A Good Title

Because a few readers said they did not like the title of THE GIRL ON THE MOUNTAIN, my current novel-in-progress, I conducted a survey of people who have and have not read the story. I gave a choice of fifteen possible titles to friends and family and asked them to pick one that might lead to a closer inspection of the book. From those who had not read the story, I wanted a gut reaction. From those who'd read it, I wanted to know if another title might work better.

Here are the results:

1. The Girl on the Mountain: 7 votes from those who have not read the story plus 2 from those who have. Amy, who hasn't read the story, said the title suggests "historical," which she likes. Jennifer, who has read it, said the title raises questions and better suits the story. Why I like the title: until she moves down from the mountain, May Rose, the main character, doesn't know people call her "the girl on the mountain." Throughout the story, she struggles to overcome their opinions.

2. Where Whispers Echo:  8 votes, all from people who have not read it. How this title works: A well-meaning character in the story tells May Rose it doesn't matter if she's innocent of the slander against her, because "nothing truly interesting happens here, so a whisper echoes all over the mountains, and people don't know or don't care if it's true or not."  This title is poetic but may suggest a romance, which the story is not.

Votes were scattered among nine other title ideas.

Before as Strangers: A quote from Longfellow's Evangeline, used in the story.

Sounds of the Rude World: A quote from Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer," used in the story.

Fair and Young: Evangeline

Never Falter, Never Fail: A phrase from "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" (old hymn). A theme in the story.

As Leaves to the Light: Evangeline

Company Town: Appropriate because most of the story is set in a company town in 1899.

Prayers and Lies: I like this one because the main character prays constantly and also lies, as do others in the story.

Down in the Valley: The site of the company town. 

Unsafe: A theme.

Conclusions: 

I had fun with this exercise, which confirmed my belief that titles create different expectations. A title, however, is only one lure. The cover must also be appropriate and interesting to people who like a certain kind of fiction, and the cover blurb has to suggest an intriguing story. Finally, the first few paragraphs must capture the reader's imagination and cause him or her to read the whole story! 

Next Round: Reactions to a cover and cover blurb.

Thanks, everyone!

Overcoming the Story Blues

I hate this.

Starting a new story is as conflicting as having a new baby with the older one crying for attention.  But worse:  my story offspring are not yet equally loved.  I have to force myself to ignore the older and nurture the new. 

There are a few good side effects.  I'm not obsessed with taking care of it. I sleep better.  I'm diligently reading, planning, writing--but find time to do other things.

It's a good thing our bodies take care of the first nine months of creating a baby.  If my mind had to develop a baby, I'd probably forget where I left it.

To shock me into a relationship with this story, I've put the first chapter up for critique. We'll see if readers stimulate any maternal instincts and if the story wants to breathe.  This is risky.  The story (The Legacy of Lucie Bosell) should be available March 28 on critiquecircle.com unless I come to my senses and pull it back to the womb.

Good idea?  Bad idea?  Death wish?

What do you know about the story blues?

Wanda, the sidekick who nearly stole the show

When I was told several times that my main character's sidekick was stealing the show, I decided to make her the main character of the next story.  In the first one (The Girl on the Mountain) Wanda is 13, abused and homeless, but resilient, wise, and strong-willed.  In that story she's a contrast to the older, somewhat naive main character (May Rose), who gives her a home and is inspired by her.

I like starting a new project with a character I know so well.  But almost immediately I'm confronted by the problem of maturity and change.  The new story takes place fifteen years later, and rough little Wanda has become a rough grownup. 

As an adult, Wanda can continue to be independent and outspoken.  Those traits can help as well as hinder the accomplishment of her goals in the new story.  But she can't retain the reactions of a child, or she will be neither loved nor a good main character.  I'm also wondering if her ungrammatical speech will make her less acceptable as a grown-up main character.  People do tend to associate ungrammatical speech with ignorance--not an accurate association, but true of our prejudices.

So help me out.  What do you know of "rough" main characters, especially female ones?  Main characters with poor speech?  What makes them lovable? 

Write Better: Get Another View

Another view.  We must have other eyes on our manuscripts no matter how painful the corrections and comments.  It's too easy to write alone, get lost in our own words, not see ambiguity, sentence weaknesses, lack of clarity.  We have to seek constructive criticism.  Without it, we can't possibly get better.

