I found this info at Agent Query:
Commercial fiction:
Commercial fiction uses high-concept hooks and compelling plots to give it a wide, mainstream appeal. Commercial fiction often has the “ouuuh” factor: summarize what happens in your novel is a single, succinct sentence, and you invariably get, “ouhhh, that sounds interesting!” Plot (the events) and story (the overall tale) are first and foremost; characters’ choices and actions create heightened drama that propels the reader forward with urgency.
Like literary fiction, the writing style in commercial fiction is elevated beyond generic mainstream fiction; but unlike literary fiction, commercial fiction maintains a strong narrative storyline as its central goal, rather than the development of enviable prose or internal character conflicts. Commercial fiction often incorporates other genre types under its umbrella such as women’s fiction, thriller, suspense, adventure, family saga, chick lit, etc. Commercial fiction is not the same as "mainstream" fiction, which is an umbrella term that refers to genre fiction like science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, and some thrillers.
...versus...
Literary Fiction:
If you marvel at the quality of writing in your novel above all else, then you’ve probably written a work of literary fiction. Literary fiction explores inherent conflicts of the human condition through stellar writing. Pacing, plot, and commercial appeal are secondary to the development of story through first-class prose.
Multi-layered themes, descriptive narration, and three-dimensional characterization distinguish this genre from all others. Literary fiction often experiments with traditional structure, narrative voice, and storylines to achieve an elevated sense of artistry. Literary fiction often merges with other fiction types to create hybrid genres such as literary thrillers, mysteries, historicals, epics, and family sagas.
I'm leaning more toward lit fic. RFM is character driven (so is WS), not plot driven. These stories couldn't happen to just anyone. It's b/c of who the narrators are and their choices that these are their stories.
The thing holding me back from calling it lit fic is the emphasis on the brilliance of the prose, the "elevated sense of artistry." First of all, that sounds pompous. Second, I don't know that RFM (or WS) is chock full of brilliant prose. I didn't sit back after a session, look at the writing and marvel at my brilliance. Not to say I'm not confident in the quality of what I produced but is it a staggering work of literary genius? Probably not.
When it comes down to it, I'd less like it to be labeled "commercial" not b/c I have some kind of artist's attitude toward selling my work (hell, that's what I want to do) but b/c I think of shiny covers with the author's name in a bigger font than the title, embossed in gold. That's not RFM. That's not WS. That's not me.
I'll probably query agents who represent both but I have to pick one for the query. If they ask for it & say "this isn't lit fic," then I'll know.
Well I've been trying to come up with story ideas and I got nuthin'. I thought one of my dreams might yield something but that lasted about as long as it took me to get out of bed. I did dream that a friend of mine had a radio show/podcast and that I had to hose Clay Aiken down outside a drugstore.
Which brings me to the fact that I've written about 2k worth of filth in the last few days. I found an old snippet on the laptop and continued writing it just for the practice. Today I found where I'd outlined my ideas for the lengthy story and I'd ended up taking it in a bit of a different direction. I could bring it back around to the original easily. Some of my ideas made me say, "What kind of mood was I in when I came up with that?" It's creative but it's also fetish-heavy. Not that there's not a market for that but I'm wondering how I'll be able to write it with kids crawling around.
I think that I'm going to have to do my writing while H naps. It's too much to run around after the both of them. Z is being uncooperative and I have a head cold that has rendered me practically voiceless. So to yell at her, well, I can't. Most of my yelling is "leave him alone" or "stop kicking him" or "get off him" or "give that back to him" or similar.
It's been quite a change having nothing to write and wanting to write. I'm almost ready to edit again just b/c I enjoyed doing it so much.
So if I could just get an idea for a nice vanilla story, I would write it. As it is, I haven't and now I have to go feed a child.
I updated my writing portfolio tonight. Boy, it needed it. I hadn't done much for a long time. Also the exerpts & stuff were difficult to read.
I reorganized the portfolio page, added a RFM exerpt, redid the exerpt pages to match, etc.
I always updated it when I had a new article or SZ but it needed a bit of an overhaul. So that's done.
I've spent a couple of days thinking about my most recent entries. I'm nothing if not introspective. One of my mantras is "it's never about what it's about." So I've been thinking: "what is really my problem w/ Hawk's lack of fb?" and I think I've figured it out.
My problem is that I want to talk about the book w/ someone. I want to answer questions, explain my ideas, all that yummy stuff and w/ WS I could talk about it with him. He talked about it long after he read it. He asked me questions about characters and settings and such. He hasn't asked anything about RFM and I think that may be my problem: I don't have anyone to talk to.
