How to Write Literary Fiction

Literary fiction is known as one of the hardest genres to define, often described as a "you'll know it when you see it" type of genre. Today we're tackling this elusive genre, explaining how to go about writing it, and why it's worth giving a try!

RELATED VIDEOS:

0:00 - What is literary fiction?
4:23 - Think carefully about form
5:26 - Create a flawed character
6:16 - Know what you want to say
7:03 - Write reflectively
8:04 - Be purposeful
8:40 - Be specific in your themes
9:31 - Don't overthink the prose
10:53 - Create events that reveal character
11:24 - Don't be afraid to be weird
12:13 - Focus on writing an interesting story

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[moshecallen]

1. As others have said, this is helpful.
2. My current project is literary fiction. I've been asking myself whether I read enough of the genre to do that. Then I realized that the book I'm reading now is lit fic, half the books on my shelves are lit fic, etc.

[Ambermarie]

literary fiction is my favorite to read/write because of the allowance for experimentation and social commentary

[nigelpalmer]

This was very helpful. I didn't know that I was working on a literary fantasy this whole time. Thanks for giving me a better view of how to project this to an agent

[billyalarie]

"be specific"

would it even be a shaelin video if this was not one of their tips?

[tyghe_bright]

I know it's not the way it's marketed, but I consider literary an approach that places a high value on the writing itself rather than a genre.
There are lots of books that overlap literary and genre. 100 Years of Solitide is both literary and fantasy. Beloved is literary and horror. Never Let Me Go is literary and SF.

[crystalcoasting]

This was really helpful, I honestly had no idea what was considered Literary Fiction. I definitely understand where the elitist reputation comes from though. I've always thought of the genre as stuff well educated "ivy leaguers" read. As a community college dropout I never thought I'd enjoy it so didn't seek it out, but now I realize I have read several stories that would be considered literary fiction and they were some of my favorite ones. Thanks for the video, you're so good at turning on the lightbulbs in my head 😅

[ACD]

I’m SO glad you did one on literary fiction! It’s pretty much all I write, and the Reddit sub I followed was all about fantasy so I felt wayyyy out of place.

[nealabbott]

i write litfic, too. my take is that litfic is not a genre, but what i call a super-genre. the other super-genre is poplit. any genre can be lit or pop. for example, wells and verse wrote litfic sci-fi, tolkien and lewis wrote litfic fantasy, doyle wrote litfic detective.

[jamesgideonartistry]

Excellent video. Some of the best and grounded info I've encountered on the subject. Focus on writing an interesting story.

[Gremory]

Language, Language, Language and how it is told is truly what sets Literary fiction apart from basic fiction (simply character driven) and genre fiction. I would caution in attributing Literary fiction as mostly based on character driven, or the arch of character and how it develops in a story. Where she misses here is by informing how theme and tone are written and what it relays in some profound philosophical part. I stop short of relaying the human condition because then it keeps Literary fiction bound to what happens to the characters. There is quite a bit of literary fiction found in the New Yorker and Harpers (just to name a few of the popular magazines where you will locate these stylistic stories), and/or (not so common ones) such as Virginia Quarterly, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares or Story which demonstrate mostly a slice of life tale in which the characters aren't even that interesting but the language and the way in which the story describes the circumstances of their environment propels the story meaning into a debatable form.

[bhanuvedantam]

Thank you so much for this video 😊 You vocalised a lot of my mental blocks that were keeping me from writing, I appreciate this channel do much!

[sassyknight]

Thank you for this :) It has really helped me with my assignment on writing a literary fiction piece!

[IntoTheWeeds]

Are Sally Rooney's books considered Literary Fiction? I like to write intimate stories about characters and relationships, but I get so confused by the terms Literary Fiction, Commercial Fiction, and "Chick Lit" — I hate that term, it feels super reductive. If you were writing something like Conversations with Friends, would you say it's commercial fiction because it's super popular, or literary because it's focused on characters and voice?

[ayreej]

Thank you for this video. This was very useful.

[marjoriedybec]

That was very interesting. I'm focused at the moment on personal essay (1500-2500 words) but without an overall memoir intention. Its an exercise toward improving my skills and building my writing practice. I find I have tons of good story ideas but when I start to write, I collapse a few paragraphs in, bc there is no conflict, drama, climax, action. They are interesting stories (IMO) about a scene, a strange moment I experienced, a strong feeling I had. Those are the ideas or feelings I'm trying to communicate. It sounds like literary NON-fiction might be my type.

[philihareg]

Great video, as usual. Thank you! Think it would have helped had you mentioned few 'good' examples of the genre, though.

[Exayevie]

Oh man this is really freeing. I’ve always felt like I *aspire* to write literary fiction but surely I couldn’t *claim* the genre until my work is quality-tested. Surely I couldn’t market as literary as a first time author…

This is the first time I feel like I can bust that notion. And it actually makes me feel like it will be easier to keep writing the way I am (tip 7 is SO especially useful!) Some doubts have been lifted. Thank you!

[____uncompetative]

Thank you. This was extremely helpful.

I thought my novel idea lacked external jeopardy acting on its main character. This isn't a flaw, as it is about their internal struggles.

[portiawrites]

Your enthusiasm and love of literary fiction SHINE in this video! And your descriptions/distinctions from genre fiction make lit fic seem much less intimidating. I feel like all the literary fiction I read in school was about…emotionally constipated white people, and all sounded the same — so I abandoned the genre. This video makes me want to explore lit fic again!

[curtismmichaels]

As a newly minted fiction writer who is finding my voice in very unorthodox ways, this video brings me a certain comfort. Perhaps I shouldn't need permission to write what I want to, to tell stories the way I want to, and to ignore the formulae, but I must have felt some need because you just explained writing in a way that makes me feel like a valid contributor, whether I make a commercial success of it or not. Thank you for that.