I hope someone reading this post is a high school or college student who's angry or disillusioned by a harsh review of a beloved composition.  Maybe even a middle-aged new writer who has submitted a story to a publisher or a writing group like CritiqueCircle.com and been disappointed by a lack of enthusiastic response.  It's always a shock to discover our words did not reach a reader as we intended.

Get help.  Like other people devoted to their craft, writers all over the world willingly help each other. CritiqueCircle.com is a terrific (and free) mutual-help community.  Members can also learn by seeing mistakes and problems in the writing of others.

Don't accept every critique as golden.  There are as many different reading tastes as food preferences and varieties of dogs.  Take a look at the writing style and reading habits of the person critiquing you (found on the site in CC member profiles).  See what that person said about stories you also critiqued.  Critiques on a story often vary widely--many readers sense something wrong but don't know what it is or how to fix it.  Realize that the best they've told you may be that something doesn't quite work. Occasionally someone does not know how to give opinions in a kind or helpful manner, but I think those instances on Critique Circle are rare. Members on the site gain experience in critiquing.  In most cases writers can find the reactions they need (though not always what they want), often by knowledgeable people.  

Before you show your manuscript to someone else, give yourself a different perspective.   Look at it in a different format. Widen the margins so the page looks like the page of a book. Don't rely on the grammar and spelling checker--PRINT a proof copy. Mistakes jump out--typos, unnecessary repetitions, poor transitions, and so on. To save paper, look at the document in your word processor's two-page view. This view allows you to see across paragraphs and pages and spot all kinds of weaknesses. (After I edit in normal screen view, I go to the two-page view and spend time tweaking.  I love the two-page view.)

Finally, if you're going to show the manuscript to anyone--a friend or someone online--never say "I haven't had time to edit this but I just wanted to get your opinion."  I hope you see the problem in that.

The pause before the end

Here's the current problem.  Come to think of it, it's my typical old problem.  I'm near the end of a first draft, and reluctant to write the finish.   Instead of plowing ahead, I decided to explore why, maybe do a better job when I get back to it.

It's not burnout.  I know what that feels like.  This pause feels more like fear that I've missed something.  It feels like staying up late because the day was boring, like checking the house before going on vacation. 

The story may not be ready to end.

Even if it is, there's good reason to pause.  Readers expect something satisfactory to emerge from the situation, conflict, or chaos, so there's a responsibility to deliver it.  Just not as usual, and not as might be expected. 

A good ending comes as something of a surprise to the characters as well as to the readers, yet it illuminates the beginning and middle of the story.  Seeds of the ending are present in the very first page.  If a WINNER emerges in a BIG SCENE, the ending helps us understand what winning means.

Occasionally I read an ending so perfect that I am reluctant to close the book.  I hold it a short while, admiring and getting used to the fact that it's over.  Darn.

The movie "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" ends with a great symbol: the Denzel Washington character bringing home milk, as instructed by his wife earlier in the day.  The ending works because it's so ordinary, a contrast with his extraordinary action throughout the story.  It says, "Life has been restored." 

In a satisfactory ending, someone we care about goes on. 

The End.

Not to be taken lightly.

Finding a true voice

Usually I read blogs for information, but I'm drawn to several by the conversational style of the blogger.  The writers sound like fun people with keen minds.  I think I'd like to read something by them.  But when I read a sample of their fiction, I'm disappointed.  It's not the voice I expected.

I've also read critiques with more snap and personality than the characters in the critiquer's stories.

I'm sure it's not necessary to write fiction in our own voices, whatever that means.  Stories don't have to be about ourselves.  But some writers have a conversational style that's more interesting, fresh, and honest than their fictional creations.  

Why is this?  Possible answers:  self-imposed controls, inexperience, imitating models we like.  Writing instructors talk about the need to set the subconscious free and to turn off the internal editor, in the first draft, anyway. 

What can we do to find our personal style and carry it into a story?  How can we get from here to there?  I think it helps to begin with heartfelt emotion and characters who share some trait or experience we can identify with, including antagonists.  It helps to think about issues, places, personalities and events and distill them to conviction (point of view!).  In any story worth reading, the writer shares lot of herself, not necessarily personality or experiences, but those convictions.

I’ll never forget a paragraph written by a student who avoided F's only because he was always present and attentive and bravely struggled through homework.  The assignment (based on Robert Frost's Mending Wall) was to write about a personal wall.  His wall, he wrote, was his inability to achieve more than a "D," no matter how hard he tried.  His words were heartfelt, his voice true, and his paragraph, a stellar creation.  Everybody else wrote what they thought the teacher wanted.