I could bug Erin and Fredlet but I've already bugged them enough (whereas it's Hawk's husbandly duty to let me bug him). Maybe it's just that I crave adult face-to-face conversations and it's something we've both read and could talk about. I don't remember the last time that happened.
It could also be that I feel like he doesn't care about the book and I'm transferring that into "he doesn't care about what I care about" and therefore "he doesn't care period."
So I don't think it's so much about RFM as it is other personal issues on my end. I still don't get how he found the sex scenes a turn-on and I don't get why he's arguing with me about whether the PSU hockey game on March 14, 1992 was an away game and which side of College Avenue the instrument store was on. Next time, I'm doing a thoroughly self-invented setting, like in WS. So anyway, it's probably not about what it's about.
Yeah I already wrote an entry today. But apparently I have more to say.
I just finished reading/editing the diner sex scene. Actually, I'm past that scene itself. I talked earlier w/ Erin about how, with the exception of maybe the last two of them, I don't find the sex scenes very sexy at all. I think they're kind of sad. Clinically they're probably pretty sexy... anyway, Erin said, "Well, of course they were (sad) and frequently disturbing."
When I was reading this scene, I was in H's room kind of hanging out while he went down for a nap. He's still awake in there but Z came up to find me and if he'd seen her, all hope would hev been lost. Anyway, I came down here and got a drink and stuff & I just felt very sad for Seth (a residual reaction from my reading). My heart broke for him and this was after the "successful" sex. That last thing I would want right now (well one of the last things) would be to play out that scene or anything remotely like it IRL. What I wrote worked for me in the way I want it to work for others. Apparently it worked the same way for Erin.
I guess what it all comes down to is: is my Ideal Reader really my ideal reader? I don't think so. I think the most I can expect is to entertain him. My Ideal Readers are the ones who get it w/o me having to explain every little thing.
Oh and I asked him why he won't read WS. He says, "I'll read it. I thought you wanted me to read the other one first." I said that I did. He said, "I just didn't want to read it last night." I said, "I didn't even say anything last night. Every time I mention it, you say you won't read it." Then there was a prolonged sigh and "I guess I'll read it." Gee. Thanks.
I finished making my changes to WS and put them on the electronic ms. I'm so much happier w/ WS now. Not that I was unhappy before but I felt I'd gone off on tangents that didn't stay close to the story I wanted to tell.
I really love the different ending & I like that there was that extra scene w/ Wilkes at the end. I always liked his character and the arc he followed but this feels more complete.
I also like Thaddea (I always did but I don't think other readers did) and the way she's written now, I can focus more on her and hopefully she's fleshed out more and might garner a little more sympathy. A little at all would be good.
Now I'm hand-editing RFM. I'm just about to the point where I began writing Jan 18. I should be done by this time next week.
Last night I was chatting w/ Jam and she asked me what it's about. I told her the basics of the opening and then I said "Stuff happens." I added that I'm bad with synopses. She said "stuff happens" is a good synopsis. Then I said, "Stuff stops happening and it's over."
Theryn wrote my WS synopsis, which was way, way better than anything I would have ever been able to do. I'm afraid that once she reads RFM, I'm going to have to ask that favor again. Last time in thanks, I got her a year membership to the Darwin Foundation. If she writes me up a RFM synopsis, I'll have to do something as well b/c I will be so overwhelmingly grateful.
I think I have a block against writing synopses. I have this mindset of "if I could tell you this story in two paragraphs, it wouldn't be a novel." Plus I have certain things I want to say with the story and I'm never sure if they come across. It's nice to know what other people get from it. Unfortunately the person who's read it that I could speak with most in depth has given me his review of "I liked it." He went so far as to add, "It made me miss State College." So I grabbed onto that and said, "So the setting is good? It's accurate? You got a sense of where things were and how things looked and were set up..." He's like, "Yeah."
He also liked the sex scenes. He said, "There's a lot of sex in it." I said, "Well yes there is but it's important to the story. Every time it happens, it has some kind of meaning." Then I counted and said there are six sex scenes. Hawk said, "Seven. Are you forgetting the guy in the truck?" Yes I was. I didn't think of it as a sex scene b/c Seth doesn't consider it as sex. Anyway, I did do some cutaways. I didn't show every single little thing (some "literary" sex). I had in mind something Theryn said when I took up knitting. I said to her that I would probably have characters now who knit (Thaddea took it up in the rewrite but we never see her do it). Then I said, "How do you describe knitting?" She said something like, "It's not about showing the knitting. It would be about the motion of the hands, the knitting project, how the knitting is part of the scene, etc." That's how I approached the RFM sex scenes. If something was important, I had to show it. I did some blocking and I tried to go inside Seth when he'd let me and when he stayed external, I did as well. I also tried to add some realistic details. Like I finished the dorm scene last night and I have the details about the narrow bed being right up against the wall (and the wall was always cold, ya know?) and the books falling off the shelves and stuff like that. None of the sex scenes are gratuitous. If I wanted that, I would just write an erotic short story.
