Hi readers & writers,
This week I'd love for us to have a discussion about literary fiction and genre fiction: what they are, what they mean to you, and which you prefer as a reader and as a writer.
On
this week's new episode of Yak Babies we talk about that very thing, and it got me thinking about how when I was a teenager, I cared only about story: Clive Cussler's and Michael Crichton's thrilling adventures, Stephen King's and Dean Koontz's horrifying horror.
I feel that's what most of us are first drawn to, as kids: excitement, adventure. Exotic locations, even other worlds. In other words, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and the like. Or so-called genre fiction.
And then many of us carry that affinity into adulthood. I did.
But when I became a writing student, first as an undergrad and then, temporarily, in an MFA program, it was drilled into my head that I *should* be writing literary
fiction.
I tried to believe that, for a minute. Thankfully it didn't stick.
Still, about half of my overall reading is literary fiction, and the fiction I write is exclusively literary. (What even is "literary"? Let's discuss that, too.) How about you?
What I'm curious to know is, which are you more drawn to as a reader, and which are you more drawn to as a writer, and why?
Do you think these definitions and distinctions really mean anything, or are they just marketing terms?
