So, What IS main stream fiction/examples

i'm confused too!!
maybe it's just something that isn't as specific as 'fantasy' or 'horror' or 'romance' but isn't odd enough to be considered 'other genre'??

My suggestion would be to take a stroll through the fiction area of your favorite bookstore. Authors who come to mind when I think 'mainstream', ie, uncategorized fiction, include Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner - in short, any of the 'classics' writers, and also most of the modern bestselling fiction writers as well - Tom Robbins, Thomas Wolfe, Mary Stewart, Robertson Davies, etc.

Hope this helps,
Mike

Yes, today, I was wondering about this too and also discussing it with a friend.

How is "Mainstream" different (at least in how bookstores catalog it) than "Literary Fiction?"

It seems that they are often all housed together in the same "Fiction" section.

I would say mainstream is more character-driven than plot driven, and does not fit any specific genre. Popular examples: Forest Gump, The Color Purple. Books that are about the character's lives and not a specific "plot" that would fit into a genre.

You could think of it this way, The Wizard of Oz is a children's fantasy story. There's magic, travel to another world, unfamiliar species and a journey that takes Dorothy through danger and ends up with her back at home having learned a lesson about the importance of her family, etc. Say the story was different. Say Dorothy had attempted to run away, as she had at the beginning, turned back at the beginning of the storm, took shelter in the house when the tornado came and then everything was fine (she'd never gotten a bump on the head and travelled to Oz). If the entirety of the book had been about her life on the farm, her struggle to get anyone to listen to her issues with that nasty Mrs. Gulch and the general struggles of growing up, it would've been considered mainstream. Or, because of her age, also young adult or children's fiction.

I really don't know what "other genres" means. I think anything that doesn't fit the many forums listed here, should be in Mainstream, but maybe I just need to see what they're actually posting in that forum. LOL

So, mainstream is more about developing characters and their personal experiences and stuff?
Sounds interesting! I would really love to try to write something like this in November 2008 :D
I just love to play around with my characters, even if the plot is simple and a little bit stupid xD (to be honest: I don't really care if my plot is wonderful and detailed and stuff... as long as it's fun for me to write it)

Is there more to know?

Contrary to what others on this thread believe, I think that mainstream fiction is more story-driven. It's the type of fiction usually in the book charts and appeals to a wide audience, an example maybe the Da Vinci Code? There are no rigid definitions.

Literary fiction, however, is the more character-driven type of novel, that tend to focus on the technical aspects of writing rather than telling a good story, although some literary fiction does also appeal to a wide audience too.

The main similarity of mainstream and literary is that they both have elements of other genres, such as fantasy or crime or horror, although they both serve different purposes.

I guess this most closely describes what I want to write. I think mainstream is just that, targeted at the widest audience without boxing itself off into too narrow a genre. Maybe? I could be completely wrong and know nothing, haha.

I've heard it used in different ways, but mostly it seems to be that you have literary, mainstream, and genre novels. Literary is focused on the use of language and strong character development, but plot is a secondary concern. (The plot usually comes out of the character development). Genre includes mystery, romance, horror, sci fi, thriller, and western; basically anything that would be housed in its own section in a bookstore.

Mainstream, therefore, is whatever falls in the middle. The writer might aspire to use beautiful language, but also pays some consideration to the story. The story may seem to follow some of the rules of one of the genres above, but it's inventive enough not to be categorized there. It's a bit of a loose term, though. In my bookstore, the chick lit novels are filed under General Fiction, away from the Harlequins in Romance. Meanwhile, Stephen King - who is probably closer to a "literary" writer than many people writing chick lit - is filed in the Horror genre section.

I think for the purposes of this website, "Mainstream" refers to any book that doesn't aspire to be "literary" as its first goal, which is plot-oriented, but doesn't necessarily fit into any other category (sci fi, romance, etc). So for example, Michael Chabon's novels (Wonder Boys, Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) might be considered mainstream. He's a great writer, has an MFA and won a Pulitzer Prize, but he's as concerned about story as he is about language.

A decent - though not always accurate - clue would be how the book is published once it gets to paperback. Genre books tend to be published as mass market paperbacks (the small, thick books you see in drugstores). Mainstream and literary books tend to be published as trade paperbacks (the longer, wider format that you usually have to go to bookstores to find). There are some exceptions of course. Even literary novels get re-released in mass market format if a movie is made based on the book (eg The Kite Runner was released as a mass market, even though it's quite lterary).

So basically - use this forum if you want to discuss story ideas that don't fit in any of the other genre categories. If you interested in the use of language and metaphor, check out the Literary Fiction section too. They're not necessarily mutually exclusive.

I was wondering what Mainstream fiction is too. I think it's fiction that is widely read.

Thank you for clarifying that. I wasn't sure whether my plan for November 2008 would fall under mainstream or not. It isn't really genre specific and has a lot of different elements, but most of it is just telling the story. So I think I will consider it mainstream, until I write it and see if it fits or not.

Thanks again!

Some say mainstream is light on plot. Some say it's light on characterization. But one thing is constant... mainstream fiction is light on any particular genre (romance, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, mystery, etc.) and it is written for a wide audience.

I always thought about it as light to medium reading, not tedious writing where you are trying to follow plot complications, deep characterizations, or beautiful language in the author's writing. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.

jade

As a writer, I can foreshadow. I just forget to cast the shadow! hehe

It's the kind of book you see on those big tables out front at Barnes and Noble; not too heavy on a particular genre and intended for a large audience.

The books that end up on Oprah's Book Club

It's the kind of popular fiction book you find at the grocery store alongside the romances and westerns, etc. Light reading, and sometimes great stories. The kind of thing you can devour in one night.

Literary fiction is the stuff that gets parsed in English class for meanings and themes like To Kill a Mockingbird, Invisible Man (not The Invisible Man), Uncle Tom's Cabin and so on.