Romance novels aren’t as complex as literary fiction. Similarly, historical fiction is more complex than, say, young-adult fantasy. I’ve been thinking, we need a Fiction Complexity Index. Moreover, we need a Fiction Complexity Index by genre; a number that can give us a rough estimate of whether our novel is “about right” in terms of complexity.
And so, I decided to make one!
The good news is, this little Fiction Complexity Index is something you, too can benefit from. Because I decided to code it in a way that allows anyone to upload their novel (as a .txt file) and immediately see the results.
A Fiction Complexity Index can help us see whether a text is suitable for the intended genre(more…)
Experimental fiction examples aren’t easy to find. The thing is, experimental fiction is the kind of writing that rarely produces a commercial hit – though it does so every now and then.
Imagine literary fiction on LSD, and you have something like experimental fiction. But no, not all experimental fiction is literary – and certainly most of literary fiction isn’t experimental.
A definition of experimental fiction isn’t easy, either. In some sense, experimental fiction is the kind of fiction that displays significant deviation from literary norms – mostly in structural, formatting, or methodological aspects. We’ll see more about all these in a moment, through the examples I’ve picked.
At the same time, we must also recognize an interesting paradox: Whether a novel is experimental or not must be seen in connection with its context. In other words, what is groundbreaking, radical, and unorthodox today, might be the norm tomorrow.
For some, experimental fiction is “weird”. For others, it’s “awesome”. As for me, it’s an interesting opportunity to learn a thing or two about how fiction, writing, and even literary criticism operate.
Experimental fiction examples aren’t easy to find, because this kind of writing produces a commercial hit rather rarely(more…)
After sight, hearing is arguably the second most important sense to most of us. Humans mostly use seeing and hearing to interact with their surroundings. And so, sounds in literature can be powerful in conveying meanings – particularly those subtle and symbolic.
But, as with every aspect of writing that is important, there is significant depth below the surface.
To talk about “sounds in literature” isn’t about a one-line advice in the direction of “remember to describe the weather” – sorry Ernest; I never liked your writing.
In other words, in this post I won’t tell you “remember to describe sounds in your book” – let alone how to do it. Instead, I’ll become a bit more abstract and show you why sounds in literature can be powerful and useful, and how they affect your readers.
This photo is a visual depiction of an aural experience. Sounds in literature operate in a somewhat similar way(more…)