Anyway, he also said, "There's a lot of drugs." Yes, there are a lot of drugs. Or a lot of one drug really. It's important too, when it shows up. It's never arbitrary when Seth decides to toke up or get drunk. Same as it's never arbitrary when he's working on his poems. I have a strong feeling Hawk read the story and that's what he took away: just the story. He made an edit note on his copy and he'd told me about it when he read it. He said, "I think you have the wrong sister's name in one place." Entirely possible. I said to mark it and I'd read it on my edit. Here's the line, from the August 1989 flashback chapter:
“Kristen,” I say, staring at the money. “He hurt Kristen. I don’t know where my mom and Jessica are. That bitch left Kristen behind.”
He thought the first two Kristens should be Jessica. That he thought that was a typo means he missed the entire impetus behind the scene, the crucial moment in the main character's life that influences the entire action of the story and the development of the character.
Here's the rub: at first, when I saw that correction last night, I thought "I didn't do my job." Then I realized that he wasn't reading it to get all of the literary stuff out of it. He read it (1) b/c I wanted him to (2) to see State College circa 1992 and relive his glory days (I don't think his college experience was much like mine, even in the same place) and (3) to read the sex scenes. I don't think it's saying anything too inappropriate that I had gone to bed when he stayed up to finish it and he came to bed "ready to celebrate." Sure, I'm happy that element of the book worked but I don't know if "horny" is the primary reaction I want from a reader.
When Erin said it made her cry, I was overjoyed (sorry Erin) b/c that meant I had done my job. That meant that I'd created multi-dimensional characters, showed her what happens to them and made her care about them. The only review Fredlet had for me was a spelling correction and "sell it." I assume she liked it.
I'm so needy and desperate. I just want someone to tell me that s/he got something out of it beyond the story, fell in love with a character, that I captured something perfectly... anything. Even "I liked the names" would be a boost to my ego.
The other reason for this post title is that once I finish my edit on RFM and I get fb from my writery friends (after the UPOP, of course), I'll start querying again. I posed the question on a related entry at Miss Snark (but I don't think it'll be answered) about whether to query two mss together or to query one and say "btw, I have another completed ms here waiting"). And then which do I query? Hawk refuses to read WS again; I don't know why. I told him it's all changed and I need the fb. He loved it the first time & had more to say about it than about RFM so I don't know why he's being a stubborn prick now except that he's just being a stubborn prick in general. I've told him there's sex in it and still... I say, "You could read Jake for me" and his response is always, "I already read Jake." I say, "But it's changed." He walks away.
I think he thinks RFM is about him (and he likes that). I know he does. Beyond the fact that he attended Penn State, grew up in a trailer and once held a baseball bat in a threatening way against Jed, the similarities end there. I'm more Seth than he is. I had to tell him just the other day, "You are not the bright, shining center of the universe." Seriously. Ugh. Yeah, there's more there than just the self-centered reading but this isn't the place for that rant.
Anyway, I have to write new synopses, which I suck at, and start querying again. I assume that the way to approach it would be to query RFM. I don't know which I have a better chance with. RFM is more me, more indicative of my style and the stories I want to tell from here on out (yes I have a new one in mind, vaguely) but I do think that WS would have a broader appeal, as I wrote before. When it comes down to it, if someone said to me, "Will WS sell?" I would respond, "I think so. I hope so." If someone said to me, "Will RFM sell?" I would say, "Yes."
I might play around with this new idea but the main thing I want to do now is write some short stories and publish. I need fresher credits.
So that's where things stand, kind of whimpering in the corner and saying "Love me." ;)
"Show us something you made yourself."
WS -- left. WC: 108,375, Georgia 11 pt, 202 pgs
RFM -- right WC: 100,427, Arial 10 pt, 158 pgs
I finished my edit on WS today. It's
funny how much editing I'm doing on something I've rewritten eight
times. Granted, the biggest changes are on the newest bits. The
biggest faux pas was calling Thaddea by the wrong name in a scene
that had been Delilah's. So long as Jake doesn't call her by the wrong name...
