Lesson One
Welcome to Lesson One! I'm so excited to be teaching this class, so please enjoy and if there are any issues, please let me know. To begin, let's take a second to discuss the definition of "fiction".
Fiction
Fiction is defined quite literally as "anything made up." This would be, obviously, anything not true. Fiction is an invention or fabrication as opposed to fact, as in it is made up and therefore, not true. It is not based on any historical fact and exists solely in one's imagination. There are numerous genres of fiction and each one is different from the other in its own way. What is a genre? A genre is a branch off of the original category. Fiction is not the only thing that happens to have genres of its own.
Other forms of entertainment, like music, also have genres. For that matter, some genres have their own genres! Genres differ from each other in a few ways. For instance, in the genre of science fiction, there are some made-up elements that are futuristic, but in the genre of mythology, there are made-up elements of Greek gods and goddesses and their stories. The thing, in Fiction, that they are all alike in is that there is something in each one that is made up and thus, they fall into a subset of Fiction.
Word Count
The word count of a book relates to, obviously, how many words are in the story. When writing fiction, there are different categories based off of your word count and your book falls into its own 'genre' based off of the word count. There are five main book genres based off of your word count and they are Flash Fiction, Short Stories, the Novelettes, the Novellas, and Novels. The word count varies among publishers, but this is roughly what it looks like. We will discuss each starting from the least word count. Flash Fiction refers to stories that are below 1,000 words. These stories are very quick, but still contains some kind of plot. Next, are Short Stories which are above Flash Fiction in word count, but under 7,500 words. These stories are rather condensed and usually only focus on a few characters and one plot. Then we have the Novelette which consists of 7,500 to just under 17,500 words. After that, we have the Novella which is 17,500 to just under 40,000 words. Finally, there's the novel which is any book that has a word count longer than 40,000 words.
Genres
There are different types of fiction out there from Mythology and Fantasy to comics and science fiction. There are so many different types to choose from and most people can find a genre that fits them. There are limitless options if you're a fan of Fiction. Most genres have sub genres that branch off of them. For instance, in the case of Mythology, there are different kinds of mythology like fairy tales, folklore, legends, and myths. In the case of the genre of Fantasy, there are countless sub-genres like heroic fantasy (deals with heroes and their quests) and dark fantasy (has some horror elements to it).
Let's discuss a few of these genres and what each one involves. We'll start with Fantasy and work from there, hopefully hitting quite a few and talking about them briefly.
Fantasy is the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable. Fantasy is defined by a story that has parts that can't possibly be true because of some magical or fantastical elements. For instance, Harry Potter would be considered Fantasy as would Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings both deal with magic as well as magical creatures and a made-up world. We will devote lesson three to talking about Fantasy since it has its own major categories and it's a pretty big deal (a very popular genre of Fiction).
Next on the list would be science fiction. Science Fiction is defined by fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets. Books with this genre would be The Lunar Chronicles and A Wrinkle in Time to name two out of an incredibly large category. To further discuss why books are included in this category, let's discuss those two mentioned. The Lunar Chronicles deals with futuristic elements since it is set in the future and there are many parts of the world it takes place in that are futuristic, technology-wise, like their androids which are robots that look like humans and help people out with various activities. A Wrinkle in Time is classified as science fiction because it deals with traveling through different worlds to rescue the protagonist's father who is captured by The Black Thing which is basically a world of evil. Time travel in A Wrinkle in Time and the entirely futuristic theme in The Lunar Chronicles is what qualifies them as Sci-Fi (another term for Science Fiction). Additionally, Science Fiction has a few various subgenres from Alien Invasions to Time Traveling.
Romance is a big genre to cover as it includes all novels that focus on relationships. Just like with many genres, Romance has its subsets as well like science fiction romance, fantasy romance, and historical romance. The romance of the book is the main driving force behind the plot. Typically, romance has a certain structure about it in that two people meet each other, don't know they have feelings for each other, then figure it out, break up over something, and eventually come back together.
Historical fiction is the genre that deals with stories about the past that aren't actually true though based in reality most often. It is often used as an educational way to teach people something about the time period while the story not being necessarily true. We see this a lot in film as well like with Robin Hood for instance.
Moving on, we have the genre of Mystery. The mystery genre is a type of fiction in which a detective, or other professional, solves a crime or series of crimes. Books that involve this genre are usually full of suspense and involve weird happenings that leave the readers wondering what's going to happen next. It usually revolves around a crime that is being solved. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a famous example of the Mystery genre as it deals with detectives looking into crimes.
There are a few subgenres of Mystery like the Puzzle genre which deals with solving a puzzle in order to solve a crime and the subgenre of Legal Mystery which deals with people involved in law solving crimes instead of detectives or police officials.
Paranormal fiction is the genre that deals with all sorts of paranormal creatures and activity like aliens, magical creatures such as vampires and werewolves, and ghosts.
Mythology is another genre of Fiction. Mythology is a legendary or a traditional story that usually concerns an event or a hero, with or without using factual or real explanations. These particularly concern demigods or deities. Mythology, as I'm sure most of you know, involves myths. The first thing that comes to mind is Greek Mythology that deals with gods and goddesses and the stories that surround them. Like I said before, Mythology has a handful of subgenres like fairy tales, folklore, legends, and myths. An example of a book from the Mythology genre would be the widely popular Percy Jackson series which deals with gods and goddesses.
To wrap this up, the last genre I want to cover are comics. Comics are pretty much their own genre. Comics are books written in comic strip format and can cover a wide range of various topics. Comic books are all different genres. You might have one that is more science fiction and one that's more fantasy. They are basically a genre of their own because they deal with a variety of genres. Comics Strips are a series of pictures accompanied by text that tells a story. You could say that comics are their own writing style entirely that uses pictures to illustrate a story.
Literary vs Genre Fiction
Now, there are some books that do not fit into any certain genre. These books are in the category of Literary Fiction. They do not fit into any particular genre because they are written to inform people of something and not to provide entertainment reading.
Genre Fiction refers to books that fit into a certain genre. While Genre Fiction is written for people's entertainment, Literary Fiction is usually written to teach something to people, it provides a means to better understand the world.
Alrighty, that should wrap things up. Please head over to the assignment for this week. Don't hesitate to HOL message me if you have any questions or just wish to talk and discuss some things.