As writers (and maybe in real life), we must not be afraid to show ourselves as naïve, ignorant, or even worse--boring--at least not in the first drafts.  We should not adopt styles we think everyone wants to read.  Sometimes they're not as good as our own.

A good "B" story

A friend told me she would not attempt to write a novel if it could not be of the highest quality.  It felt like she was criticizing me for trying. 

A reader on my favorite critique site said a chapter I'd posted showed no particular literary quality.  His critique was kindly put, so I didn't take offense.  I can't remember his exact words, but he did say it was "standard prose."  I think he said I paragraphed well.  The token praise pleased me anyway.  After all, good paragraphing is necessary.

Suspecting he's a reader with good taste, I understood what he meant.  I love substantial writing, images that stimulate recognition and recall, well-expressed ideas that complete my half-formulated thoughts, and characters and stories that broaden my awareness.  And of course, words used in eye-opening ways.  I call those stories A+.  They win prizes, are translated in many languages, and appeal to all kinds of readers.  There are never enough of them.

I don't expect my writing to reach a high literary quality, though I continue to work hard.  But while I admire many novels with great language (simple A's, maybe), sometimes their stories don't hold my attention.  I do often enjoy good B stories (in 'standard prose'), and would be proud to add one to their number.

Write on!

Handy-dandy AutoCorrect

You can save time and avoid mis-typing difficult words like strange and unpronounceable character and place names with a feature in Microsoft Word and OneNote called AutoCorrect.  Other word processors may have a similar capability.  In Word and OneNote, the icon is a little lightning bolt.  It's under the tools menu in OneNote, but harder to find in Word 2007. 

I use AutoCorrect like shorthand for character names, but it works for phrases too.  When I type the first letter of a character name, like M, the letter is immediately replaced with the name I've entered in the AutoCorrect options dictionary: Morningstar.  If I have several characters or place names that start with M, I can create other abbreviations:  Mb, Mx, Mfg.  If I don't have dozens, my shortcuts are not hard to remember.

The AutoCorrect feature is easy to find in OneNote.  It's on the "Tools" menu at the top of every page.  It's harder to get to in Word 2007, but you can add the icon to the top bar.  More about that later.

First, OneNote.  (Directions here for adding a word to AutoCorrect's dictionary also apply to Word, and--this is neat--the two applications share the same dictionary.)  From the Tools menu, select "Auto Correct Options." 

Near the bottom of the options box is a scrolling list of the current dictionary entries. Above that scrolling list is a "Replace" field and a "With" field.  If I type H in the "Replace" field and Hramxtvm in the "With" field, my correction is added to the dictionary. 

The AutoCorrect option is on the tools menu of older versions of Word, but in the 2007 version you locate it through the "Office Button" at the top left of the document screen.  From there you go down to the bottom bar of that menu to "Word Options."  The full path is Office Button/Word Options/Proofing/Auto Correct Options.  If I'm making a lot of AutoCorrect entries, that path is a pain.

But Word gives us the ability to put our favorite icon short-cuts on the toolbar.  To get the AutoCorrect icon up front once and for all, follow this path:  Office Button/Word Options/Customize/Choose Commands From (a drop-down menu)/Commands not on the Ribbon/Auto Correct Options.  Highlight "Auto Correct Options, click on the "Add" button, and the lightning bolt symbol will pop over to the box on the right.  Click OK.  Your AutoCorrect symbol should now appear on the very top bar of a Word page and be available whether you're in the Review pane, Home, Page Layout, etc.

When you've finished a project, you may want to remove the entries in your AutoCorrect dictionary.  Just scroll through the dictionary and remove or replace them.  Otherwise your old characters may show up in your new book.  But wait--that might be a good thing. 

Faced with writer's block, listen to your minor characters

You wrote a furious first half, then faltered.  Blocked.

You'd  set up the situation of your story and put your characters in motion, felt good about what you'd done, and suddenly could not find your way forward.   Oh, you could keep writing.  You had a plot outline, and you weren't totally blank, but you didn't like any of the possibilities that came to mind.  Or something like that.

Hopefully, your work didn't fall into a drawer or the trash at that point.

