(Don’t just beat your main character with the ugly stick and give them a hard time in life purely due to that. Hated all the analysing, the digging around in historical events, the unearthing of metaphors, the excavating of the original authors’ motivations – which as far as I was prepared to see, was “Get into someone’s pants and end all this miserable artistic solitude.”. While genre fiction is inextricably tied to the plot, literary fiction has the same relationship with the character. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  By Pat McKee. The characters must be explored and defined and the impetus that moves the story forward. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting. A collector of commemorative china plates may find that a broken or missing one constitutes a lost year of real-life memories. The purpose of writing a literature review. I remember a particularly annoying school term dedicated to the interpretation of cloud and sky descriptions in poetry, followed by four more weeks on the subject of flowers… It’s a ****ing daffodil couldn’t he have just said it was ****ing yellow??!! although you might want to read this first. If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions. If you have strong views on a certain aspect of your culture, what part of your own existing knowledge would you use in a metaphor for the situation in the story? That kind of patience and persistence—and a sense of purpose—is useful in all nonfiction writing. The way folk say it implies that character is more important than plot. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. That’s completely normal to observe too. But I was paying attention all that time, just so I could be fully aware of what and why I was loathing the subject so much. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. In a more simple term, literature reviews are surveys of literature books, articles and other sources that help give a detailed insight on the theories and concepts regarding a research topic. You’re including your autobiographical experience and observations, which anyone in the military reading it would recognise, but also you are introducing it to an unsuspecting audience of less specific, day-in-the-life books, who might not read a military novel. In the end, if you decide to go away from the literary fiction and label your novel as a genre novel, you’ve done nothing wrong. An overdone, well-rounded, too-realistic character is a thoroughly irritating one, and belongs in the pages of chick lit alongside all of their sidekick friends who only exist to help them through a crisis and to massage their egos over a coma-inducing Blossom Hill strawpedo session. This podcast Less than two years later, I wrote my first 110,000-word novel. You write about a normal school. That’s probably what is meant by ‘character-driven’ when that phrase is casually tossed around to describe literary fiction. You don’t describe the school as a cult-affiliated school, or have wannabe wizards turning up there hoping to find out what happened to their missing parents. As with any analysis, this requires you to break the subject down into its component parts. When creating your key character, don’t over-develop it. But ‘plot’ has to happen to ‘character’ for the character to go on any journey at all. Pretty much most (grown-up) fiction (and some fairytales) involves something wanting to get into something else’s pants, so there won’t be any nagging about that right now – although you might want to read this first, and perhaps this as well. You write about a normal school. That’s where your character became strong. Novelist Pat McKee shares 5 writing tips he learned while retelling Shakespeare's play Tempest as the novel Ariel's Island. The earlier works on the field provide support to your extensive research. A cavalier treatment of back-story just looks like you made it up on the spur of the moment to insert conflict or barriers, to delay progress. (This rant was delivered by my 14-year-old self, almost verbatim, to my considerably academic grandparents, who are no doubt all smirking down at me right now). You are breaking the class and culture barrier, in the hope that a greater audience than the one you would reach with only a single military story, or a single cult story, will identify with it – and through that identification, find common ground on both sides of the fence. Tips on body writing. The Ugly Duckling went there and did that when we were five years old). ... Lennon is an advocate of writers drawing from different—and not typically literary—sources, be it eavesdropped conversations, genre fiction, music, blogs, or television. Identify each literary element in the fiction; Provide evidence from the fiction regarding the literary elements; Explain the various reasons for using such literary elements either personal or writer’s point of view. As well as his or her demons and guardians, what social and economic factors influence their progress? Writing classes re-enforce the notion that we must not write in a vacuum; our experiences in nonfiction, in particular, remind us to not research in a vacuum—that we've got to get out into the field, and beyond the archives. Sweat the small stuff… later. But the actions of the characters, as in the previous example, illustrate that there is another side to the story – that the school, the setting, the social culture within the walls, is a metaphor for a different story. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Tell us that story! It’s a metaphor for prejudice. Don’t throw them in as deus ex machina later on. For instance: You might have a military background, and have a novel set in a supermarket stock warehouse. In a way, literary fiction is “mash-up” fiction. The primary purpose of writing a literature review is to establish your opinion or research by showing the previous works of eminent researchers on a particular topic. However, with the overwhelming advice on following plot structure out there, for this post literary fiction will essentially mean anything that doesn't follow a classic external structure of conflict, if it follows a structure at all. Otherwise, your story is merely a series of exchanges and scenarios where your emotionally crippled character makes excuses for their lack of commitment to doing anything remotely exciting for the reader in the narrative. J. Robert Lennon finds much of his inspiration in his surrounding landscape. But as the author, the insights you wrote into your future self are more interesting when you read it later on – so don’t pay too much attention when grumpy students/reviewers later describe it as ‘utter wank’ x. Writing Techniques. Instead of the team being run as you imagine a regular stock warehouse might be, it precisely reflects a military regime. AAAAAaaaaaarrrgh!! Elaborate the impacts of such literary elements in the fiction and their benefits on enriching the fiction. Literary Fiction Writing. You also need to examine your motivation as the author. Today I talk about outlining, writing literary fiction fast and ambition with Libbie Hawker. Put it this way – a desire to share your insight, wisdom, and life experience in the guise of another tale, to educate and find common ground across class and cultural boundaries, is a healthy motivation. All of the senses are involved in the depiction of alternative interpretation and implication in the story. In the intro I mention my own writing update and how CrimeFest literary festival has changed so much for indies over the last few years, plus, Goodreads expansion into ebook giveaways and email marketing for books on sale, which will see them up against promotional platforms like BookBub. Maybe even this, if you really can’t stop yourself. Looking for ideas on some good topics to choose for writing a literature research paper? You’re going to give voice and persona to issues you want to expose or confront through the medium of narrative – the issue might be ‘repression’ or ‘addiction’ or ‘vanity’ or ‘obsession’, for example. Here’s how the world’s most famous online encyclopedia describes Literary Fiction. There’s an urban myth that literary fiction can be simplified and summarised as ‘character-driven, not plot-driven’. The key character is going to go on a journey, either internal, external or both, with or via these other issues (supporting characters). You may find yourself in characters you thought were only minor, may hear issues you are uncomfortable about voiced as your own. Writing literary fiction casts a shadow of yourself, one of those special shadows that can morph into many different things – career-wise, it may fly high into the stratosphere or crawl away under a rock, depending on how much others see of themselves and of their known worlds in your depiction, and whether it gives them new insights. And I started with my own issues, and motivation, and metaphors, before weaving a story around them – in exactly the way I’d been taught that literature was intended to develop. When considering researching and writing your dissertation in literature, you will need to find an original topic. While you may say you are striving to write a literary fiction piece, it's really hard to say, especially since literary fiction is often determined by society. If you’re going to construct literary fiction by method, you need to take it back a few steps from the mere concept of ‘complex characters’. But don’t worry. Not true, in itself. Summary: This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. We get it already. Another example would be if you wanted to write literary fiction set in a school, but you have experience of or have researched cults and sects. They may gain or lose prejudices on their journey, but it won’t be the obvious things (to the rest of us) which affect their points of view. List of Literature Research Paper Topics. If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. There are various reasons regarding why writing the literature research paper is important: it may be either revealing how the conflicts in the book expose the theme, or contrasting and comparing the book's characters. In a way, literary fiction is “mash-up” fiction. Those characters are a way for the author to illustrate and show interaction with forces outside of their own/the key character’s control, whether those are forces of good, evil, or apathy. Change ). Every event, object, place and dialogue exchange is a potential for analogy. That’s using your life experience to write two stories in one. A man may love his car in the anthropomorphic sense, but only think of his