What is Literary Fiction?

And How Can I Get Started?

There is a lot of buzz in the literary world lately—among the most prevalent offenses of our time is this egregious claim that “anything can be literature.” While it is tempting to define literature more broadly than not under the guise of inclusivity, understanding the unique position that literature holds in our society will help us identify both bad writing and lazy ideas as we become stronger thinkers. 

So what is literature? For one, the genre that we have come to identify as “literary fiction” (though I take issue with the classification of books into prescriptive categories, which is simply an invention by publishing houses to streamline marketing efforts), must offer a fresh insight into the world around us. It is less of a departure from our world than a commentary on the human condition. Literary fiction could have happened in your own world, and given that many authors write from their own experiences, oftentimes, it has. Literary fiction emphasizes style through a compelling use of and recurring themes, symbolism, figurative language and motifs, and offers novelty rather than a regurgitation of standard tropes often found in genre fiction. Ultimately, literary fiction plays on ideas that relate to personal experience and prompts us to examine our own lives and the world around us.

While literary fiction has only become an official “genre” more recently, its tradition goes back centuries. One of my favorite authors, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, holds a prominent position in the world of literature because of his insights on human nature and keen understanding of human psychology. Similarly, Ernest Hemingway is a key player in the literary canon because of his revolutionary “iceberg theory” that challenged the idea that literary prose must necessarily be high and mighty. Hemingway crafts more ordinary sentences to create profound subtext that offers insights into the human experience. 

Literary fiction thus uses certain stylistic tools to present a commentary on the world around us, and many writers of literary fiction got their start from reading insightful literary greats over more quotidian works of genre fiction. I recently spoke with author Jesse Muehlbauer, for instance, who reports feeling inspired by the towering imagery of The Fountainhead, the sweeping prose of Gone With the Wind, the philosophical gut-punch of Crime and Punishment, and the emotional depth of Tender is the Night. As he moved away from genre fiction, he realized the immense profundity of literary fiction, and when he published his first novel in 2022, All the Moonlight on Earth, he opened it with a quote from T.S. Eliot to foster dialogue with a longstanding literary tradition.

The power of being exposed to writing that demands something of us is a transformational experience for any wordsmith. So if you’re looking to write your own literary behemoth, here are some steps you can take to get started. 

1. Read the greats. Start with the great novelists of the 20th century. Explore their writing style, their prose, and the methods they use to structure their plots. Why are their characters so memorable? Investigate why the heroes are so flawed and why the villains can be so uncomfortably relatable. 

2. Know thyself. Literary fiction should be a mirror into our own best and worst traits. The more honest you can be with yourself, the richer your novel will be and the more impactful to the reader. 

3. See the world Romantically. Literary novels paint stark mental pictures of beauty in the bleakest of circumstances. Challenge yourself to describe resplendent beauty from that which superficially may seem uninteresting. It will literally open up a new world to you.

At its core, literary fiction turns the societal tide away from mediocrity and towards higher virtues, promotes a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and roots historical moments in a broader tradition as we look towards the future. Literary fiction is both urgent and timeless.