Facing a block today, I remembered an exercise from a writing workshop--writing a first-person monologue from the point of view of a minor character in the story.  The purpose of the exercise was to add depth to characters and learn more about our developing stories.   Writers like to say "learn" as thought the story is waiting to be discovered.  That's how it feels.  It may be more accurate to say that there can be many reasons for a character's actions, and looking through the eyes of the POV character isn't always the best way to understand them. 

Guess what, learning more about the story can help a writer get over a block.  Seems obvious.

I gave today’s monologue to a character named Bright, a man antagonistic to the main character, but unlikely to affect events in a big way.  He'd appeared only twice, and I chose him for the exercise because I knew he needed to get into the story again.  I've noted before that we can't introduce characters and forget about them.  That happens in life, not in fiction.  Well, maybe in some types of fiction, like if dropping people is supposed to be the point.

In the monologue exercise, Bright redefined his role from his point of view.  Result:  a new scene, new possibilities.  Block over.

POV choices and the External Narrator

My current project is a first attempt to write a story from a single point of view.  It seems harder than using multiple viewpoints, that is, having several characters who tell portions of the story as they experience events. 

Using a single point of view limits choices to what the POV character does, sees, thinks, overhears, or is told by others.  This method is called "limited omniscience," meaning I don't let the reader know everything--just what the POV character knows.  It means I can't write a scene without the POV character in it. 

I'm also using third person (she, they, instead of I, we), and no obvious narrator.  More about that in a minute.

In a first person story, the main character can say "My story began [or begins] at a railroad crossing… ."  She can comment on her story as it plays out.

Changed to third person pronouns, this might be, "Her story began [or begins] at a railroad crossing."  Writing it like this implies the presence of a separate narrator, a lightly or heavily felt voice in the story or even a participant, like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.   Look at the line again.  You can hear the narrator’s voice. It's an ancient and perfectly legitimate device, though not what I want to do.

I prefer to write "She stood at the railroad crossing..." because the action feels more immediate without a narrator, who has to be telling us about something that happened in the past.  My choice uses past tense, but readers accept past tense as present action.  In the above example, no narrator interprets the character's presence at the crossing as the start of a chain of events that will become the story, though if it's the first line, we'll figure it has some significance.

After years of being out of fashion, omniscient narrators may be making a comeback.  In Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Shipping News (1993), a narrator guides us into a unique, poetic rendering of the main character's backstory:  "Here is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle..."  If you're wondering how backstory can be strong and poetic, check it out.

One narrative device is not better than another, though most readers no longer enjoy Charles Dickens' narrators, who let us know their opinions as much as those of the characters.

I've not studied the narrator's voice in The Shipping News, but I think it's important and subtle.  "And so Quoyle began [to tell a story to his daughter]."  The voice of this narrator seems to elevate the tone of a dark story and point to the heroic quality of Quoyle, "A great damp loaf of a body."  A few times the narrator shows the minds of other characters, but mainly the point of view is limited to Quoyle.  I'd call it third person limited omniscience with an external narrator, meaning one who isn't also a character in the story.

Beginning writers need to be aware of their narrative choice and control it, because inconsistency can cause readers to lose focus.  If you want to show several points of view, it's safest to confine your POV characters to different chapters or distinct sections within chapters. 

If you happen to be curious about the return of the omniscient narrator in contemporary fiction, see http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/narrative/v017/17.2.dawson.pdf.

Writing Techniques: Lessons I've learned about characters

You’re a step ahead, writers, if you instinctively avoid these pitfalls when you introduce characters.  I've stumbled into most of them.

Showing or talking about several new characters in short order, say within a page.  Even well-regarded novelists do this at times.  Readers with heavy intellect might be able to peg and remember these people but the rest of us skim or read back for clues to who they are.  Or close the book.  If the main character goes into a room and meets five people, let them be encountered slowly and one at a time, with dialogue or action in a little scene.  Of course, such scenes can be boring if they serve only to introduce these people.  But if the main character meets them while engaged in his immediate goals, the introductions take on a greater purpose and the scenes can be more compelling. 

Introducing with too many physical details.  Details can be as dull as an info dump.  For example, a story begins with the main character observing a beautiful woman.  There's a sentence about her hair, one about her lips, her limbs, her supple neck, eyes, etc.  Who cares?  If there is no attitude embedded in the description and the reader does not yet know the main character, detail may not work.  As the reader, I don't know what to think—I don’t know the point of view.  The woman’s description could be introduced with attitude, revealing something about the observer (he's sleazy, lonely, repelled, whatever), but it's easier and more dependable to first let the reader know something about him.  I don't know how well this succeeds, but If I can't describe a character with one great line (and usually I can't), I try to mix the details with action and filter them a few at a time. 

