TRENDS IN FICTION

One of the challenges for today’s writers is keeping up with current writing trends. I find this to be particularly true when trying to decide, “what is my genre?” Genre identification has expanded and is a whole new adventure in branding as every author diligently attempts to find his or her best niche.

New genres keep popping up and it is important to stay up-to-date with the current trends. Yes, some of these trends are passing fancies, and some are pure fad. Yet it is hard to know when they arrive whether they will become “the next big thing” or yesterdays “oh no you didn’t.”

To help you stay abreast with what’s trending and cool, here are some newer genres in Fiction of which you may not be aware. Perhaps you will want to investigate one or two and discover that your work might fit into something new and developing. Some of these you may have heard about but really didn’t understand (join the party — sometimes I don’t get them either).  I promise you that these are current and might prove valuable.

9 Fiction Genres You Need to Know

CLI-FI

     Climate Fiction describes stories about hazards of climate change and global warming where eco terrorists are the primary villains. Environmental disasters are the order of the day. Not considered truly speculative fiction, it takes place in the world we know today or in the very near future. This is still a developing category but many universities are including it in their teachings.

Books in this genre: Atonement by Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

MYTHOPOEIA

     Mythopoeia is Greek for “mythos making.” It is a narrative where fictional or artificial mythology is created. More narrow than saying it is science fiction or pure fantasy, this is a more mystic creation by a single individual, the same way Tolkien created Middle Earth (as Tolkien is considered one of the creators of mythopoeia).

Books in this genre: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, or A Song of Fire and Ice by GRRR Martin.

BIZARRO

     Okay, I admit I had to laugh when I saw this one. Bizarro fiction was created by small American press publishers to meet the demands of good weird fiction. Called the “literature’s equivalent of the cult section at the DVD store,” this is where you find the things that make your eyebrow go up in astonishment or confusion or even, like me, giggle.

Books in this genre: Shatnerquake by Jeff Burk, Felix and the Sacred Thor by James Steele

INTERACTIVE FICTION

     These are stories where you get to dictate how the story progresses and moves forward. (I actually wrote one of these back in 1998 called The Revenants of Hawthorne Mansion, which was posted online and readers chose whether they wanted the Reality ending or the Fantasy ending. And neither was what they expected. Yes, I was ahead of my time in this genre!).

This genre has been around since the mid-70’s but is just now getting new life. It blurs the lines between virtual and real worlds. There is no wrong way to read it and it is looking to be the next really big wave between reading and playing. (Real Player One, anyone?)

Books in this genre: Blood of the Zombies by Ian Livingston and Women and Bad Decisions by Shawn Harris.

MINIMALISM

     According to Chuck Palahniuk, this is the closest storytelling to movies there is. Authors use short sentences and mandate a stripped down writing style. This writing mimics real talk and keeps adjectives, adverbs, and meaningless details to a minimum. It is an off-shoot of flash fiction, but longer.

Books in this genre: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk, The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks, 31 Songs by Nick Hornby.

FABULISM (also called Magical Realism)

     In this genre, writers portray the world realistically but with a few magical and/or supernatural elements interwoven into it. For example, imagine a forest you know well but with clocks hanging from the trees. This identification began with some Latin American literature. Used mostly in the arts, it is gaining strength in regular literature. One key element is a heightened awareness of mystery in the hidden realism. Fabulism tells stories in the real world but is in opposition to modern and urban realism.

This genre is often confused with exoticism.

Books in this genre: The House of Spirits by Isobel Allende and Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

FACTION

     Some critics believe this category is more for the non-fiction genres but I stand with those who disagree. These are stories of historical figures woven together with fictional elements. Historical novels are fictional accounts of real people in real places. Faction blends the fact and the fiction but the story is rooted in truth. The outcome may be to create a new belief or conclusion. Many believe this to be a sub genre of historical novels and therefore, non-fiction. Developing genre!

Books in this genre: Roots by Alex Haley, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

FANFIC

     Most everyone knows about Fan Fiction and is aware that it is prose or poetry written by fans of books or films with favorite characters. I confess I was writing fan fiction with Anne Rice’s characters before she agreed to allow it (not for profit) in 2012. Most writers pick up the stories where the books or movies end and change the future or re-write certain events that bothered them. Few know that 50 Shades of Grey started out as a Twilight-inspired fanfic – and you can see where that went.  However, many fanfics never see the published mainstream light of day and can be considered a great risk.

This genre has a subgenre called Slash, where more erotic fanfic lives.

Books beginning as fanfic: After by Anna Todd (One Direction fanfic), His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (author fan of the Master and Commander series of stories).

GRAN LIT

     Okay now, all you 20,30 and 40 somethings, don’t laugh. This is fiction written specifically for middle age folks and senior years. Stories with sunny adventures, zest, romance and hope. This genre was recognized after the 2011 book Thursdays in the Park, a romance between 60-somethings, where the author Hilary Boyd asks, “does love always come with a sell-by date?”

