I've been switching between possible genres for a while.
My story deals with a young girl who has been chosen by the personification of 'Luck' to take over for her. After all, giving people what they deserve is a tiring job. Someone has to do it, or else things wouldn't be interesting, would they? However thats not her only problem. Once she thought she started to get the hang of what she has to do, things start going the opposite way. Like when she tried to give the man who gave his coat to a homeless person some good luck, it turned out that his house caught fire! Ree (the protagonist) is pretty sure she didn't mean to do that.
That's basically a short summary of what my story is about. The thing is, it has action, humor, drama, and pretty much any genre under the sun. I wasn't sure if it would be literary fiction or mainstream fiction. Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
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Jan 30, 2008 - 12 24
Sounds like mainstream to me--depending on how much the metaphysical aspects of Luck figure into it. I'm going to explain myself with examples, because I can't think of another way :D
The Magician's Assistant
(I can't remember the author's name) dealt with ghosts, but I would strongly put it in the mainstream fiction category. It was about ordinary people, in our world. Whereas Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series dealt with the personifications of Death, Time, Fate, etc, and I would place that as fantasy-- it had a lot of magical-type things going on. Those had humor and sadness and a lot of action, but still definitely fantasy.
Most of what I'd consider literary fiction has no fantasy elements at all... except, say, the exceptional swordfish (was it? I forget) in
The Old Man and the Sea
. It's not like I've ever looked up the definition for that one... I don't know.
Perhaps you'd like a mix? Hope that helps a bit.
-Kate
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Mar 5, 2008 - 15 48
it you have to ask, then it wouldn't count as literary fiction. actually would count as modern fantasy but that would come down to marketing.