a fictional character and that her life isn't actually real. But she is aware of certain important events that are about to happen and two months before she is going to die, she realises that she doesn't want her life/story to end. So she decides to do the opposite of what she was supposed to do (or she THINKS she is doing the opposite, she THINKS she has control of her own storyline). First thing she does is that instead of starting on post-production for her new indie film like she's supposed to be doing (she's a filmmaker), she takes part in NaNoWrimo (haha original). This is where the second level of my story comes in. The second level is written by her (or she thinks it's written by her). Without realising it, she bases the characters in her story on the people in her life. Everyone thinks she's touched in the head, especially because she has an imaginary friend named Sam. But they love her all the same because she's awesome. Oh boy, I wrote a novel already. If you read all that, do you think this falls under LitFic? Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:52:23 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_296168 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_296168 Dj_Tigeress My story is about a woman who wakes up from a 13-year-coma after living in a dream with her perfect husband, perfect job and 3 kids. When she wakes up in this different world, she finds she was in a car crash at 17 that killed her older brother and sister, as well as paralyzing her younger sister. She must face the struggles of depression, therapy and high medication bills until she can get her life back to normal. Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:06:26 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_296339 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_296339 ArgentumHawker I'm having a very difficult time genre-ing my story, which doesn't happen very often. When I tell people the idea, the conversation ends up being more about what the story is not than what it actually is. I probably don't belong here. I mean, it's not like I'm talking about anything that important in my book. But it is more of an introverted story, despite the silly premise. I'll preface by saying that I came up with it a couple years ago and barely got into the planning stage when I realized it was basically Stephen King's Misery. And then I gave up. But I always like the idea and kept going back to it so I decided to just write it this year. I know it's not Misery (even though I jokingly use that as my working title). I figure if I throw a reference or two, people will read it and go "haha, it is kinda like Misery" instead of "She totally ripped of Stephen King!" So it's about an author of a wildly popular young adult series. Basically imagine if Stephanie Meyers was a hot young guy, what the fan-girls would be like in that case. Through an unfortunate series of events, he gets kidnapped a high school book club who he snubs at a book signing. Foolish girls who get in over their heads when the opportunity basically throws itself in front of them. (I'm just going to ask you to trust me that it works out in a believable manner that these girls get this opportunity, since I can't quickly explain it) The last book that was just released took a weird turn at the end that has a lot of fans upset. The girls want him to make sense of it. But he is planning on taking the entire series in this new direction, he had been planning that since the beginning. But it's going to upset a lot of people if he writes the next book the way he's thinking. People like these fan girls, millions of them everywhere. And he doesn't really realize the implications until he talks to these girls. He's really out of touch with his fans. And actually people in general. Pretty much every relationship he has is falling apart, especially with his twin sister who one of the main characters of his books is based on. He sleeps with a lot of women (all fans) but he doesn't have any meaningful relationships with anyone, except arguably his agent. So yeah, there's this big plotty kidnapping, but the majority of the book is him chained up with a dog tether in this teenaged girl's pool house. There's maybe two action-y scenes, but mostly it's just him sitting there trying to write his next book in a notebook he swiped from the girl's backpack and struggling with the ownership of his series and the expectations of his fans. And what gave me the first hint that it might possibly be LitFic is that I don't actually know the answer. Maybe I'll figure it out by the time I get to the end of the novel. Like I said, not the meaning of life, but maybe you fellow writers get it, balancing writing for yourself and writing for the masses. Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:20:27 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_306552 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=5#forum_thread_comment_306552 j.c Hi everyone. :) I'm honestly unsure whether I'm writing Mainstream or Literary fiction, or even something else entirely The main character's a young adult, but it's not quite YA. The setting is a huge "character", if you will. It's a lot about the two main characters' personal issues, but also about the issues that plague the town in which the story is set. However, there's also a solid plot and stuff. It's both plot and character driven, I guess is what I'm saying. There is a dash of the supernatural (which, uh, happens to be a big part of the whole premise). I am more than a little bewildered. Synopsis: Cornwall, Ontario. Population: just over 40,000. For decades, its economy and livelihood have been hugely dependent on Domtar, a large corporation which operated a paper factory in the city. Four years ago, the factory shut down. Now. After a messy divorce, Sab, age sixteen, is forced to move from the hustle and bustle of Toronto to this small town with his mother Lauren, a family physician who decided to move both her practice and her kids back to her Eastern Ontario roots, and Adam, his older brother, a student at the University of Ottawa, present in name only. On his first day in his new school, Sab encounters a ghost of Cornwall past, a girl with only vague memories and no idea about who she is or how she died. He names this girl January, after the month in which they meet. Against his own better judgement, he becomes good friends with January, and more and more curious towards her as well. His curiosity ultimately wins out over his self-restraint, and he begins investigating, in hopes of finding out who January is and how she died. The deeper he delves into January's life and death, the closer with her Sab becomes, and the more reluctant he is to let her go. Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:18:54 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_340292 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_340292 Lucid Dreamer I'm not sure where I fit in either, as there doesn't seem to be a big divide. My story is about a girl who's mother left her father for another man when she was young. The father tries to raise her but ends up falling into a cycle of revenge, constantly pushing the girl to do bettter and better once he realizes she is above intelligence. His mantra is I'll show them. After 15 years her mother comes back to take her away (both parents were from big corporations, so it was an arranged marriage, though in the three years they were together the father had come to love his wife). You find out the mother had another child that died, so she is taking her first child back to be her heir since she is unable to have any more. The father, who was already a little mentally unstable after everything, commits suicide a few weeks after the girl is gone. The rest of the story follows her as she tries to define what she wants for herself while trying not to drown under everyone else's expectations of her. Her father's family also tries to take her, and because of the influence of both families, she is not able to emancipate herself, even though her father left her a fortune. She ends up with them having joint custody while she goes to school, getting her business degrees, and studying abroad. She has two butlers, one from each family, sent to help take care of her, but she doens't have a romantic interest, they are just there because of her status. At the end, she tells both families she will be taking both companies as heir, but that she'll stand on her own rather than be pushed around. She has to deal with all of the emotions involved in being abandoned, and then losing her father, even if he wasn't the best father out there. She also grows up some, and comes to term with her mother and grandfather's actions. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:18:45 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_356436 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_356436 rayruz I have no idea WHAT my genre is. My novel is based on true events. Many of my characters are strongly based on people I know, the people I worked with at my last job with details changed to protect identity. The main plot of the story is about a ten year old boy named Jayne, starting when he arrives at a residential treatment facility and what happens to him and the other boys at the facility during his time there, as he deals with his past of abuse and neglect. I can't figure out exactly if it's going to be all his POV... or all varying POV from different kids, or if any of the adults are going to have POV.... still working that out. What I really want to do is just honestly create a narrative that show the realities of what happens to kids who have been abused and neglected or born with psychological disorders. The good and the funny to the bad and the frightening, I think that this is a system people don't really know about, or know how important it is to the future of so many. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:50:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_358524 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_358524 nlroemer Perhaps I belong here. My story follows a very smart girl born in MA in 1787 who moves to the Albany area NY with her parents in 1795, then the family goes further west in NY state in 1807. The oldest of 10 she wants to be heard and wants to be an equal but being married in NY state means she has no rights etc. After 2 husbands, several children, she is left with none of them but is influenced by the incidents around her-Erie Canal, burnt-over-district evangelism, Sam Patch, underground RR and the Seneca Women's conference. So it is character driven for sure and it is her struggle in a society that tells her to be quiet, do only womanly things and leave the thinking to the males. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:14:14 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_365339 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_365339 hc-ski I agree! And as both a new nurse and a fiction reader,i can definitely say, "If this book hits the stands, I want to read it." Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:07:52 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_373637 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_373637 hc-ski This story synopsis makes me think of "the screwtape letters" with a twist. :) Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:15:48 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_373878 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_373878 mundaneepitome I'm writing a story in which basically instead of having animals, we have humans in their places. Just think of the animals as just being another ethnicity/race of humans - they are in no way furries or humanized animals - they are just human. For example: You would call someone who was chinese as chinese, but we would call a lion a lion. Basically what'll happen is that in this world, there are lands. And these lands are pretty much different biomes. A different King rules over this land, and the definition of King is not defined by gender - King refers to the ruler of a land, whereas Queen refers to the King's mate. So we can have a female King and a male Queen indeed. But asides from that, they hold certain characteristics above them. Don't think modern - but do think of people living off the land. Before the medieval ages, but think how Native Americans worked their stuff back then before the Europeans arrived and you've got a pretty decent picture of it? Though there are some Lands which are more civilized, that even have a judicial system and everything, but it all comes down to the fact that modern technology is non-existent here. It's mostly going to be a...uh, how should I explain it...political fiction? I don't know. I see something as political fiction if it has politics between factions in it (though the real definition would be different). I want to be able to flesh out the worlds especially since there are countless Lands- like Ocean, Savannah, Volcano, Forest, etc, etc. I wouldn't say that it's fantasy because they're all human and they don't have super powers or anything, but near the beginning of the novel there's going to be a lot of character development for the main protagonist - I say main, but really there's not really a protagonist because the story is about this world as a whole and the characters that live in it, and the effects of one action affecting another until it leads into a 'world war' of sorts. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:24:02 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_379593 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_379593 mundaneepitome I guess my problem is that I have no idea what genre this story would fall into. Any idea would be appreciated! Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:36:57 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_379875 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_379875 Aloren Just copy pasting from my synopsis. Follows three young people discovering themselves and coming to realize their asexuality. Nathan is a collage student with a past full of uncertainty about his sexual orientation and a history of be bullied. Lira a high school wallflower with a extreme aversion to sex but no history of sexual abuse. Discouraged about her aparently frigid nature and pressured to be normal by peers and family. She wonders if adopting a strict religion can be a way out of facing Any of it. Keely is a young mother and wife struggling to make the best of a life she now wonders is right for her. Dwelling on past mistakes and tension with her husband over her lack of sexuality has taken a toll. The book deals with tough life issues from sexual orentation to domestic abuse. Will these young and lost individuals discover their asexuality? Will they learn to live with themselves and the people in their lives? So yeah, mainly issue and character driven but I was reading a few things about LitFic online that expressed that publishers are strict on LitFic Also that you must have a degree to write it. So I may just call it mainstream to be safe... I don't know. =\ Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:49:59 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_382374 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_382374 BayRaysFan Agreed. I'm completely knew to writing novels but that idea is a brilliant one. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:00:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_387139 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_387139 R.Watson This is a very creative approach. I love it! Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:28:16 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_390725 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_390725 invisagirl I'd consider that to be more Drama than Lit Fiction. unless you have some kind of concept past shedding a light on abuse Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:35:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_390942 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_390942 invisagirl [quote=mundaneepitome] I'm writing a story in which basically instead of having animals, we have humans in their places. Just think of the animals as just being another ethnicity/race of humans - they are in no way furries or humanized animals - they are just human. For example: You would call someone who was chinese as chinese, but we would call a lion a lion. Basically what'll happen is that in this world, there are lands. And these lands are pretty much different biomes. A different King rules over this land, and the definition of King is not defined by gender - King refers to the ruler of a land, whereas Queen refers to the King's mate. So we can have a female King and a male Queen indeed. But asides from that, they hold certain characteristics above them. Don't think modern - but do think of people living off the land. Before the medieval ages, but think how Native Americans worked their stuff back then before the Europeans arrived and you've got a pretty decent picture of it? Though there are some Lands which are more civilized, that even have a judicial system and everything, but it all comes down to the fact that modern technology is non-existent here. It's mostly going to be a...uh, how should I explain it...political fiction? I don't know. I see something as political fiction if it has politics between factions in it (though the real definition would be different). I want to be able to flesh out the worlds especially since there are countless Lands- like Ocean, Savannah, Volcano, Forest, etc, etc. I wouldn't say that it's fantasy because they're all human and they don't have super powers or anything, but near the beginning of the novel there's going to be a lot of character development for the main protagonist - I say main, but really there's not really a protagonist because the story is about this world as a whole and the characters that live in it, and the effects of one action affecting another until it leads into a 'world war' of sorts. [/quote] Are you going to explain any of this in the novel? if so then it's scifi/fantasy. If things just are with no explination then it's lit fiction. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:37:08 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_390995 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_390995 invisagirl [quote=Aloren] Just copy pasting from my synopsis. Follows three young people discovering themselves and coming to realize their asexuality. Nathan is a collage student with a past full of uncertainty about his sexual orientation and a history of be bullied. Lira a high school wallflower with a extreme aversion to sex but no history of sexual abuse. Discouraged about her aparently frigid nature and pressured to be normal by peers and family. She wonders if adopting a strict religion can be a way out of facing Any of it. Keely is a young mother and wife struggling to make the best of a life she now wonders is right for her. Dwelling on past mistakes and tension with her husband over her lack of sexuality has taken a toll. The book deals with tough life issues from sexual orentation to domestic abuse. Will these young and lost individuals discover their asexuality? Will they learn to live with themselves and the people in their lives? So yeah, mainly issue and character driven but I was reading a few things about LitFic online that expressed that publishers are strict on LitFic Also that you must have a degree to write it. So I may just call it mainstream to be safe... I don't know. =\ [/quote] You don't need a degree to write lit, but I don't think this would be lit fiction. this would be more likely drama or something about that. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:38:28 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_391035 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_391035 valerieaugust Pretty sure mine is LitFic as it's character driven? It's about a girl living in a small village somewhere in the Middle East. Her father is the only doctor and she is his reluctant assistant. When their country goes to war her father leaves to fight and she is left behind to run the clinic on her own. Enemy soldiers come through the village, leaving behind a wounded soldier. As she cares for him, she develops feelings and eventually they fall in love. Her people despise her as a traitor. When the soldier returns to the front lines, she leaves to find him. She must choose between love and loyalty, and along the way she learns about herself and what really matters to her. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:01:47 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_391726 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_391726 Aloren Ha! Drama. Darn. I mean, I don't really care what the lable is but I always thought I would end up writing a fantasy book or something scifi. xD But these issues are ones I have had in my life a lot this past year and I feel compelled to write about them. Coming to face that I will lose that "Oh I don't like things like that" nerd cred... Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:34:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_394439 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_394439 invisagirl actually, I thought about it a little and depending about how you go upon the story. It could be lit fiction. It just depends on how you set it up. Just write. You can go all over the place with what you write. Also you should write what you know that's the best policy in my book Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:48:53 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_394870 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_394870 cypresstree I'm pretty sure my story would be considered Lit Fic due to a lack of substantial plot. It centers more on the protagonist's relationships with other people and the theme of individual autonomy. Essentially, I'm trying to portray how the protagonist's worldview and self-identity is altered through the relationships and social exchanges he encounters on a daily basis. My professor said the way to insult a author of literature is to tell him or her their story is a a bit "plotty". Of course, there are plenty of Lit Fics with intricate plots, but for the most part, I think lit fic is focused more on exploring "humanity" or "what it means to be human". It's not so much what the character learns in the story as much as it is what the reader discovers from reading it. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:11:07 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_397413 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_397413 AlphaDoubleNegative I'd define the genre I write in as "fiction", but I do tend to focus on characters rather than narrative for the most part. The novel I'm trying to write for NaNo is probably mainstream but I chose LitFic just for the time being. It's called When She Comes Home and it's about what happens when this celebrity who moved away from her small home town for five years to find privacy announces on the news that she has decided to return home. Three men (her ex-husband, her stalker and the man she was having an affair with) realise that they have to seriously change their lives in the year coming up to her arrival in the town, and to do so they end up competing with each other, but for completely different reasons. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:13:16 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_397477 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_397477 ItsADrizzit Ok, I've been trying to figure out where my novel fits in because I think it can go in like 6 different directions. Here's the premise: MMC (Nat) has lived all 24 years of his life doing pretty much whatever his parents had planned out for him. The only thing he really cares about in life is playing soccer. After he breaks up with his girlfriend, who he always considered more of a best friend than a girlfriend anyway, he makes a drastic choice to break away from the life his parents had set out for him and move across the country to try to figure out what it is that he wants from life. This will focus mainly on his new life living on his own and trying to find and then do the things he loves. Along the way he meets a group of people who he never would have thought would be his friends, he tries to find someone to settle down with and learns that relationships aren't as straightforward as his staunchly religious family taught him they were, and he finds out that living your own life is equal parts challenge and reward. Most of this will be written with Nat's interactions with his friends, teammates, co-workers, and family as the focus. There is plot, but I think I consider it secondary. Mainstream? LitFic? Romance? Drama? Other? Also I'm seriously terrible at synopses. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:17:32 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_397626 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_397626 mundaneepitome [quote=invisagirl] Are you going to explain any of this in the novel? if so then it's scifi/fantasy. If things just are with no explination then it's lit fiction. [/quote] I guess it depends on what you mean by explaining it. Do you mean like going into details about their lives/or about this world? I'm going for something that it's already assumed this kind of world is the norm and I won't really be comparing it to the world you and I live in. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:15:51 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_401499 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_401499 Carolz. I think I'm writing a LitFic... After a freak accident caused by a rare early snowstorm, Wes, a student in high school, awakes in the hospital while his father slips away. He is left only with basic memory, such as most of what he has learned in school. The only person he can recognize is his mother. As a result of an unexpected event, Wes is left in a struggle to re-learn what life is all about, this time without a father to help guide him. He re-discovers the good and the bad with the help of his close friend, Heather, as he tried to gain footing in the ever-changing world. :)? Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:27:22 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_401902 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_401902 T L Kay I have no idea what genre to put mine in. Help me out? Lynette is a writer with undiagnosed schizophrenia (a teenager if you must know). She hears the voices of her characters and has never thought anything was wrong with that. Gradually, one of her characters becomes more and more real to her until she can actually see him. People start realizing something is wrong and try to get her help. Then there's some light romance with the psychologist's son (who has a former drug problem). But the plot basically comes between Lynette having to choose between the voices she believes make her who she is and keep her from being alone or her family, friends, and sanity. Also, Lynette's book runs parallel throughout. It's a sort of dystopian thing. Different sort of world, maybe touching on fantasy, bows and arrows and thieves. That's probably going to be fleshed out a lot in the book. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:42:14 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_411449 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_411449 sbingram12 I am writing a fiction novel that correlates directly with my life experiences - let downs, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and borderline personality disorder. I need to get it out on paper, and I thought this could be a good outlet for me, but I'm not sure if it would be classified as Literary Fiction. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:51:33 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_415908 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_415908 Mutant0 I want to find a home during this month and I want to make sure I'm in the right place! My story is actually a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It is about a burn victim who is horribly disfigured from a fire that consumed his house who kidnaps a doctor hoping that she can fix him and make him look human again. It is definitely character driven and I'm really interested in voice as a writer so that is something I would like emphasize. Is this Lit Fic? Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:10:11 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_419518 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_419518 GaryGray At first I thought my idea was mainstream, but then I think I shifted into litfic territory. Anyone want to categorize this? "A Better Place to Be" Lionel Schwartz is a night watchman at the tool &amp; dye at the edge of town that has been unlucky in finding someone to share his life with. He regales the regulars of Thelma's Tavern of his previous evening, hoping to find a way to resolve his sudden loneliness. A rotund waitress, a shamed housewife, and an elderly man add their voices to a choir of dispirited tales. Set in the small town of Delano, Pennsylvania, the four strangers open up by chance of a common thread. Inside the confines of Thelma's Tavern, their stories of heartache, hope, and desire seek to find truth behind the value of love and companionship. Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:25:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_419814 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_419814 toxicomanie I used to live in Cornwall! Completely random, so I apologize. Just not a very notable place, odd to see it mentioned in a plot! Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:01:59 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_424961 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_424961 graciado Ah, this thread makes me feel so conflicted! In the planning stages, I strongly intended my nanowrimo efforts to be 'LitFic'-esque, at least. I was intending the story to be character-based, centred around a mid-30s ex-police officer who left the force after a terrorist incident and subsequent disciplinary inquiry. It was very much intended to be focused on her, the difficulties of coming to terms with a huge event that no one seems willing to forget about, and the support structure that sort of erects itself around her as she's spiralling. There will be some character-growth in there, but she is also in the position of being always in the eye of the storm, so to speak! In the course of starting to write and blocking it out, though, I've gotten quite involved in how to get from A-to-B, fitting in all the information required about the incident, the relationships between the main characters, etc., and it's getting a little bit more 'plotty' than I'd intended! I'm not sure if that's just a feature of the writing process, though. You have to line up all your ducks first? Is anyone else finding an intention to write LitFic might be thwarted by Fate? Might it be better to abandon LitFic efforts for a week or two and go where the plot takes me? Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:59:55 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_426081 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_426081 camisado211 I'm far far out of my genre here (I normally write fantasy) but I wanted to try and mix it up this year. So I think this might belong under LitFic. It's completely character driven. There is almost no underlying plot whatsoever. My story is about the lives of 4 teens after a summer of paying for their past actions. (Three of them are quite serious and one is not so bad: one was in rehab recovering from anorexia, one was in rehab for being an alcoholic, one was in jail for something I haven't figured out yet, and one was doing summer detention/summer school.) They've all been forced to go to a therapy group together. The book dives into their pasts to find the root cause of what happened. It also follows their recoveries and downfalls. The four form a close bond. Basically there's lots of angst and lots of dealing with body image issues and grief and drugs. Its going to be erm- interesting. So yea. You think it's serious enough to be in LitFic? Or should I try YA? Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:08:13 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_426289 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_426289 JoNbOy I think mine is LitFic. It's called "The Mask Of Rio", and is about an older, cynical teenager who is disgusted with the world we live in, and to make a statement about how everyone else is absolutley the same in thought, opinion, and action, the boy dons a mask and an alias, Rio, and vows to never remove the mask or reveal his real name. The book is sort of coming-of-age but not exactly. He's almost like the last remaing free-thinker in my generation (or so he thinks). Is this LitFic? Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:07:40 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_430827 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_430827 Daniel Olson That's really cool. I wrote a short story once that was sort of like that (but your idea is better). Mine was called tick-tock and it revolved around a spy that was about to be assassinated. There was a clock in the room and the tick and the tock of the clock drove the story. The entire story takes place in like 30 seconds while the person considers the ending of his life and the life that he had lived that got him to that point. I never really developed it all that well and it ended up being a shorter story than it should have been. I guess I never really finished it. Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:26:15 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_431360 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_431360 neciaj Hi. I don't know what my novel is. So, here's the story. It's a world that is exactl like ours, but instead of night being a time, it's a place. It's like every day at 8pm, people (and large animals) get sort of 'teleoprted' instantly to this other place, Night. And they stay there for 12 hours, until 8am hits, then they get 'teleported' back. But that's just the world, so I wouldn't say it's science fiction or fantasy. Anyway, one working class gal gets stuck in the daytime (the people around vanish at 8pm but she's stuck there). And another girl, a uni student, gets stuck in the night. The night is a bit weird, cause everything's essentially the same, like your house is still your house, and anything that is bolted to the wall gets transported, but small animals only get transported sometimes, but scientists can't work out why it works sometimes and not others, and obviously no plants grow in Night because that place has never seen the sun... Anyway, what do you think? It definately focuses on the characters' reactions and thought processes and dreams, but would you say it's more sci fi or fantasy? Or does it belong in lit fic? That was long, thanks in advance :) Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:01:21 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_455916 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_455916 Maurawr I would also love to read that. My novel also has an interesting exploration of breathing when it comes to reflection of life but it does not nearly last as long as yours and is nowhere near as creative. I love this idea though. Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:30:12 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_472669 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_472669 JCharles I'm not sure if my novel would be LitFic or Sci-fi. It will be character driven but there's an overall plot that's important as well but it's more about the subject it explores if that makes any sense :/ Here's the synopsis Explores a futuristic society where the key to eternal life has been discovered. The story revolves around three characters who experience this new society first hand and each character's perspective on having eternal life. Their stories intertwine to show the impact it has had on the human race and their actions lead to larger events unfolding. Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:22:46 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_483461 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_483461 CaptainPollux The major problem I've had with my novel is that in deciding which genre my novel belongs in, I need to give away a spoilery bit at the end. The first chapter introduces you to a cast of mostly female characters, some of which have known each other for many years, and others that are just meeting due to coincidences in the story. You are introduced to eight characters, and the story revolves around all of them working together to move towards this goal (this was my hint that it was LitFic... the lot wasn't really the important driving force of the story.). The spoilery part: you learn at the end is there were really only four characters, the other four characters being the multiple identifies of my main character, Roma, who has dissociative personality disorder. The main arc of the plot is unraveling Roma's DID, but the reader wouldn't get that until the end of the book because there are many different, unrelated sub-arcs that draws one's attention away from it. Which is my problem, while on the first read it seems like a poorly written mainstream fiction novel, it's on the subsequent reads that you pick up on the everything else. Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:39:45 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_490212 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=6#forum_thread_comment_490212 Moonwing_Ice This sounds like an awesome idea. I'm curious as to how this turns out! Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:17:47 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_504944 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_504944 elvendork64 So, as far as I can tell the main identifying characteristic for LitFic is "I have no idea what genre my novel is!!!" so I'm just gonna go ahead and call my novel LitFic. :D Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:46:16 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_505682 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_505682 Rob(literated) I'm probably LitFic, though the pretentiousness of the title irks me a bit. Since there isn't an "autofictional magical realism" category around here. On my best day, my story is basically going to be somewhere between "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and "Cien Años de Soledad." It's also somewhat allegorical, as my MC/semi-avatar is something like the Biblical Isaac who, instead of admiring his father's faith, says "YOU WERE GOING TO KILL ME FOR WHAT???!!" There's a plot, but it's not very central until about halfway through the story, since the first half of the story is the MC waiting in line as a tourist to visit the Swami Venkateshwara temple in India for three hours. It'll take about three hours to read and be written in a very sort of first-person/imaginative/stream-of-consciousness style with reverie blending into snippets of conversation with the people he's waiting in line with. Then there'll be something of a Joycean epiphany/moment of zen in the actual temple, which becomes the central problem for the MC's irreligious nature. Then a plot actually starts to form and sort of takes off. I want to really play with narration styles, though, since the MC is going to become something of a mystical Marine, charging into altered states of consciousness in some sort of pursuit of the great spiritual Other, while still trying to keep the Abrahamic baggage at arm's length. Anyway, we'll see how it plays out, but I think it fits into Litfic since it doesn't fit anywhere else. Sat, 05 Nov 2011 21:11:45 -0400 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_506442 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_506442 Boyce Is this litfic? It's mostly first person, from the POV of a near mute genderless character (haven't picked a name, might not name them anyway) and starts off pretty standard sex/drugs/partying stuff but the character becomes very paranoid and starts showing signs of psychosis. As more things happen that the reader is supposed to question there are hints that the character has become a vampire, not the traditional type but just a normal person with an obsession with the taste of blood. There's more to the character than I've suggested, it's very character driven rather than plot, it won't be entirely linear but generally it charts the character's progression into madness and vampirism and then starting to get their life under control as a new person. Basically it's a bit lgbt and a bit Bret Easton Ellis but with suggestions of vampires and a very unreliable narrator. Don't really know where else it would go rather than here? Also the plan is better than it sounds haha Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:34:03 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_518504 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_518504 bedussey I'm not sure if my story is LitFic or Young Adult Fiction or Mainstream. Too many genres, ahhh, too confusing! It's about a kid who wants to grant his best friend (who committed suicide)'s dying wish by spreading his ashes at a specific cliff in California, so he plans a road trip, at first planning to go only by himself, but is still open to other people coming with him. Somehow he gets stuck with four other people on the trip, one being a girl who plans to meet her father for the first time in Nevada, another girl who wants to surprise her fiance at UCLA, a boy with a purpose unknown to the other's and has a strange obsession with Motel 9's (It is later found out that his parents abandoned him at a Motel 9 as a child and he's been searching every Motel 9 in the country for them ever since), and a mysterious musician that they picked up hitchhiking in Tennessee. There are a lot of plot twists in the characters' development and there is some comedy and romance along the way, but it is mostly a story of adventure and self discovery. It is also told in third person, if that helps categorize it at all. (Too many people to be told from first person, ya know?) Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:58:11 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_521848 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_521848 Wassail The difference between pop fiction and literary fiction: things happen in pop fiction. Literature, no so much. Anyways... my story is primarily about sex and drugs and rock and roll with an ensemble cast whose lives are fairly empty and useless but they do a really good job of filling their days and mouths with ennui. There is also a ghost, and a forest sprite, and a retired Marine who thinks it's cool to study informatics, and chip-tunes, and transport to the void of death, the pretentious use of varying languages, and a reverential mockery of world religions. Everyone in this story is beautiful and the narrator is very popular. Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:01:01 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_521906 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_521906 Wassail Don't you love being unique and undefinable? I know I love being unique and undefinable. I think we should all be unique and undefinable together. Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:03:57 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_521961 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_521961 Inuzoy Rob- your story sounds like Literary Fiction much more than Mainstream. Boyce- It's hard to say if yours is Literary or Mainstream, but because it is more character driver, it may tip closer to the Literary Fiction identity? But, I am not 100% sure. Bedussey- Your story sounds like Young Adult, especially if these are teenagers, but you did mention UCLA so it may be slightly harder to fit in the YA genre. Outside of that, I have no clue if it is Literary or Mainstream. Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:01:32 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_531024 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_531024 Inuzoy My story is about a college freshman who comes home for the first time on winter break. He finds his life in better condition than he left it: his mother got a promotion and a pay raise, his girlfriend is going to go to college and knows what she wants to do, and his best friends are getting along. Everything seems to be going well until his 12yo brother tells him that he is depressed. He tries to comfort his brother and make him feel loved, but nothing he tries seems to work for long. In the end, he must choose between dropping out of college and staying home to help manage his brother's depression, or go to college and abandon his suicidal brother. Is this Literary fiction or Mainstream fiction? Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:49:55 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_532394 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_532394 walkingintomordor I've got an "Am I writing LitFic?" question. My novel is about a teenage boy with prevalent social/emotional issues who moves to an entirely new city. He befriends three others through an English project thing and the rest of the book follows their individual ~~emotional journeys - it's definitely predominantly character-driven, without a really riveting plot. The main focus is the relationships between the four main characters. Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:14:43 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_537946 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_537946 ShayneWMeyers So. A friend of mine told me Action/Adventure, I think Romance, but then, LitFic seems like the place for me. My story is a bit of a culture shock peice, about two highschoolers thrown together and come from vastly different societies. Jeremy, an upperclass kid who's paretns fostercare is forced to room with Zander, a native american boy who's used to the slums and gang lifestyles. It's about the friendship, romance and hardships that form between them, the disillutionment of Jeremy and the struggle Zander faces trying to get out of the society he's roped into. There's alot of action, fights and stuff, everything's very blunt, and then there is the romance between them, the discovering of one's self that Jeremy goes through and Zander's learning of what 'love' really means. I'm trying to pack all this into 50,000 words which seems difficult, but i'm really passionate about it. does it seem like LitFic? Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:28:43 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_538293 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_538293 Dbirnbrey I have no idea if I'm writing LItfic or mainstream fiction. Plot is as follows. Seventeen year old Molly Morrison narrates the eighteen month she spent in the Montana wilderness being help captive by brothers James and Logan Silvers. The story is told from a single point of view, (obviously, first person limited) as Molly walks the reader through the days of captivity, as well as the aftermath of the events that lead to her freedom. I included a exert for reference. ---how can I write a novel if im unsure of gerne? X_X [i]By November, I had decided to stop waiting and hiding and take my freedom back. I began observing the boys patterns, sketching out a mental roster of their entire lives. I learned their work schedules, their sleep patterns, what television they liked, when they took meals, everything. By the twentieth of the month I had decided what I need to make my escape, Logan’s keys and James’ knife. I talked myself down a good bit about these items, prattling on about how the entire mission was impossible. I had to try though, because my instincts refused to idle by any longer why I did nothing to change my own fate. James came home at seven am, at which point he retired to his bedroom and stripped down, before collapsing onto his bed seemingly exhausted from his shift as a paramedic. Unlike Logan, James wasn’t the least bit neat. His bedroom was a wreckage of dirty laundry, books and other various objects. I dreaded having to tiptoe around everything to his jeans, where his knife lived clipped to the hip of his jeans. I could never fathom why he bothered changing at work, if only to come home and take off what he was wearing. That morning, as promised by Murphy’s law, James arrived home late. He was in a particularly foul mood. I watched as he slammed the door, jammed his key into the lock and stomped his way up the stairs. I tossed a sideways glace at Logan, who continued to type frantically away on his laptop. I wondered how he would react when I threatened him with a knife for the keys, and tried to accept the idea that I would probably be stabbing him in a few hours time. I gripped my shoulders, telling myself that this doubt I felt was only the result of the brainwashing they had done. It wasn’t wrong to hurt someone when it became your only option, in fact, it was wrong not to. “What’’s wrong princess?” asked Logan, who had shut the laptop lid and was slightly swaying in the black computer chair. His hands were tucked behind his head lazily, and the smile on his features presented amusement. “Nothing”” I responded automatically. I lowered my arms and wrapped them around my knees, pretending to be interested in the morning news. They were doing a piece on the attacks in New York again. I felt a small twinge of sorrow as I remembered that Dad was dead. I wished they would stop showing those planes over and over again, it was driving me insane. The news had moved onto the weather, and the tall lady in red delighted upon informing her views about the high prospects for snow this weekend. I inwardly groaned. All I needed was snow covering the ground why I was struggling to navigate my way to a road. The weather girl was cut off mid-sentence, and with a small click the picture shrunk to a tiny pinhole of fading light. I didn’t turn to look at Logan, who I knew had just turned the set off. Instead I continued to stare at the blank screen, playing an old episode of Scooby-Doo in my head. “Hey,”” Logan said softly, as he scooted forward to get my attention. “Yes?”” I asked in a small voice. I used to say what, but what is rude apparently. “Seriously, we spend almost twenty four hours a day together, I know something’s going through that head of yours.” I pressed my tongue hard against the roof of my mouth. A common way for me avoid shouting at the very suggestion that Logan knew me, even the littlest, tiniest, bit. “Like right now, your repressing the urge to say how much you hate me. I can tell. I read people for a living babe. You can’t hide from me--” “Luke’’s Birthday okay?” I lied to him, because I had to say something or he’d never had left me alone. “Yesterday was Luke’s eighteenth and I forgot and I feel guilty because my best friend would never forget my birthday and I didn’t remember his” Luke’s birthday is in July, the nineteenth, a Cancer who won’t eat seafood. One hilarious joke you’ll never know the punchline to. Take that asshole. “This would be the blond kid who got his ass kicked when that guy attacked you?” Logan asked. “It was five on two, and I’m pretty sure we can out on top of that fight” I retorted. I didn’t like him speaking about Luke that way. Luke was amazing, and this petty, shadow of a man, was jealous. I inhaled deeply, and the smell of Anarchy body spray assaulted my senses. My sense of smell had always been the strongest of the five. Now their scents were forever embedded in my memories, and I wished I had been born with Anosmia. “Only because I showed up. He was going to cut you and Lukey pooh up my dear” Logan said. “Your not near as capable as you think. Otherwise, you would have gotten away from James and me easy” His words enraged me. That had sabotaged my car, stolen my phone, drugged me! I had walked directly into a trap. I considered shouting this at my arrogant conversation partner, but I already knew what his retort would be. What’re you still doing here then Molls? I couldn’t risk bringing a subject like that up. So I opted for another. One I was certain would distract him. “Why did you help me anyway?” “Why didn’t I let pretty boy and his hoodlum friends have you?” he asked. There was something about the tone of his voice that disturbed me. Have me. He didn’t want someone else to have me. “Yes,” I continued, focusing on a staple in wall to avoid his gaze, “why not just let Brody kill me or rape me? Save yourself the trouble of keeping me cooped up for whatever—” “Your not serious?” Logan interrupted. I abandoned the staple and met his gaze. He was leaning forward now, his face hovering very close to mine. I found the proximity intimidating, so I scooted back. It was a sign of submission yes, but I’d adopted a philosophy of safety before pride, especially around Logan. “Its a valid question.” “Its a digging question.” Logan accused. I wasn’t supposed to ask those types of questions. Mainly, I wasn’t supposed to ask the why, I already knew the who, what, when, and where. “It wasn’t meant as one.” I defended myself. “It just came up in that context.” Logan said nothing. He merely stared on. Looking very, very ticked off. This would be the last conversation I would have with Logan Silvers. I was conflicted about how to respond. A part of me wanted to have the courage to stand up to him, but my plan called for otherwise. I just couldn’t risk it. “I’m sorry.” I told him, and ducked my head for good measure. “I haven’t been waiting for a convenient moment to sneak in that line. I was stupid, please forgive me?” Oh yes, those words are going to haunt you Molly Morrison, try sleeping with your pride now! “I just don’t want James hearing any of that.” Logan said. “He’d get so mad. I can’t always step in to protect you. Plus, he’s in a particularly foul mood, if you couldn’t tell by his grand entrance.” Protect me? He was the one who made all the trouble! Sure, it was always James doing the damage, but Logan almost always passively instigated. My toes curled in my shoes. “I’m going to bed” Logan announced. This meant that I was too. I still couldn’t understand why everyone had to operate on Jame’s schedule. When I got away, the police would never believe it. [/i] Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:43:40 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_538722 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_538722 EccentricDeary Changing my book because I've managed o right more in the past 13 minutes for this one than I have the other in 5 days. Anyways, just checking if it's mainstream or if it's Lit-Fic. I'm thinking it will be mainstream on the outside and a Lit-fic on the inside. Or I'm a rebel and an idiot. Continuing on, My book is written from the view point of a teenage girl for a year, entirely from diary entries, like Anne Frank and "Dear God, It's Me, Margaret." She starts out very apprehensive, having had a bad day and spilling it out to the diary, and getting punished for it the next day, and decides to write just a little bit in the journal/diary everyday. As the story progresses though, you find out her interests and hobbies, and her views on society, through complaining or comments about her class, school, or overall community. She may go through an attempted suicide, not sure yet, and possibly a relationship, because apparently we highschoolers —(My auto-correct is trying to change that to high hookers. Trying to suggest something keyboard?)— can't survive without them. She also starts out continually talking about how diaries don't have feelings, but later grows fond of the little book, possibly giving it a name, or a nickname, and occasionally asking it questions. Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:27:14 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_542790 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_542790 WritingMyLife I'm not completely sure if my story is LitFic, Mainstream, or Young Adult. I've labeled under Young Adult for now. My novel is titled "The Ones We Remember" (for now at least!), it's about the life of a child growing up in a bad part of New York City. It's told from limited omniscient third person, focusing on the mother and her struggles to give everything she can to her adopted daughter. The Jeanne (mother) tries to protect Mae (adopted daughter) from the horrors of the world they live on and the worse area just a few streets away. The story goes between the present and Jeanne's childhood, bad memories are told as nightmares and good memories are told to Mae as bedtime stories. What would this be considered? Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:24:41 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_559586 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_559586 slant Well, I'll post my plot synopsis that I just wrote here. See what ya'll think. Year of The Goat chronicles the lives of three men who live vastly different lives, all born in 1991. Defying traditional novel writing concepts, The Year of The Goat brings the reader back and forth in time to pinnacle emotional experiences of the three protagonists. Sabian Chaisty is an eighth grade dropout and the drummer in the unsuccessful band The Eardrum consultants, battling poverty, a dysfunctional drug addicted family and his own violently destructive behavior. Ransom Clarke is an amateur portrait painter dealing with secretive memories of childhood sexual abuse while living in isolation, fearing that others will discover his hidden life. Danny Thompson is a transgender-man struggling with emotional health issues, his family’s rejection of his lifestyle, and the question of whether he can ever learn to love himself. All three stories weave together in a gripping account of the Chinese astrological Year of The Goat. It also has nothing to do with astrology, that's just the way I have decided to sew the story together. Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:30:58 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_570041 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_570041 hannahseevers I think I'm writing LitFic?? My piece is about alternative family dynamics in a really extreme way. Sean and Justine are married and she's pregnant with their first child when Sean reveals that he's in love with Gabriel, his college roommate, best friend and Justine's sperm donor. Justine has an uncommon will to love, so she invites Gabriel into their lives instead of embracing a taboo. The story line takes them through seven years of their new family and the struggles that try to rip them apart. There is a theme of polygamy (polyamory, etc.), family life and humor. Any thoughts? I'm really terrified that the plot is too out of the ordinary and is completely unmarketable, but I'm so attached to these characters! Hannah Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:15:03 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_582826 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_582826 Supermatz My general and evil opinion is that many of you just think you are writing litfic because you desperately WANT your novel to be litfic for some reason? Be honest with yourself, and also, don't fool yourself - litfic is not necessarily cooler or more genius or brilliant than a mainstream novel. Mainstream can be totally awesome, except that maybe the label 'mainstream' is not too cool, but hey, that term was invented for us, and it is mostly up to the editors/publishers/readers/people who work in shops where they would place the book.. When i first came to this topic I thought oh, I want to be smart and write litfic. But I think that litfic is not necesarily more.. clever than mainstream, just different, in many ways, and yes, it is indeed hard to define. But I did (thanks to this topic!) come to the conclusion that I am probably writing mainstreem. And proud of it. Lots of things happen, I do not spend too many words on thoroughly describing things, im not aiming to become world literature. For those who have such or similar goals in minds, awesome and good luck. This message is not meant to be mean at all actually, just honest. It is great that we are all here on nanowrimo and we should not feel like our genre is not good enough, or that we really NEED to be part of a genre, like.. I hope you undertand I just get this idea of people posting here that they are making too big a deal out of this? Thanks!! and good luck writing everybody!! Cheers, Mathilde Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:18:26 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_585489 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_585489 Supermatz ps why can't we edit our posts I hate to see spelling errors in my posts baaaah = '( apologies if this is considered spam ;) good night and.. I'll be baaaaack.. Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:21:00 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_585538 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_585538 solomonj Maybe someone here can give me a gently nudge to help me find my tribe. I tried this request in the "Other" category and drew a bunch of blank stares, so I'll try it here. I envision this as a cross between Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Cormac McCarthy's The Road with zombies thrown in. I've perused the few genres that my novel could fall in and always balk at some component. In LitFic, I balk at the mundanity, the non-fantastic, which seems to permeate. My two main characters are a father and a daughter (14 years old for most of the novel except flashbacks). The daughter killed her mother two years before the main narrative of the novel. The main narrative is the road trip which the father and daughter take for cross purpose: the father is on the trip to reconnect with his daughter and try to understand the delusions she's having about zombies being in the world, the daughter is on this trip to gain more knowledge from her father regarding the nature of the zombies in the world and work past his denial of what she knows is real because her mom was a zombie. The omniscient truth is that medical technology for the wealthy has reached a point that can keep the body alive forever through nanotechnology, but unfortunately the brain has a point past which it just stops working, an expiration date, if you will. Society is calling these creatures zombies, but they are rare and harmless/pathetic (but not easy to kill except by fire/beheading/explosion). Because it's really only the very wealthy that become zombies, there is a hush-hush nature to the problem societally. The thrust of the novel is an examination of the relationship of the father and daughter as they make this road trip; the daughter understands her father more and he also begins to understand his relationship with his own father. The road trip is retracing the scenic, circuitous route which the father &amp; dead mother took for their honeymoon, though for much of the novel the father does this subconsciously. The road trip will end at the grandfather's door where the father is expected to end his father's now-zombie life. Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:16:47 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_590465 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_590465 kittykatex3 Hi :) I'm Kate. I'm writing a story about my life as well as some people I know. Here it goes: I'm starting a novel about a girl who is stuck in a grey area of her life. She's 21 and in her fourth year of college. She hates her new school that she transferred to, hates her major, hates the people, the area, and the general attitude of this place that's in the middle of nowhere with drugs, alcohol and sex everywhere with little sanity. Her mom is a controlling, over protective nurse that never says the right thing. Her boyfriend is always supportive, but their relationship is under fire since she lives 5 hours away. She hasn't made any friends at this new school, and her best friends that she's left behind seem to be falling apart and she feels too far away to feel like she can do anything. She's in a struggle I think a lot of college kids go through, but she feels like it's right at the edge where if she changed her life, she can't go back... she'll be stuck with whatever she decides. So this next step seems like the most important step of her life, and she only has a little over a month to decide what to do! And with an overbearing mother that is constantly forcing her to be "mainstream", it seems impossible to do what would make her happy. She constantly has an inner struggle to get her parents' approval, but soon realizes that she needs to approve of herself before she can then make others happy. It's kind of a "coming of age" book, but it's much more adult. I want people between the ages of 17-25 to read it. So not "young adult", per se... I want it to be deep with dark humor and lots of humanity and real connections. I want there to be a lot of subconsciousness to peek out from beneath the surface, and lots of signs of inner struggle without it really coming out so readily. So far, the people that I have shown it to say it's a great read. But I have no idea what to label it as. Please help! Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:11:45 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_593928 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_593928 Syaoran I'm not sure if I'm writing LitFic or not, but it seems to fall more under this category than Mainstream. Basically, it's about this boy Ryoma moving past his family's hatred of him and finding love. There's a little bit of plot - such as Rinko not being his actual mother, that being the reason she hates him so much; he represents the years her husband cheated on her and the fact that she will never hold his heart - but there's no real focus of the story besides Ryoma finding love and happiness, and eventually accepting himself as something other than the unwanted, abused child he always was. So would that be romance? Or LitFic? Or is it something else entirely? It really focuses more on Ryoma and his reactions to certain situations than anything, but the romance is a major factor later on. Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:25:45 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_594853 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_594853 PDX_Seaholt My God. I never think about genre when I read a book. Perhaps because I like to read a lot of genres. This is proving to be one of the most difficult things about nanowrimo so far for me. Help is appreciated, because if I ever look for an editor or agent I'll apparently have to know this. Now on to the plot... Synopsys: "When Evelyn Bennett’s father dies he urges her to find out more about a lovely ghost who has visited her since childhood. Her questions lead her to learn about her family and the gift that she shares with her great grandmother. Evelyn must use what she learns from her family’s history to rid them of an evil nuisance that has haunted them for generations back, and ensure that she has a future. " There is a battle of good vs. evil (LitFic?) Two or more charachters that can see ghosts (supernatural) Alternating POVs between charachters (LitFic?) Timelines aren't always linear (LitFic?) Part of the story is set in historically accurate 1920 (historical fiction) Sooooo LitFic or Mainstream or Supernatural? And how much does it actually matter? -Amy Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:40:56 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_605130 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_605130 DragonOwl I concur. Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:40:52 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_612220 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_612220 molin84 I think I'm somewhere between lit-fic and sci-fi please help Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:19:38 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_623364 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_623364 molin84 oh and read synopsis... sorrrrrry Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:20:01 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_623377 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_623377 Yomandude I just want to throw this out there: probably the main thing that makes literary fiction what it is, is that a societal or personal issue is the story's main conflict, rather than a team of deadly ninjas. Consider Fahrenheit 451, or 1984 if you have rubbish taste. Spoilers abound, of course. So. 1984 centers around a world where people's every move is monitored, and the populace has been heavily brainwashed. Winston decides to rise up against this society. The entire society is the major conflict, and O' Brien is simply a plot device. This is "hard" LitFic, or for lack of a better way to put it, fiction that's very literary. F451 also takes place in a land where the people are conditioned, in this case by not being allowed to read. The story follows Montag's personal journey as he realizes a bunch of stuff, but at the same time, the main antagonistic plot point is Beatty, keeping the reading thing a secret from him, and being on the run after (I did say spoilers, to be fair) killing Beatty. It's still literary, but it's "softer." And finally (why am I dragging this on?), think about The Hunger Games Trilogy. While the narrative is dystopian in nature, with Panem and the Districts and all that stuff, the main conflict is simply Katniss not getting killed. It's not until towards the end of the third book that rising up against the Capitol really becomes a major part of the plot. I'd say that's Sci-Fi with a tinge of literature. Yeah, I'm ranting. That's all. Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:31:38 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_632499 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_632499 madcalmom99 Thanks to Yomandude, and some of your other posts, I just realized that the genre of my book is LitFic. Thanks! Here's my snippet... Synopsis A Polish immigrant family in the late 1800's endures horrible and unspeakable terrors internally that tear and destroy the very filament of the family tree cursing the later generations beyond all hope. It will take tremendous acts of faith for the family tree not to rot entirely as the current generations in the 21st century knowingly and unknowingly confront this curse. Narrated from the perspective of the last in the line of this explosive family tree, only child Greg William Bennett, "The Ackrysz" reads like an interview of the different family members. Greg, then his wife Dahlia, each give deeply personal accounts of their lives and the lives of those in their families. They share what they know and what they've been told. Family members' failings, misjudgments, and sins are brought out to light and aired for all to see. The situations are real, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty and the innocent. Excerpt I cannot believe I am doing this. I never thought I would do this and I don’t even know where to begin. My family has always been different, but it wasn’t until this year that I realized just how crazy they really were. It was always one thing after another, one aunt fighting with another, one blow up after another. But I never realized that it all started hundreds of years ago. I never knew any of this until just a few months ago. Just a few months ago, my life took on new meaning. Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:03:03 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_641039 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_641039 shanshan17 I've been categorizing mine as "Romance," but I'm considering that it might be "Mainstream Fiction" or "Literary Fiction" and I'm not really sure where it lies...? Basic Synopsis: There is nothing stable about Jesse Owen’s life. His father is an abusive alcoholic, his mother rarely speaks, and his most dependable friends come in a cigarette box. The only thing that’s ever been constant is his relationship with his girlfriend, Nellie, who he’s been with for the past three years. There is nothing stable about Wren Bennett either. Behind her pretty façade, she has some devastating secrets that spin her life out of control. Her haunting past is kept behind the doors of her overprotective parents. And her relationship with her boyfriend, Hunter, is far from what it seems, as he struggles to decide who he loves more- his girlfriend or his addictions. But when Jesse and Wren’s worlds collide, everything changes. Suddenly, they find themselves opening up in ways they never have before. Trust, something completely foreign to them, begins to steadily build. And before long, they discover the terrifying truth- they’ve fallen in love. As they struggle to hide their secret relationship from their current partners, they find more out about themselves, each other, and life itself than they ever imagined. And soon they must choose between two types of love- the one they feel and the one they used to know. Don't know if this is necessary information but... The story is written with alternating third person points of view, between Jesse and Wren. So the first chapter is written through Jesse's eyes, second through Wren's eyes, etc. Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:22:57 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_645671 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_645671 Star-Gidget-chan Ok, so PLEASE tell me what this is, because I don't have idea where to place it: My story it's about a 14 year old spoiled girl whose fate was to die. She of course, with an imponderable lack of good judgement, decides that she will do anything necessary to go back to life. Resulting in her selling her soul and becoming a death reaper, but being alive again. So what I have now is a mix of cliche school story with characters not older than 15, and on the other hand a dark plot about death and soul traffics. The story itself, is a love story between this girl and her somehow unexpected boy friend, but it also talks about loss and grieve, and a lot of serious themes like murder, drugs, sexual abuse and pedophilia, depression and how to get up after you fall. There's not sex in the story, not with my main character taking part on it, at least, but only because it did not come up, not because I tried to avoid it. The writing style is also sort of a roller coaster with its ups and downs, sometimes strong scenes intertwined of followed by a really light scene where she's at school being her normal teen girl self, but eventually this changes into a rhythm where all the scenes are in a regular mid ground, which concludes with the end of the novel. The same way the prose is sometimes heavy and I struggle with it, and sometimes filled with humor, specially in the characters conversations. So... I don't have any idea of what this is. I'm at loss. Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:44:38 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_659634 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_659634 jackthor I also love the sound of your novel MrJiff, and would really like to read it! So please get writing! :D I think it is Lit Fic because of the issues you're engaging with, and focussing on one character's mental process, it's very thoughtful. I also have a car accident in my novel, but my MC survives, and it functions to change his perspective on life and his purpose in the world. Happy writing! Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:52:29 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_707923 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_707923 jackthor Hi sbingram12, I would say yes your novel is almost certainly Literary Fiction. Some mainstream fiction deals with these issues but it sounds to me the way you're writing it is going to be more introspective and artistic than predominantly concerned with commercial appeal. My qualification for suggesting it is Lit Fic is that I have 2 degrees in studying literature, and specialise in modern lit :) I hope this helps. Writing is a great therapy Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:58:14 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_707983 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_707983 Mikita5510 i feel like an orphan, I have no home. can I come here for a home? You always hear about the women who have Post-partum depression, which is known as PPD, that go crazy and drown their own children or hear voices that tell them to do crazy things. Then there are so called “superstars” who claim it is not real until their own wives suffer from it then they silently change their minds. Long ago women were thought to be possessed by the devil. How about the women who suffer from it and still go about their daily lives? They struggle to get out of bed and still try to get some joy out of their own children who do not understand why mommy is almost always in tears. “Mommy used to be so much fun, now it seems as if she hates me” is what must go through their little minds.” You never hear about that mom’s struggle. Well, Sit back, get Comfortable. Because now you will. I am tired of being quiet and keeping it all inside it is time for me to speak and tell you my feelings and my fears. that is a short excerpt from my book. it tells a little what my book is about.. I have no clue where I should be... dont think I fit in mainstream fiction. it is fiction since my MC is a fiction character her name is Jenna.... Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:10:53 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_754206 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_754206 maymay33 It sounds like you're geared towards a very character-driven story, where a lot of time is spent exploring the internal clockwork of your characters and what makes them tick. If this is the case, pull up a seat and get comfy. :) Unless, the mom is really a superhero and she's just so sad because she can't spend time with her daughter AND fight off the forces of evil AND cook dinner. And then goes on a wacky zany adventure that defeats Dr. Evil and reinforces her relationship with her daughter just in time for supper... Then it just MIGHT be lit fic. Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:43:51 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_755135 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_755135 outolumo To begin with, I've noticed that division into genre is not exclusive. One way to categorize is the setting, e.g. historical, contemporary, scifi, fantasy, mixed... Another is by the main plot: adventure, mystery, romance, etc. You can have a historical mystery or scifi adventure, for instance, and not limit yourself to only one of those genres. E.g. the aforementioned Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 are both scifi books - in a sense. Yet both are more or less LitFic as well. I think that LitFic comes into play when you are trying to transcend from the level of simply telling a story, into telling a story that somehow handles some internal/external (personal/societal) issues. This is more or less the case with any fiction, since we project ourselves in what we read and let the stories change us, likewise we can address societal issues by projecting them into a scifi -setting (think or Star Trek...) As for me, I have this problem of identifying my genre. Mostly I think it's quite experimental, testing how far the device - storytelling -can flex. The setting of my story is fantasy all right. It's just that the story doesn't fit in that genre. The story I'm working on now has a function of deepening and elaborating a fantasy world I created for a previous nano. In that story I kept following one person, doing some time-travelling (since exploring the tension between free will and determinism is a carrying theme and tension in that story). On another level, it tells the story of the world, how it changes and a collision between cultures and religions. There are some points that make it fit ill to the fantasy: * There's no "good" or "evil" side, just people with motivations one can relate to. * There's no "quest". In fact the MC has very little idea what he is to do and even less how. Attempt to do anything typically results in a disaster. * Needless to say the story does not follow a linear timeline. On the other hand it does address a number of larger than life things, especially on the personal level, with the MC getting to do a lot of introspection when stuck for years in some dead-end situations. The current story is likewise a balance between characters and plot: characters create and live through a plot that accomplishes certain external conditions to fit with the world I have created. While the plot is strong, it is hardly the point, rather the point is a characters personal issue ("Is my wife a monster? Or kids? How will I react?") and the plot is a story about a man finding that out. So, I really don't know... I guess it goes mostly in "unspecified fantasy"? Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:12:00 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_758238 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_758238 Pruechelan Okay so I don't know what litfic is. I'm writing a story that I would've called historical fiction but I feel like that should be more tied to a historical event. Anyway this is my summary &amp; it will spoil you most probably; Annabella Stewart's parents were killed in world war II. Mr &amp; Mrs Taylor desperate for children resort to adopting Annabella. Annabella soon creates a fantasy of Annie &amp; then becomes her fantasy. Living the life of her fantasia character from 2002 in 1953, she re-learns the life of a teen in the 50's through the eyes of a life of fantasy. Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:34:45 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_770453 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_770453 ellenthe I'm also not sure what my story is. Our nameless protagonist finds a hat. He 'works' as a good Samaritan, earning vintage computers, money and pie by doing seemingly altruistic good deeds as much as he can. When he finds the hat, he starts to look for its owner. In a place called Saint Lewis Home For The Elderly, he finds Mr. Johnston, a man who tells him his life story, takes the hat (even though he is not the owner of the hat) and commits suicide, a couple of days later. The hat moves on to the next person, Lady Smirnoff, and will continue to go from hand to hand, while a story unravels about a plot that will change the world. But the thing is, it's not fantasy. It's not main stream, because it really is about all the little stories people tell to the protagonist. And, the protagonist is really a philosopher in the way he thinks, so it's also about life and death and stuff. So what is this? Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:44:30 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_792289 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_792289 Taylor_Clogston My story is, on a philosophical level, about human nature. Here's the synopsis: Unknown to the world, a group of individuals set up a long-term experiment observing human nature. In the experiment, generations of humans live in an enclosed community called Second Eden, separated from the outside world. They are given a code of ethics to live by and then left alone, observed without their knowledge. For years the humans in the experiment live in blissful naivety, the whole time without knowing real pain or fear, and so also not knowing real triumph or courage that results from it. When the experimenters decide the time is right they release several of the experiment's subjects into the real world, which at a glance seems the same as their community. However, the more the subjects are exposed to the real world the more they realize what it really is to live by emotions like sorrow, joy, and love rather than as a subject in an experiment. Mankind's greatest wish is to return to Eden. But what happens when history repeats itself? And here's an excerpt: Gal glanced out the tiny window. There was very little light left. Any minute now, the Sun would turn off, the Eighth Hour bell would ring, and row upon row of identical stars would provide the only light to the sleeping New Eden. "I can hardly believe it myself," she said half to her companions and half to herself. "I feel like this is all a dream. This has all happened so fast." Alexios nodded as he poured more tea into Addy's mug. "Yes, that is the nature of things. In reality, all life slips past like water from a faucet. It is only when something out of the ordinary happens that we can really put it all into perspective." Do you think this would count? The largest influences in my writing are books like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, I am Legend, House of the Scorpion, NGE, Death Note, etc. that deal with the same sort of ideas. Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:41:04 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_798858 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_798858 ElleDrumheller I've always written YA, but my main character in my NaNo this year is in college so I'm not really sure if he fits into the YA category anymore. The story starts around a mystery but is centered on the main character's downward spiral. I focus on JR, a college student, who wakes up one morning after a night of binge drinking and believes he is involved in the murder of another student. He struggles under the thumb of his controlling older brother Mark and becomes helplessly obsessed with Camille, another student, who reminds him painfully of the girl who died. Through out the story, he slowly begins to lose grip with his reality. He is haunted by memories from the past, of living his life in his brother's shadow, and feels he exists in a world where he is no longer relevant. Camille draws him near like a moth to a flame. It's an exploration of brotherly love and hate, the longing for a real connection to another human being and the corrosiveness of guilt on an already troubled mind. Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:24:39 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_807752 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_807752 J Cassidy 16 Thanks for the message, I was starting to feel a little 'mainstream' when reading all these deep quotes . . . I like mainstreams that are a little more character-based than the norm, but I'm not into most contemplative/allegory-based/soul-searching stories. Maybe it's just because I haven't grown to appreciate them, but I do like me some plot. Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:57:46 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_834610 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=7#forum_thread_comment_834610 Cerealboxreader I read mostly literary fiction but I'm drawn to elements of SF, F and magic realism. I'm wondering whether its the subject or the way your work reads, line-by-line that makes something literature. Margaret Atwood writes literary SF, for example. Here's my premise: An anthropology grad student finds love and breakthroughs, caving in southern France, but must defeat a prehistoric doppelganger who assumes her identity. I do speed-writing experiments like Nano to try out new things, including new genres. This time I can't decide whether it's literary or horror, or (oh gawd, paranormal romance!) but for once I am writing a story in which two humans experience romantic longing. There has to be a first for everything. Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:35:16 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_852749 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_852749 outolumo [quote=Cerealboxreader] An anthropology grad student finds love and breakthroughs, caving in southern France, but must defeat a prehistoric doppelganger who assumes her identity. [/quote] Wow, sounds like an interesting setting... Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:17:19 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_854116 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=1#forum_thread_comment_854116 Apiecalypse I'd like to get some feedback on a novel I'll be starting once NaNoWriMo season winds down. I'm really not sure what genre it belongs in, but it doesn't feel exactly like fantasy. It's about a teenage girl who's father has been dying for six months now. She's always teetered on the edge of depression, over thinking everything and very socially awkward, but this pushed her over the edge. All she wants is to be alone and left to her knitting. All she wants is to go somewhere else. When her father dies on her fifteenth birthday she finds herself whisked to a world where, through her knitting, she can work acts of magic (all knitting she does during the book, magical or otherwise, has "symbolic" meaning), and she meets others, who can do similar things through, e.g. carving, or painting. There is kind of a plot, but for the most part it's an odd book about a girl coming to terms with the death of her father and discovering herself in a way that's so obviously symbolic it's not quite even symbolic or allegorical anymore. (I think there's also going to be a small romance, between her and an older carver who sends her small carved figures literally ingrained with his feelings of love and comfort for her) Thanks! Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:03:52 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_892984 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_892984 mutewitness I'm fairly certain, my novel is Lit Fic, it could also go under sci-fi/fantasy though. There's a little romance thrown in too. A young woman, Louisa Hewitson in 1980’s England, is let go from a factory that makes androids. She then finds work as a maid to an eccentric inventor, and soon finds out the reason behind losing her job, is because the androids she made are the new employees. She meets a cunning pilot, Aleric Coltson, who she finds out, was put out of work as well, and they begin a quest to start an uprising, but Louisa discovers they may need help from an unlikely individual. Things go as planned, until Louisa discovers the pilot may not be who he says he is, and their partner, the eccentric inventor, Victor Mullings, isn’t exactly sane. Their small uprising turns into war, when they discover the government’s plot to exterminate the working-class, and other than a few renegades, Louisa knows she needs more help, leaving her with the critical decision of who to trust, Aleric or Victor; or to fight on her own. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:35:18 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_902158 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_902158 mutewitness Sounds cool. It sounds like it might be more fantasy/young adult. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:46:46 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_902302 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_902302 Apiecalypse Yeah, I looked deeper into it and figured out it actually wasn't very Lit at all :P Thanks! Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:47:46 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_918955 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_918955 fuzz Hi all, I'm going to say right off the bat that I'm definitely not writing LitFic. Mine story is quite firmly grounded in the fantasy genre. But I was going through the forum lounges and I realized that I've got no idea what LitFic is. I've been skimming this thread but I'm still confused. Can anybody tell me in layman's terms exactly what this is? Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:37:30 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_1113616 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/literary-fiction/threads/687?page=8#forum_thread_comment_1113616