Having one or more characters who never appear.  They may be dead parents, or exes, or mentors, often part of the main character's back story, somehow influencing the current situation.  While they're real in the writer's mind, the reader probably needs to see them to understand the MC’s feelings about them.  I say "probably," because a great writer may find a way to make the relationship real while keeping the character offstage.  But seeing is believing, right?

Having characters with no clear role in the story, or who serve the same role as another.  Any character who is more than part of the setting needs to be included for a reason, either what she reveals about the main character or events, or how she affects the story.  By the end of a first draft, I hope to have only essential characters with clear roles.  A character with some presence in the beginning who fades away before the end without significant impact may need to be revised or written out.  But throughout that first draft, the characters can be loose.  For example, in my current project, the main character has received a present that makes her uncomfortable.  She doesn't know who sent it but has two, maybe three suspects.  I think there might be a fourth, but I'm only halfway through the first draft, and that character is still loose, so I don’t know yet.  I'm enjoying the suspense.

Good techniques--things to do--are easier to practice and establish than good style, which is more dependent on artistry--word choices and unique ways of seeing.  And important as they are, good techniques, like well-constructed sentences, do not guarantee that characters or story will make readers care.  More about that later.

Using Tables to Generate Ideas

When I don't know what to write next, whether the next action, solution for a character, or a brand new story, a word processing TABLE always helps.  I find those empty cells a lot more stimulating than a blank sheet of paper.
I type a word in the upper left-hand cell

Character

and try names

Character
Jules
Monty
Irene

and situations.

Character	Possible actions	Effects on story
Jules	Tells a lie.	Saves friend but the lie brings trouble for himself.

For words, tables are better than spreadsheets because the cells expand to fit the content.  The cells can also be easily dragged to resize them.  In the next table I added a column to the right and a row below:

Character	Possible actions	Effects on story
Jules	Tells a lie.	Saves friend but the lie brings trouble for himself.
Monty

I use tables to learn about and expand my characters.  The empty box commands me to put something in it, right or wrong, it doesn't matter.   I don't always use these ideas but reading them later helps.

Character:	Lucille	Olive	Parker
What is difficult for this person?	Waiting. wild thoughts. understanding. going ahead. thinking about anything else. doing nothing. sleeping, being realistic	organizing, planning, going ahead with things, caring about anything	being away, sharing thoughts, sharing himself, being loved;
What result of the difficulty?	tears for discarded, unwanted things; throws away her old work clothes; wants to buy a dress for her funeral; Asks Olive to take her	stuck in time, marking time, waiting,	The work self and the home self; affection side of him in the valley where he has more pleasant role;
What is the person hiding?	how much she wants to live; how little faith at this time; how focusing on any service lies close to her desire to live; what can she do for someone today?	guilty that she’s glad Marsh is out of her life;	does not like his job; has only work associates, no friends;

As far as I know, tables in Word and OneNote operate similarly.  Tables are better than spreadsheets for blocks of text, because the cell will expand vertically, and it accepts a "return" or "enter" for a new paragraph without going to the next cell.  If the cell's small size breaks your text in odd places, the size is easily adjusted.
If you're a visual thinker, making a table can help you plan and organize anything.
For those who haven't used tables:  You can create a table with the number of rows and columns you want (See "Insert Table" under TABLE on OneNote's top menu; or in Word, "Table" under the "INSERT tab).  You can easily add and delete columns and rows later. 
You can find video tutorials about tables, or you can learn by experimenting, or start with an official tutorial, here.

Writing from Scratch

It's not necessary to have ingredients on hand to start writing a novel.  Unlike scratch cooking, you concoct most everything that goes into it and make up the recipe as you go along. 

Planning my current story began with a brief image from a dream that I recorded in a notebook some time ago.  The dream had a poor child huddled in bushes by the door of a privileged home, an open carriage driving up to the door, a man who pulled his children roughly to the ground, a girl who fell, and the small girl who rushed from hiding to help her.  The story, I thought, might be about the poor girl and the privileged children who'd just lost their mother.