Honestly, I’m still reading NA, a little YA but I love my gothic paranormal and I guess that’s why I love vampires. We get to be old and cliché, dark and morose, romantic with an edge,  without being Gran Lit. But there was a giant missing library of books for the senior set and Gran Lit fills this.

Books in this genre: Loop Group by Larry McMurtry

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I encourage you to broaden your genre knowledge and maybe you will be able to add more categories to your book listings! 

Most of all, remember not to stagnate and to keep up with evolving trends. You never know, you might have an idea for something new and cool, like CoffeePunk (for us lovers of our daily java fix mashed with our need for a scifi fantasy clifi gran lit. 

Thanks for stopping by,
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

Lost Gems of Character Development

We writers and authors spend an exhaustive amount of time learning our craft. You have to do it. There are so many technical aspects about writing which must be studied. You must learn about plots, scene and sequel creation, dialogue, monologues, internal dialogue, Point of View (POV), deep POV, grammar, punctuation, formatting, vocabulary, character arcs, style, genre, trends, world-building. Good grief the list is endless! And there are dozens of checklists, reminders, rule books, handouts, programs, spellcheckers– Holy Info Overload, Batman!

The learning must happen if we want to produce a quality story, chapbook, or novel. I know for me, there is a constant review of certain lessons with every novel, checking style and format, always improving vocabulary, looking to reinvent a master plot or character trope and always striving to be original in the process.

One thing I recently noticed in my writing, and in so many other books, is the missed opportunities for deeper character development. Great care is taken to showcase the golden flecks in someone’s eyes, the blue-black sparkle of hair, the limp, the bushy eyebrows, or the curl of smoke from a pipe. Delicious details offer insights to the vampire’s desires, the streetwalkers boots, the royal throne or the courtier’s waistcoat. Even the most intimate scenes offer description of the silky sheets, the sweat that runs down the chest, the sound of flesh against flesh.

All of these details are ones we’ve been told to add. We know we need to cover all the senses, preferably in every scene. We want the readers to see the people as clearly as we do. To feel and hear the swish of a gown on the stairs, to taste the burning heat of a rye whisky tossed back without thinking, we need the readers to follow us as we dodge around trains who vent steam and blare horns. We go to a picnic and treasure the dappled sunlight, swat the flies over the potato salad and our mouth water when we smell the fried chicken. These details are what flesh out every scene and give depth to our tales. 

What if I told you that you can do more, that you are missing one of the best treasure troves for letting the reader learn about your characters through what THEY find in your stories?

Sometimes deeper character development, and therefore hidden meanings or careful foreshadowing, even character secrets, comes from what isn’t directly said or carefully described. What about what surrounds the character in your story? Are you taking advantage of the character’s personal items that never change, that are personally offered and perhaps never addressed?

Let’s use my house and me as an example for what I mean. In every story, your characters live somewhere, whether its a tent, a mansion, an RV, or a brick and mortar home. In my case, it’s a ranch house. I don’t like stairs anymore because I have a bad knee (have had since I was in my 30’s). This character information which the one story house emphasizes. We’ll mark that as “Fodder.” 

Next, my kitchen. A great many families hang out in the kitchen. Activity thrives there. Look around. Everyone plants their flag, so to speak, in their surroundings. What’s on the counter that never changes? The wall? How about the refrigerator? Fodder! Here’s a pic of my refrig. There are things that never change and others that change with moods. Fodder! Do you see personalities reflected here? Look at the gold magnet or the retro magnet. How about the apron? 

We speak of the roaring fire by the wingchair or the mantle clock. What about the walls? The unchanging, personally decorated walls? Ah, more secrets of likes and dislikes! Look at this picture of my dining room. I have a deep love for Egyptian art. Did you know? You can learn so much from what people hang on the wall for permanent decoration. Secrets to their likes, dislikes or personalities. Let them be noticed.

I know we all enjoy reading about a character in their library. Big old volumes of books, shelves upon shelves, a footstool, a ladder, a cuppa tea and a late night read. But wait! There are nik-nacs, maybe china? Maybe bronze? Let’s look at a portion of my library. Oh my! The oddities abound. Statues and photos and hints galore. Most of these things do not change and reveal so much about me. Do you see the vampires or the dragons? How about the moon or the variety? So much fodder for a tale that reveals personality.

A home also offers insights into hobbies. Do you show a character’s pottery? Artwork? Greenhouse, perhaps? Do you know I like to take photographs? On the spare bedroom wall you find this framed piece, showcasing several photos. Mine. It speaks of some of my deepest loves. More fodder.

There is also a boom in contemporary fiction about professionals like the military, the doctor, the fireman or the cowboy. These people surround themselves with items that represent them or pieces that show something in their past that represents this profession. In my case, there are retirement cases for my husband and me, that showcase our years of military service. These can be the most personal mementos available. Fodder awaits!