wife in terms of chassis and bodywork. You tell an unfamiliar tale in the guise of a familiar one, a cloaking device to reach and educate audiences that you otherwise wouldn’t. If there’s a story or novel you admire that is fairly research-forward, go through a few sections and mark anything that you would have needed research to write. Be prepared to go back there and share the introduction of those insecurities. Writing Tips for Retelling Shakespeare: From Atwood's Hag-Seed to Updike's Gertrude and Claudius. You tell a story which is not just a story – the story also has a message, but the message has ‘multiple attachments’ – it contains unlimited implied alternative scenarios and characters where the same moral is evident, reaching out to a wider and wider audience in its retelling and subsequent analysis. ( Log Out /  ( Log Out /  In recent weeks, seeing the subject discussed online, I’m starting to wonder if in fact I was the ONLY one paying attention in class. That was what set me up for my understanding of literary fiction in later life. But the actions of the characters, as in the previous example, illustrate that there is another side to the story – that the school, the setting, the social culture within the walls, is a metaphor for a different story. By its nature of having multiple layers of metaphor and parallel meanings, there is a great deal of potential for psychosis in literary fiction, and you may find hidden meanings when you read it much later on your own personal journey that were not yours at the time of writing. ( Log Out /  HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of literature or an aspect of a work of literature. Literary fiction doesn’t just show the characters in action, it also shows how every action changes the character. Characters apply meaning and emotional connection to strange things, in disproportion to the other people around them. Your key character’s journey leads the reader – let them be surprised by what the key character learns about supporting characters and events on their journey, from the point of view of understanding their narrative host, their morals and issues, the effect of personal change. I wouldn’t pin too much hope on becoming a millionaire overnight and installing electric security gates against the aforementioned angry insomniac English Lit students. If they start out strong and over-developed emotionally in your narrative, they’ve already alienated most of the insular and shy consumers of deep and literary prose. Research for Fiction Writing. Literature-wise, that’s where things were exciting, where the character learned their limitations, met their demons for the first time, found out what it took to continue living and functioning. More than anything else, literary fiction does its work on the author, even before it reaches the audience. If your character is ‘a tough nut, has learned things the hard way, is cynical and tired of life’, then SHOW US THAT BIT. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Whatever historical details you include, if you’re aiming for realism, it’s … In literary fiction, it’s not just social setting and character that is a scope for metaphor. If your character has a back story, then in literary fiction, you NEED to go back and start there. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! If your mind – and if your characters’ thoughts – tend to go in a philosophical direction, then feel free to write it as it is. My English teacher at school, Steve Ridgeway, spent three years trying to convince me that English Literature was the best subject in the world. I hated every minute of it. In the end, write the novel that you want to write. The purpose of writing a literature research paper is to break down and analyze some aspect of a literature piece. Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities but mostly in the sciences and social sciences. I remember being given Aesop’s Fables when I was very small, and first started out reading – flash fiction with morals. Because the author of literary fiction is of as much interest to the academic as the novel itself, and if like me, future generations of incandescently fuming students are going to be made to pick apart your work until everything you’ve ever done is bare bones laid out for everyone to see, you don’t subsequently want them stalking you on social media, turning up at your book signings or on your doorstep shouting unintelligible things about the state of your mind, the gutter it lives in, and your pants, until they have got it out of their systems and their medications kick in. Is “The Maid’s Version” by Daniel Woodrell a great work of fiction? The outcome for the key character in the story is growth/change/challenge (moral and/or physical). This will help you see the spacing and balance of research in the fiction you’re hoping to emulate. Check out the list below: Is “Written on the Body” by Jeanette Winterson a Feminism literature piece? The characters themselves may be metaphors or illustrations of events the author has witnessed or experienced, the embodiment of personal demons or guardian angels, or even satirical/serious representations of real historical figures in another form – animal-form, child-form (see ‘Lord of the Flies’). First, you have to have a grasp of what it is.