Want A Good Read?
Try General Fiction Books

Sometimes I get stuck in a genre rut. So I improve my fiction writing skills by reading general fiction books, too.

What's the difference?

I think most people assume there's genre fiction and "regular" fiction. But my feeling is that we call some books "general" because they don't fit neatly into any fiction genres we've defined.

That doesn't mean they don't incorporate one or more of the traits a particular genre is known for, it just means they contain an amalgam of traits from several genres.


A Humorous Chick-Lit-Thriller, Anyone?

When you "google" general fiction books, what you'll find is book lists, and links to book lists. This may or may not help you, if you have something definite in mind. If you like to browse book titles for new authors or titles to try, though, this is a great place to start.

When I searched I found lists from Yahoo, Amazon, Macmillan, Penguin and more. These, in turn, had links to bookstores that carry "general fiction".

Again, I don't know how these are defined precisely (they probably aren't precise at all), since I saw books by Janet Evanovich (which are humorous women's fiction, and thrillers/mysteries all tied into one package) side by side with a Norman Mailer book, a Scott Turow mystery, a Salman Rushdie novel (he's often described as a writer of magical realism)... you get the picture.

So, searching for this type of book will yield the full gamut of stories, as long as they don't fall neatly into another genre. And sometimes even if they do.


I Wanna Write Those

If you don't want to be pigeon-holed into a genre, and would prefer to write general fiction books, the best place to get a feel for this market is one of these lists. Jot down the titles of some that intrigue you and "get thee to a library" to check some out.

Read them, absorb them, and see if the looser boundaries suit you better than the restrictions of genre fiction. In which case, jump right in feet first and come up running with ideas these books give you for your own fiction.

After all, no one ever said you had to fit into a box. Once you get known for one genre, readers and publishers do tend to try to shove you back into your box every time you take a step outside it, so general topics may suit you much better.

Still, they might accuse you of writing contemporary fiction, then, which is also a bit of a genre. They like boxes, after all.

Don't let it bother you, though. Write what you have a passion for, no matter what that is!