“What’s your book about?”
That is the spoken question authors often hear from prospective readers. The unspoken questions are likely to be, ‘Does this interest me? Is it worth my time and money? Is this author a good writer?’
Questions for unknown writers, that is. It has been said that people read authors and not books. If you’re looking at a book by notable authors such as Stephen King, James Patterson, or John Grisham, you already know the answers.
In 2017 I attended a workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival entitled, “Aboutness.” To prepare in advance, the instructor, Sandra Scofield, asked attendees to “create a statement that perfectly describes your novel: 2-3 sentences. Convey the scope of the plot and the nature of the story ‘world’ (setting and circumstances). It should describe the protagonist so that we understand how a whole novel could be built around this person. And if you know, you should tell us how the story ends.”
Even after doing all that, I still sometimes fumble the answer. It reminds me of the adage, one that I often heard in my youth, ‘you can’t see the forest because of the trees’. For authors, it sometimes takes an effort to step back from the story to gain a more objective overview.
Also, how appealing is the cover? These days another old adage, ‘you can’t judge a book by the cover’, no longer applies. Today’s covers are works of art, or at least the craft of skilled graphic designers. Whether or not they convey what the book is really about could be debatable in many cases.
Aboutness, themes, all genres, attempt to categorize or describe a story among all the countless aspects of the human condition. All good stories are based on an underlying theme. The author chooses a theme, often related to some personal experience or message. (Nothing bad happens to writers; everything is material – Philip Roth, American novelist, 1933-2018)
Themes range across the spectrum of the human condition: Good vs. evil, love, death, power, corruption, greed, courage, compassion, heroism, beauty, gender, survival, loneliness, repentance, reconciliation, faith, hope, religion, revenge, change, growing up, inclusion/exclusion, resilience, redemption, prejudice, injustice, war, wealth, poverty, individual vs. society, community, self-reliance, and memoirs.
When I began writing my first novel, I had some reasonable notion of the importance of identifying a theme. In that case I intended the story to be founded on compassion for someone who is suffering. Loosely based on an experience in my youth, it tells about a bunch of kids who befriend a troubled, homeless drifter. As the story progressed, even though I had intended to keep myself detached, I realized that much came from personal experience. I suppose that is art, creative expression of one’s inner self.
Closely related to the theme, the genre, or type of stories, places them in categories that help readers decide what they like, or need, to read. You are familiar with the conventional genres: Science fiction, fantasy, historical, romance, mystery, thriller, horror…, and, general fiction.
As a literary genre, to categorize a story as general fiction is, well, too general. At book events, when a visitor asked what kind of book is this, and I said ‘general fiction’, I sometimes noticed their interest evaporating at such a bland answer. I tried to rally with what I hoped was an enticing description of the story, and its meaningful theme.
While I didn’t think that my books could claim to be literary fiction, and I disdain any connection with commercial fiction, I was pleased to learn about the term ‘upmarket’ fiction. Research turns up various descriptors: Character-driven, important themes, intriguing plots, quality yet accessible writing, ‘book club’ fiction. I like this description from Masterclass:
“Have you ever read a novel that manages to straddle the line between being a page-turning popcorn thriller and dense literary fiction? More and more books are being published that are hard to classify as either commercial fiction or literary fiction. Oftentimes these books fall into a hybrid fiction category known as upmarket fiction.”
That’s the best of both worlds: Stories that are compelling reads, well-written, with meaningful and important themes. Stories that entertain, inform, and possibly inspire. In my efforts to create those, I follow my guiding principles of faith, family, fitness, friends, and finances. They underly the elements of a good story (credit Garrison Keillor): Mystery, family, money, romance and religion.
That’s what the story is about, and for quality, upmarket fiction, it takes about 100,000 words or so. And if the writing is good, you won’t even be aware that you are reading.
No. 16 in the original Words on Paper series from September 2024
