Here’s a question that’s come to My Book Therapy: “What is the difference between Chick LIt and WF, and how can I decide what genre to use for my book?”
What a great question. In fact, I answered this during my Lit Continuing Session at the ACFW Conference.
Lits, especially Chick Lit, was birthed in 1996 with Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones Diary.”
Wilkipedia defines Chick Lit as: the genre covers the breadth of the female experience which deals unconventionally with traditional romantic themes of love and courtship.
Lit books usually features hip, stylish female protagonists, usually in their twenties and thirties, in urban settings (usually London or Manhattan), and follows their love lives and struggles for professional success (often in the publishing, advertising, public relations or fashion industry). The books usually feature an airy, irreverent tone and frank sexual themes.
Women’s Fiction takes a more traditional approach to a female protagonist’s story. While she may be on a journey of empowerment, she’s also dealing with angst such as illness, divorce, errant child, or other big life changes. The Women’s Fiction heroine is strong, powerful, and introspective. She faces life with a ironic realism. “It is what it is” approach.
Women’s Fiction usually employ multiple points of view, seeing through the eyes of other characters, and carry a serious tone. The reader weaps.
Women’s fiction author examples are Deb Raney, Maureen Lang, Lisa Samson.
Lits on the other hand have a fun, cheeky tone, irreverent and witty. The story is typically told from only the heroine’s point of view, but smart lit authors find ways to get in secondary character’s point of view by using email, or blog/diary postings.
The lit heroine laughs at herself. Where the WF heroine might be resolved to her plight and digging in to overcome, the Lit heroine is not at all resolved and thinking, “Oh, no you don’t.”
Lits focus on several issues at once yet covers an overall theme or goal. For example, a lit story may cover career, friends, family and love life, but the story theme is the heroine achieving her life long dream.
Lit’s are fast paced and not introspective. At least not for long. They have a voyeuristic feel, like reading someone’s diary. The reader laughs more than cries.
Lits are a lot about “voice.” How the story is being put on the page, the way the words and sentences are woven together.
Lit author examples are Marian Keyes, Kristin Billerbeck, yours truly, Susan Warren, Diann Hunt, Trish Perry, Tracey Bateman.
So, how can you tell if your story is Women’s Fiction or Lit? Ask yourself a couple of questions:
What’s my writing voice like? Serious, or snappy?
How’s my writing style? Lyrical and long or quippy and short?
What is the essence of the story? A women returning to her home town after a heartbreaking divorce? Or, a women entering the work force for the first time only to discover this is not at ALL what she wants to do with her life.
Read Lits. Read Women’s Fiction. What resonnates with you?
What are others saying about your writing? What kind of story do you want to tell?
While Lits are typically told in first person for the “immediate feel”, any story can be told in any “person” the author decides. Use what is best for you and the story.
Now, get to writing! If you need further help, call the Book Therapists!
*********************
Sign up now for our monthly, Book Therapy blog feed and get:
5 Secrets to a Best-Selling Novel
Frustrated? Confused? …Dreaming of the day when an editor calls and says, âI MUST publish your book?â Donât laugh â it could happen! It does happen – all the time – and you could be next! Whatâs holding you back? Flat characters? A Saggy plot? Lackluster writing? Let the Book Therapists help. We believe that deep inside every troubled story lies a deep-seated problem. But itâs not beyond hope… Your book simply needs therapy. Stop by MY BOOK THERAPY and…get published!