It's also funny how much I liked that character and now that she's gone, except for one scene, I don't miss her so much. It makes better sense, it's more focused and there's less to keep track of overall. I don't miss the Nan story or the details of the incident that got him sent to BT at all. Glad I cut those.
I'm pleased w/ the new ending. I'm not sure if Pt 4 needs to be “part 4.” I'll probably eliminate that and just make it a final chapter. It's less of a coda than it had been. It flows better. The only thing is that everything takes place over the course of five or six weeks and then this bit is months later. That would be the only reason to keep it a “part” instead of a “chapter.”
And now I'm going to indulge my vanity for a paragraph. I was reading that horrible book I reviewed in the previous entry while I was doing this edit. I finished Pt 2, which I love (esp the end of it), and I thought, “This is what I want to read. It doesn't matter really if I get this published or not. I love to read it, loved writing it and love rewriting it. My kids and grandkids will be able to read this.” I also thought that if someone could publish the dreck I'd been reading, surely I can find someone willing to sell this. And RFM.
It's been strange seeing the similarities in the stories. Apparently I have recurring themes and motifs (brothers/sisters, abandonment, returning, forgiveness, etc.). More on that later. I need to finish supper. Jake & Seth both get me hungry.
Cross-posted from "So anyway..."
If you’re doing the book club and you don’t want any spoilers or if you don’t want your opinion tainted any further than the post title did, stop reading.
Okay I’m about halfway through this piece of shit and I’m torn between throwing it across the room in disgust or continuing to read just to see what inanity happens next. Let me summarize.
There are four parts, each w/ a different narrator. I’m partway through Pt 3. Pt 1 is narrated by a self-righteous dead 18 year old named Cheryl who made her boyfriend marry her their first month of senior year so they could fuck and not go to hell. It’s not a joke. She seems to have taken it very seriously. The action jumps all over the place. One page might be “this is the story of our wedding” and the one across from it might be “and then the blood dripped off the tables and onto my notebook.” Oh did I neglect to mention the manner of her death? A high school episode of violence, the description of which is so beyond belief that I can’t bring myself to say anything about it for fear of my eyes rolling irretrievably back into my skull.
BTW: Did you know that blood is maroon or purple? Apparently so. And in such mass quantities that you can be covered in it like glue, to the point where you stick to the hood of your wife’s car and make a ripping noise when you get up. I don’t think it was supposed to be funny. I hope not b/c it wasn’t. It was just unbelievable and gross. I mean, you can have violence well-described and meaningful to your story. This read like something written for a high school assignment.
And the dialogue? Ugh. Don’t get me started. I don’t know any human beings who talk like this (much less teenagers) and the dialogue is so alike that you can’t tell who’s speaking. Doesn’t matter much b/c all the characters are two-dimensional, unsympathetic and interchangeable.
So as I met Cheryl, the more she talked, the more glad I was that she was dead. I looked forward to finishing the section just to watch her die.
Then I went on to Jason. Jason was interesting. A drifter junkie haunted by his past. I mean, seriously. How could I not just love that? Well here’s how: nothing happens to him. First of all, he can’t just narrate his section. It has to be a series of letters to his “nephews” (wink, wink). Big chunks are missing b/c he’s blacking out but when he comes back, it’s so boring, I wish he’d black out again. Nothing of any consequence happens. He’s on a boat that sinks. Nothing comes of it. He ends up stranded on the Trans-Canada Highway w/ a guy out of the Russian mob… and nothing comes of it.
Then he actually gets interesting, right when I’m ready to give up.
He starts telling this story of the day his brother is killed in a car
wreck (nine years after this massacre thing; he writes the letters 10
years after, in 1998). He was on his way to his SIL’s house and when he
gets there, apparently his cell battery was dead and he couldn’t call
anyone (b/c who ever heard of a car hook-up charger?). BTW: This is a
running gag, I guess. His gf, who narrates pt 3, has the same excuse
thing happen to her. Anyway, the SIL, who just had the RCMP tell her
that her husband’s dead, says to Jason “I have to have a baby NOW. I’m
ovulating! It has to look like Kent b/c I will never, ever be able to
conceive ever in life again.” So what does he say? I’m hanging on
reading, hoping they’ll at least have angry, grief-striken sex. He
says, I shit you not, “We have to get married.”
W.T.F?
So she says yes.
Now I’m dying.