I pursued that idea for some days, looking at pictures of carriages, imagining scenes for the child, creating her history, considering where and when the story might take place.  Eventually she became a different character; I didn't use the bush scene, reduced the children and their father to minor characters, and forgot about the carriage. 

To get to that point I did a lot of thinking in many directions, recording even the least promising ideas in my messy spiral notebook or the better organized OneNote Notebook, sometimes waking and writing in the dark to preserve a thought without coming fully awake.

It’s harder in the beginning.  Writing from scratch is not like cooking, but like working a puzzle of your own design, having only one piece and no clue to the whole picture. 

I thought a lot about the main character and possible bumps in her road, and tested ideas in brief scenes.  In a OneNote section labeled "Problems," I created a page of "Character Problems" and one of "Author Problems."  Author Problems included things like "Why would she be in that place at that time?"  Also inconsistencies to be fixed.

To make the setting and society authentic for 1900, I developed 49 pages in a OneNote research section and to answer questions that popped up, like "Would there have been metal barrels then?"  In the research section I also pasted pictures, thanks to Internet, of such things as decorative iron gates and primitive washing machines, and copied words to a Fanny Crosby hymn and quotes from Longfellow's "Evangeline."  Now that I'm 20 chapters into the story, I know I won't draw on most of what’s in those 49 pages, like the description of glove-making.  But I have a feel for the time, and the search has been fun.

When I get stuck I read back over all my notes and hope a new, logical direction will emerge when I wake in the morning.

Crossing Into the Main Stream

Wait a minute.  I'm supposed to be writing mainstream fiction, which in its loosest definition means it will match the reading tastes of most people.  Along with literary fiction, mainstream is the kind I prefer to read.  But I've been wondering: do I represent mainstream anything?  Are my reading/viewing/lifestyle preferences like those of most people?  Er, no? 

The people I vote for seldom win.  I subscribe to The Atlantic and Wired magazines and faithfully watch Fareed Zakaria, not exactly mainstream media.  I live in rural West Virginia,  prefer classical music, and don't know  popular actors and musicians.  I don't even find a lot of fiction that I want to read past the first paragraph, though it simply may be that writing is more fun.

So why do I think anything I write would resonate in the main stream?

In general use, mainstream means the main current, where the action is, with the greatest number of readers, viewers, listeners, players, and religious or political followers.   We may easily become part of a mainstream audience, but affecting it is something else.  Imagine a current rushing along with boats of all description, and you trying to get your paper sailboat in there.  It's big and busy.  It's also a fluid place (pardon the obvious), impossible to describe at any point in time.

Tagging a work as "mainstream fiction" announces that it is not written for a special interest audience, such as romance, mystery, western, horror.  The writer hopes it will be acceptable to the reading preferences of most readers.  Most readers of fiction, that is, because more nonfiction is sold than fiction.  The work will never appeal to most people--most people don't read anything.  Wiki.answers claims that 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year. 

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with mainstream culture--we see its importance, maybe dislike it, and would like to guide it along to our tastes and preferences.  Music lovers seem to be most passionate about this.  The following definition of mainstream music from urbandictionary.com acknowledges shifts in popular taste: 

"Music that's usually on the radio, Top 40 and is well known to the general public. Usually criticized by fans of the previous mainstream generations, and people who prefer bands and/or genres that aren't apart of the mainstream popularity of the time."

Here's another from the urban dictionary:

"The worst music out there. It is usually for people that have low IQ's, are conformist, and are afraid to explore other music out there.

It is always on the radio, Top 40, MTV, and everywhere you go! All of it is crappy music created for people with no idea what good music is."

Harsh.

Even if we don't feel connected to mainstream culture, we probably would like to influence it.  Is that possible?  I think so, if we reach beyond what is natural and comfortable.  Cross over, speak out, meet in the middle, join hands.  Be not afraid.

Genre fiction (romance, mystery, science fiction, etc.) often goes beyond its special interest fans to earn the respect of a broader, mainstream audience.  In those crossovers, readers have a sense of learning something about people and places, the nature of conflict, love, and truth, while enjoying a good story.

The success of crossover works in all art proves there are places where great numbers of us can meet and agree, despite our differences.  Those places should happen more frequently.

For definitions of mainstream and genre fiction, check these sites:

www.novel-writing-help.com/mainstream-fiction.html

http://www.viviansnotebook.com/writing/tips/betwn_bks.htm