Details are the decoration that gives a story depth and richness. Don’t miss out on a chance to provide unique depth to your characters by using the details that may never change. Understand and flesh out the things that make the characters real and you define them in a way that readers will relate to on a deep personal level. Oh look, your reader will say, she puts her daughters drawings on the fridge too. And she uses the magnet of her trip to Boston Harbor to hold it up. You know, the place where she spent her summers so long ago…

Fodder.

These are the lost gems that make the difference between good and great character development. Set your work apart by giving your readers whole characters they can never forget because in the end, the readers want more than anything to be those characters. Make it happen for them.

Thanks for coming by. Let’s make this a great month!
I remain as ever, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

Spring has sprung
in winter’s grip.
Summer’s begs that
either slip,
as Mother Nature
nurses her fat lip.

~Sherry Rentschler  (c) Apr 2018 in honor of the wacky weather

National Poetry Month arrived April 1 and during the next thirty days I take great pleasure discussing the ins and outs of free verse, making bizarre limericks, giggling over e.e. cummings, immersed in Baudelaire or Yeats, and wishing I was in Paris during the time of the beat poets.

For most folks, Poetry Month is something they hear about on Pubic Television (and therefore avoided) or from school (and therefore avoided), or in passing on the internet or social media sites (and dismissed as done by college kids or rappers). Such perceptions are a shame too, because National Poetry Month is all about discovery and learning, finding pleasure in seeing the world in new ways. 

Because we need to read poetry and let it help us discover our world in ways news and scholars and schools do not.

I heard someone say, “Poetry. Just rhyming words about things over my head.” Such remarks remind me that poetry doesn’t reach “the common man” because we never stressed the common man poems. It was all Iliad, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Keats. And we groaned, remember? (well, I didn’t, but my friends certainly did).

More, the above comment carries weight because poetry, once the style of telling stories has passed into the background. You don’t find it in Kohl’s or Walgreens or the grocery store. It’s not in the magazines (but once or twice a year) for April and perhaps Christmas. Kids talk about it at school just long enough to get to lunch where they can discuss “real literature” like Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and Wonder, or discuss the latest comic book/graphic novel that became a blockbuster movie (Marvel, anyone?).

Sadly, the very people discussing the latest blockbusters and listening to their playlists on their phones, are missing some of the best moments in quotable literature. According to CNN, “Fewer than 7% of Americans polled in 2012 had read a work of poetry at least once in the past year — down from 17% in 1992, according to a national survey (PDF) by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts. That decline in participation was the steepest found in any literary genre.”

What we need to emphasis to our children and each other, is poetry is the short, short, short, story. A poem can define a moment, bring us together in surprise or sorrow, encapsulate a thought, and help us to understand ourselves in brilliant and usually brief ways. Just look at Maya Angelou or Mary Oliver and how easily we come to share their understanding. No, you don’t need to read Dante’s Inferno (though you really would enjoy it), when you can read William Carlos Williams or even Dylan Thomas. Truth is simple. And poetic.

No, poetry isn’t mainstream anymore. But if you hang out on Twitter or Instagram and you search for poetry or poets, you’ll be amazed at the real poems being shared and quotes coming from them. Many don’t even realize the poem that originated a quote but are surprised to realize that poetry made the words quotable. Take the great poet, Alexander Pope in his An Essay on Criticism, Part II , 1711:

Ah ne’er so dire a Thirst of Glory boast,
Nor in the Critick let the Man be lost!
Good-Nature and Good-Sense must ever join;
To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.

Poetry is more about us than we realize. Poetry is us. We sing it and the songs we sing become markers of our lives. We quote snappy lines, sometimes not realizing the words are ancient or even Nobel Prize winning. 

Do we need to know that? Nope. What we need to do is read more poetry. We need to not “go gentle into that good night” but rage against poetry’s invisibility. Help others to see the beauty all around them. Start with a child’s poem such as the insightful Shel SIlverstein. Or even Dr Seuss.  But let us dust off our old tomes and read….and celebrate Poetry Month, every month. Let our children become the natural poets of the future. Start now.

 There are so many good poets and poems out there. Sure we need to read the classics to discover the artful phrase, to understand the development of the art form, to hear the triumph in epic verses. But does that matter in the long term? Nope. What we need to do today is introduce each other to the modern poets and create a love for common words defining life in uncommon ways. To restore our wonder and excitement. To show us that we can know profound things and be better for the knowing. Poetry does this and so much more.

Let us read some poetry. Share with a friend. Just one poem. Maybe once a week or, better yet, once a day. Don’t do it with anyone if you are nervous or shy. Read it alone. Think and enjoy.

But read poetry. It will improve you, delight you, surprise and shock you. It can enrich you and prevent the inevitable ennui that comes with time.

Be invited in. See the world through rose colored glasses. Or in the boldest colors of reality.

Poetry matters.  Check out some of the ones mentioned here or ask your friends what they are reading. Go on an adventure and allow yourself to be surprised. See your world through creative, fresh eyes and maybe you’ll be inspired to write a poem or two yourself. Share with children and let’s all be a little more free verse in our lives.

Happy reading!
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry