Michael Chabon vs. Battlestar Gallactica

I am so burnt out. I'm burnt out on winter. Writing. Romance. Snow suits. Border Collies. I am burnt out on my own head. The only thing I really love right now are donuts and we all know that road leads to ruin. So, to get my mind off donuts I've stopped writing and to get Sinead off my back I am watching Battlestar Gallactica. And reading one of my very very favorite authors - Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, Wonder Boys, Summerland, The Final Solution and a brilliant book of short stories the title I can't remember because Maureen has had it so long.) I'm reading the Mysteries of Pittsburgh. It's fantastic - of course, because he's a brilliant brilliant writer. And Battlestar is fantastic - because it's written by brilliant brilliant writers. Incredibly different kinds of writers. But, the same in a lot of ways.



Now, a few weeks ago I was having a conversation with some other Superromance authors about what Wanda Ottewell as the new senior editor of the line, wants from us, from our books and from the line in general. My response was "drama." A lot of people disagreed with me, saying that conflict and lots of it was the key and others said it was more action, less slice of life. Anyway there were a lot of opinions and I forgot for a while what my gut reaction was - drama.

Cut to the other night and me watching Battlestar Gallactica. More specifically me watching the scene with Starbuck being held hostage and fed dinner by the creepy cylon dude that loves her. Tense scene. We know something is going to happen. Starbuck says she can't cut her steak and he comes over and cuts it for her with a GIANT KNIFE. Oh! The tension. Oh! The drama. Starbuck with a shank of some kind stabs the guy in the side. Now, Cylons don't die - that version will, but another one will come and take his place. She knows this. And in essence the dialogue is: "Why do you keep doing this? You know I'm going to come back." And her response is "I'm doing this because you keep coming back." So, then, bloody, still prisoner Starbuck sits down and takes a bite of steak and wipes her mouth on a white linen napkin held in her bloody bloody bloody hand.

Whoa.

That's drama. That's character revealing. That's action. And then it hit me -- that's what genre fiction gets to do. It's life and people, dealing with life and people things but in a way that's just slightly better than life. Less boring. More thrilling. More perfect. More DRAMATIC. Genre fiction is about putting stuff on stage, giving it a bright white spotlight - making it sparkle and sizzle in a way that my real life really really doesn't. And then for a few days I thought - that's the difference between genre fiction and literary fiction. Literary fiction has less drama - more real life in a real life kind of way. A little dull, to be honest.

And then I started Chabon. And he's literary - the guy has won a Pulitzer. But I realized reading this book and looking at my bookshelf of "literary"books and I realized what really good literary writers do - and really successful literary writers do - is use their voice as that spotlight. They add the drama - the writer. So, my new theory is this - there is no real difference between good literary fiction (and by good I do mean what I think is good because it's subjective and I have no idea what you're reading and I hate Margaret Atwood) and good genre fiction. In the end. It's about honest, poignant, character-driven, exciting drama.

Man, I love taking breaks.