Friday, January 27, 2006

What do you want out of your fiction?

Genre fiction is escapist entertainment. The books take you out of your current reality for a while, to someplace better/brighter/REALer. (In the way that reality in books is the distilled essence of external reality ... an abridged version containing only the good parts.)

But what happens when you come back? Do you take a look around you, and think, "This is nowhere near as much fun as the place I go to when I read," and pop back into the next book? Or have you brought something back with you, that strengthens you for your daily life, so that you're able to try and move your current situation closer to the fictional situation you preferred?

Mind, I'm not advocating books as thinly disguised primers for How To Live Your Life. But maybe, if you've lived through a character struggling against all odds to triumph, you'll be a little less likely to give up when faced with a daunting challenge. Maybe, if you identified with the heroine who'd all but given up on love who finally found her soul mate, you'll accept your friend's suggestion to fix you up with someone they know. Maybe it's as simple as, having seen the price of a life of constant adventure and excitement, you find contentment with your routine job and existence.

The method may change from book to book, but I want all of the books I read to make me a better/stronger/happier person. I want the books I write to help make their readers better/stronger/happier people, in whatever slight way they may.

That's what I want out of my fiction. What do you want?

Posted by Jennifer Dunne :: Link :: 5:10 PM :: 3 Comments

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