They pass the scene of the accident, which is still being cleaned up, and head to Vegas. This gets better. They get to Vegas, get married at the same chapel where he married sanctimonious Cheryl. They go into the same hotel and *flash* they see a guy from their little Canadian hometown. So she goes off to play blackjack while Jason goes to the room. Come 2:30 a.m. She shows up for the fuck she had to have so badly that she hopped a plane to Vegas and married this loser. He’s all “Where have you been?” And, I shit you not, she says, “I had to kill that guy. He would have told everyone he saw us here today and I can’t have that. Now let’s make that baby.”
At this point, I laughed. I laughed b/c either it was her joking or she actually killed this guy and it is now officially the most ludicrous book I’ve ever read.
Guess which it is.
AND she got pregnant. How miraculous. With twins no less. To whom he addresses his letters.
After that, I was ready to chuck it. Then I kept reading b/c I had to know what happens next. Skimming ahead, the gf telling part three is scammed by a pseudopsychic who may have Jason in on her scheme. Then pt 4 is told by his religious nut father. All of these people have the same narrative voice, speak in the same dialogue… it’s just maddening. B/c this could have been cool but it is, to quote Syndrome, “Lame lame lame lame LAME.”
ETA: I finished it this morning. Apparently the Russian mob guy did figure. I didn’t care enough about any character to care what might have happened to Jason or why (pretty contrived situation, kind of like the rest of the book). And then the fourth part, narrated by Reg, was probably the best-written but absolutely not in keeping the the character’s established voice. You meant to tell me that the guy who’s telling me this is the same guy I’ve been seeing throughout? Doesn’t sound like him, doesn’t act like him, blech. He was the closest thing to a three-dimensional character written and when we come to the end, he’s just as self-involved and unsympathetic as all the other characters.
Oh and Jason was in on the psychic thing. He’d given the psychic a list of his & Heather’s (the gf) inside jokes so that “if anything ever happens to me, you can bilk her for thousands of dollars and she’ll feel comforted by the fact that I’m communicating from beyond the dead.
There was one single cyclical and interesting plot point. If a friend of mine had said, “Read this for me for some feedback before I publish it,” I would have said, “this father/son issue is the key to your whole book. Lose Cheryl. Lose Heather. Reg loses his sons, same as Jason lost his child when Cheryl was killed. Only Reg doesn’t know about Jason’s impending fatherhood and has his self-righteous “you were never a father, you can never know my pain” when Kent dies. That’s delicious. That’s huge. There’s your story.”
Instead I have 160 pages of no one to care about or identify with and I’m rooting for Cheryl to die and Jason to have unmarried sex for once in his life (yeah that showed up AGAIN in section 4, how you can’t have sex outside marriage), for stupid Heather to lose all her money and for Reg to have any kind of conversation instead of sitting in a Kinko’s writing a letter to his presumed-dead son. Oh and Heather? Is a court stenographer turned children’s author. She can’t just tell a story either. We have to wait for her to get off the phone, go to lunch, whatever. Cheryl’s dead. Don’t know how she held a pen to tell hers.
So many scenes that went nowhere. So many opportunities to tie bits of the story back to itself. Such unbelievably pompous dialogue that sounds the same out of every character’s mouth. Maybe this was some kind of POD book and I expected too much from it. I do expect that if you’re going to sit down and write a book, you should have semblance of how to structure it so that it has some kind of meaning. I feel like I just watched this author’s written masturbation. Now I sit back, having finished this book in maybe a week, and say, “And?” He zips up and leaves. Whatever.
Hey, at least I had an opinion 
- Chapterize your short story
- Use a lot of exclamation points
- Tell us that "The downfall of the magazines and publishing companies who have
previously rejected my work is that they didn't realize that no one can
describe the high school experience quite like a seventeen-year-old
high school junior can."
- Write a love poem all about love, love and love without showing it to us. Throw in moonlight and cats as well
- Whether writing a poem or a short story, use a checklist as your form
- Give three characters full names in the first paragraph (ex: Don Smith, Hazel James)
- Describe them a la a police blotter (flashed her blue eyes and flipped her chestnut hair, he was five foot ten and a half with rugged good looks)
- submit more than three poems (this is especially maddening when you give me four fantabulous poems and I want them all)
- do good work but tell a mediocre story
- have a great story but don't tell it very well
- cut your story off w/o warning when you near the word limit
- send us song lyrics and call it poetry (unless you are Bruce Springsteen or Sting; in that case, include nude photos for the editorial staff's enjoyment)
Other good ways to make the editors e-mail each other about you:
- submit artwork to a lit journal that doesn't accept it
- submit to a contest that hasn't opened yet (w/ "SUMMER" in the contest title no less!)
- point me to your self-written Wikipedia page
