Writers often ask what makes a novel “literary.” Emphasis on
character? On voice? On improbability of making a sale? Jay Parini called the
literary novel one that teaches you how to read it as you go. Mark Twain hadn’t heard of the literary novel,
but he did call a classic “something everybody wants to have read, but no one
wants to read.” That’s about plot, or lack thereof.
Nathan Bransford’s blog on “What Makes Literary Fiction
Literary?” observes that “Good literary fiction has a plot.” In fact, if you want
people to buy your literary fiction, a plot is just the ticket.
For example, Ian McEwan’s Solar traces the dangerous consequences of the rivalry/incompetence
intersection in academia. The Lowland
(Jhumpa Lahiri) illustrates the life-changing consequences of every seemingly
trivial decision about love or politics. Sara Gruen’s Ape House reveals who gets loved or rescued, while Janet Burroway’s
Bridge of Sand follows who gets to
survive the rotten hands that fate often deals.
Bransford’s blog offers this insightful distinction: “genre
novels are really about how a character interacts with the outer world.” In
contrast, “literary fiction… requires the reader to infer a great deal of the
plot…and thus the climax might be something as small as a decision or a new
conviction.”
Let’s unpack that by differentiating not only the subtlety
of the plot, but the distinction between plot and tension. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the plot consists
of who gets married. The first romance novel! That observation probably outrages
some and thrills others. But what differentiates Austen’s romance from others? It’s
the source of tension, which comes less from the events that befall characters
than the way characters learn and mature because of those events. The
theme that “pride” or “prejudice” impede happiness matters at least as much those
wedding bells.
What has this to do with your novel, literary or not?
- Every novel needs a plot, preferably one where each event causes the next.
- Every novel needs character decisions that produce clear consequences.
- Every novel needs tension—on every single page.
- Every novel needs characters forced to choose between unacceptable outcomes.
- Every novel needs tension from both what characters do and what they think.
- Every novel needs subplots interwoven with the central plot.
- Every novel needs a plot climaxing in a revelation about human nature.
Tip: The best novels integrate the best attributes of both genre
and literary fiction.
