In today’s comments, Daan asked 3 questions, and since two of them are easy to answer, I’ll do so. Then I’ll critique another first paragraph that was submitted some time ago by Yeggy. But first, the questions. Daan asked:
1) What is a literary novel viz-a-viz novels such as Pillars of the Earth, The Firm, Transgression, etc.?
2) What is chic(k) lit(erature)?
3) What is a cy(?) yc(?) novel?
Randy sez:
1) A literary novel is a novel in which the usual “Four Pillars of Fiction” (StoryWorld, Character, Plot, and Theme) are supplemented by a Fifth Pillar–Style. A novel in which Style plays a leading role is a literary novel. Of the books Daan mentioned:
* THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, by Ken Follett, is not a literary novel. I’d classify it as a blockbuster historical suspense novel. Follett is one of my favorite authors, and PILLARS is my favorite of all his books–it’s in my all-time Top Five list.
* THE FIRM, by John Grisham, is not a literary novel either. It’s a legal thriller, and a fine one. Grisham has been routinely mocked for writing fast-paced, workmanlike prose. The man had the #1 selling novel in America for roughly 8 years in a row, so I suppose a little mockery is all in the day’s work. I’ve enjoyed some of Grisham’s work, and my favorite is probably still his first, A TIME TO KILL, which was a little rough but it showed a lot of passion. Gotta love that.
* TRANSGRESSION, by that pesky Randy Ingermanson, is not a literary novel either. I have never aspired to write literary fiction. I always considered it a work of historical suspense (it’s a time travel novel in which a physicist tries to kill the apostle Paul). Oddly, it won a major award in the “futuristic” category. I never thought of it as remotely futuristic, but I’m not going to give back the award, either. Daan, by the way, has recently finished translating TRANSGRESSION into Afrikaans, and I hope he finds a good market for it.
2) “Chick lit” is fiction about young women looking for Mr. Right. Chick lit is generally considered fluffy and “not serious fiction”. Fer crying out loud, who cares if it’s “not serious?” Not everything in life has to be serious. “Chick lit” has long ago branched out into “mom lit” (young married women with brats on their hands–the natural fate of the lucky young gals who found Mr. Right), and “hen lit” (older women who like to have just as much fun as the chicks, but who found Mr. Right long ago and have got used to the fact that he is more Mr. Left than they had intended.)
To my knowledge, the parallel categories for guys don’t really exist, though there have been some novels written along those lines. But the fact is that American society doesn’t lay the same expectations on men as on women, and a guy just doesn’t believe that life will suddenly be swell if only he finds Miss Right. That’s my take on it, anyway.
3) I have never heard of cy or yc novels. A YA novel is for “young adults”, but I’m not sure if that’s what Daan is asking about.
Now, let’s turn to Yeggy’s one-paragraph submission:
“Mum!” Rissa yelled as Lauren ran up the staircase. “It’s just a photo album!”
“Not just a photo album, it’s your baby photos.”
Rissa turned to her dad and gave him the look. “You’re the one that got us into this in the first place. You and your stupid feud with Richard.”
Colin gritted his teeth. The knuckles of his hands whitened as he tipped his head back and shouted up the stairs. “Lauren, it’s nearly sunset!”
“No need to get agro. Iโll be down in a sec. You said they never attacked before dark.”
“The latest report had them down river fifteen minutes ago. With this cloud cover it’ll be dark in ten.” He slapped a hand on the banister. “We have to leave now!”
Randy sez: This shows a lot of promise, but methinks it’s a little crowded. I count somewhere between 4 and 6 characters, 3 plots, and 4 exclamation marks. That is 3, 2, and 3 too many. Let’s look at each in turn:
The characters: We have Mum, Rissa, Lauren (is Lauren the same as Mum?), Dad, Richard, and Colin (is he the same as Dad?) We also have an unnamed group called “they” who are likely to attack. I recommend using the same moniker for each character early on. If Mum is Lauren, then call her one or the other consistently. Ditto for Dad/Colin. We’ve just been introduced to these people and it’s hard to keep track of who’s who right now.
The plots: We’ve got The Mystery of the Baby Photo Album–what’s that all about? Then we’ve got Dad’s Feud With Richard–could be interesting, especially if machine guns or exploding cats are going to be involved. Then there is The Trip Past Them After Sunset–again, this could be scary, if Them turns out to be zombies or werewolves or politicians.
The exclamation points: The Rule of One applies here. The Rule of One says that “1 + 1 = 1/2”. I stole this from several brilliant people, all of whom think they invented it. (You know who you are, and you deserve the credit, you genius, you.) So the Rule of One says you can never do better than by limiting yourself to just one. The Rule of One applies to exclamation points, cheesecake slices, and wives. You violate the Rule of One at your Xtreme peril.
Yeggy, can you trim down this passage so there are 3 characters, 1 plot, and 1 exclamation point? I know you can. Do it!!! ๐
Wow!!!!
Er, wow.
Lots to play with there. Will do.
Thanks.
Randy,
Since leaving Mount Hermon, I have been thinking more about the division between literary/non-literary novels. I have always thought I was writing a literary novel, but the tendency of workshops is to push in opposite direction. As I have reread some classics (To Kill a Mocking Bird, Death Comes to the Archbishop, Peace Like a River, Heart of Darkness) it seems to me that literary novels are freed from the scene/sequel tyranny in favor of delayed gratification. Literary novels are allowed to take longer establishing character and story world. By the end of the book, we can expect electric moments (okay, maybe not from a book like Hemmingwayโs The Sun Also Rises) but the reader is willing to be seduced for 200 pages by the style, the characters, and the story world. They also expect more from theme, which is why English classes will teach a literary novel that sold 10,000 copies in its first run 50 years ago over a blockbuster that sold 250,000 copies last year. Because workshops only look at the first 20 or 30 pages, they work against that. After Mount Hermon, I sent my Project-after-Friday-10:03 to a reader and she questioned whether I was really targeting Literary, because I had too much action in my first pages. I’m now pondering how to strike a happy medium.
The Rule of One reminds me of that old software development saw, “How do you slow down a release?” Add more programmers.
Is Yeggy’s paragraph the beginning of the story? If so, and the baby album is extremely important somehow, we would need to know a little more about why Lauren is dashing up the stairs to get it.
If you are afraid for your life, why would you stop to grab something sentimental? It has to factor in as necessary to the plot, like in Brandilyn Collin’s book Crimson Sunset. The main character, Carla, is running for her life, but she stops to grab an old diary, which proves to be the lynch pin that brings down the bad guys … which she hints at in the beginning so we know Carla is not just being mushy.
Great study here–even though I write mostly middle grade, there are still these distinctions. We have to hit the floor running–but not with six characters and three plots in the opening. I don’t know how the writer even keeps it all straight!
I’ve just been given a weeks work with the Northern Territory Writers Centre as we prepare for our Writers Festival Wordstorm.
(You can download a PDF of the prog if you’re interested in seeing what we do.)
Consequently it’s going to be a week before I get to tackle the opening.
Too many exclamation marks–that’s one of my pet peeves. This is my rule: If it’s an exclamation, it needs an exclamation mark. If it’s not an exclamation, find another way to emphasize without an exclamation mark. Think of it this way: We don’t use question marks willy-nilly–only for questions. Why use exclamation marks that way?
Define exclamation, if you please. So it’s not just used to show someone is yelling? Oops.
1. “I’m getting so sick of the way you kids talk back to me!”
We all watched in breathless fascination as our mom’s face changed from blotchy—except the dead white part right around her lips—to a spectacular show of purples and reds.
2. “I’m getting so sick of the way you talk back to me.”
Mom’s flashing eyes and flaring nostrils kept pretty good time with her heaving bosom and the vein throbbing in her neck.
3. “I’m getting so sick of the way you talk back to me,” Mom exclaimed.
btw – Happy Mother’s Day, moms.
Is Malcolm by George McDonald, a literary novel?
Pauline Youd
Yeggy,
I have to disagree with Randy somewhat.
I think the exclamation points were all used properly and effectively. The first three show people shouting as opposed to normal voices, and since Mum doesn’t use them, it really points out how Mum is not connected with the agitation the others are feeling. Maybe she’s in denial, or maybe she really doesn’t understand. Both go well with her taking the time to get the baby pictures. To drop those exclamation points would weaken that contrast.
The final exclamation point emphasizes Colin’s anger. His two previous sentences don’t have exclamation points, even though he’s certainly shouting. This shows that, though spoken loudly, these two sentences don’t have the same emotional violence as his final sentence.
I agree that the start of any story should limit characters and plots as severely as possible to give the reader time to get used to them, but I don’t think that’s truly a problem with this snippit. I think the real issue is that this isn’t the true start of the story.
You’re jumping into the middle of things. Nothing wrong with that, but *in media res* doesn’t leave room for immediate explanations of things. It does, however, promise that those explanations will begin to show up at the first quiet moment we come across. That quiet moment is where the text (figuratively) doubles back on itself to produce the true beginning of the story. This snippit simply isn’t long enough to reach that point in the story.
>>Rissa turned to her dad and gave him the look. โYouโre the one that got us into this in the first place. You and your stupid feud with Richard.โ
Colin gritted his teeth. The knuckles of his hands whitened as he tipped his head back …
(cont.)
>>Rissa turned to her dad and gave him the look. โYouโre the one that got us into this in the first place. You and your stupid feud with Richard.โ
Colin gritted his teeth. The knuckles of his hands whitened as he tipped his head back …
>>Rissa turned to her dad and gave him the look. โYouโre the one that got us into this in the first place. You and your stupid feud with Richard.โ
Colin gritted his teeth. The knuckles of his hands whitened as he tipped his head back
This is the only part I stumbled over. Rissa’s paragraph is clearly referring to story stuff I haven’t seen, which makes the whole snippit feel like it comes from somewhere further along in the story, and not the opening at all.
Then, I’m not sure if Colin’s reaction is to Rissa for accusing him, or to Lauren for delaying. If it’s to Rissa, maybe he should respond to Rissa instead of ignoring her. If this is in Colin’s POV, his response could be internal and hidden from Rissa, but not from the reader. If his reaction is to Lauren, you might just delete Rissa’s paragraph. The feud with Richard seems irrelevant anyway.
The part that hooked me is “them”. I’d read on long enough to find out if “them” is a challenge I want to read about.
The part that made me interested in these characters is Mum going after the baby pictures. It makes the whole family real by showing that they have real lives beyond this crisis, and that they each have individual reactions and interactions, which in turn promises depth for the whole story.
So these are the two aspects I expect the rest of the story to live up to.