29 March 2025
I am a writer. I began as a young poet and as one aspiring to write a good story. Over my life I learned to write business proposals, technical manuals, and analyses of various kinds. There are so many kinds of writing, and I have tasted a few. These days I write stories and essays. And I still write poetry for it is my heart and voice. But I have set myself to focus on writing fiction. It has become a passion. Sometimes a short piece, sometimes a longer narrative like a novel.
In fiction there are various genre – westerns, romance, crime, horror, science fiction – to name a few. But I am not comfortable writing in any of those spaces. They follow a pattern the reader is expecting. I enjoy reading some of these, yet as a writer they feel unnatural to me and far too structured. I need more imaginative latitude and a wild freedom as a storyteller. My fictional writing is described in publishing as literary fiction, which I am told means an area of fiction not easily fitting into an accepted genre. So, there we are, not quite fitting, but I’m ok with that.
So, how do I write literary fiction? Let me share it with you.
I begin with a person or a scene. If a scene, say for example the view from an apartment window or of a forest coming awake with the dawn, then I find the person who is there in that place. I begin to wonder what their experience is just then. My poetic self may whisper some lyrical phrase curiously teasing my thoughts, some unusual twist of words begging me to come along, so I follow it. I let my curiosity birth the creative moment, the unfolding, for it is happening just now and I would not miss it for the world. Once I have the person, I have a character, and I am off and moving in a story. I am in another world, a very real world being created with each successive word I write, a place and people gradually coming into view, coming into being just before me. As the writer, I am also new to the situation and just as unknowing as the next person. And the question I quietly pose to myself, what would this person do now, what are they thinking and feeling?
Other genres follow more defined patterns. But for me it is not a matter of staging situations or developing tension or having a grand scheme or plot as to how the story will develop. For in a very real sense, I do not know what my characters will do. They simply do them, they live out their moments and lives as I quietly follow along, and a story plays out from their actions or thoughts. It just does. It is always a sublime adventure for me as my characters come alive and respond to things happening. I am curious how it will go for them, for they have somehow become very real to me and I have grown to care about them very much. They often do things unexpected and I am as surprised as my readers. But there it is. The creative process bubbling out unknown realities into the world we know. It is an almost imperceptible revealing of the heart and mind of another, and who can know it. It is mystery. We are all beholding a thing new. And yes, my characters do eventually find resolution to their personal struggles and so on. But that is not my focus as I write. I am just a sympathetic observer of my characters, as of one tagging along and taking notes. To focus on the mechanics would miss the unfolding tale. It would seem forced and artificial to me. I let the words and actions of my characters tell me how things will go for them, how all will work out at the last. They always do.
Now a few words on something I said earlier. I said, I need more imaginative latitude and a wild freedom as a storyteller. Let me elaborate on this.
As a writer of literary fiction, I do not feel bound by structure. I am free to lean in close and freely imagine the next thing, anything. There is no crime to solve, no romantic interest to pursue, and no horror to avoid. There are none of those things. What I do have are a few characters those lives I am becoming involved with for they are living right in front of me. I am very much involved and most curious. At times, I only perceive their outer behavior and responses, and these can be telling, suggesting hesitation or excitement or any number of things. At other times, I am given a view of a character’s inner world, their thoughts, imaginations, and memories. And these are more things I can work with. But honestly, at various points I am never quite sure what to do with what I have come to know. I am in the dark. I do not know what will happen next. It is at these points I pause and wait. I give my characters time to provide a sense of what is next for them, of what they want to do or need to do. And it always comes clear, I just need to be patient. Often at such times I get up from my writing and go do something else unrelated to my writing or the story I am working on. I go for a walk or work in the garden or whatever. And would you believe, I suddenly become aware of what must happen next. It is then I return to my writing, pick up the story and continue. This is how it goes with me. I have learned to have faith in the creative process as my imagination and characters help me along. There is always a revealing.
There is another aspect of literary fiction worth touching on. I mentioned a moment ago of having a view of some of my character’s thoughts, imaginations, and memories. These are vital to me. They become touchstones into the psyche of my characters, what makes them who they are, and why they respond the way they do. These markers open rich avenues of discovery often revealing much more of my character’s motivations and deeper desires than any normal activity would ever reveal. And they often become critical to the story. It is from these imaginings I drift and freefall into myriad contemplations. The images often just ordinary memories repeating some thread or strand of thought I have introduced earlier in the story bringing a continuity to the whole piece. Yet at times these images take on a truly fantastical nature, vivid and shocking, sometimes startling and otherworldly, aspects I did not anticipate at all, but I follow it. I am as curious as the next person as to what this means or how it will contribute anything to my larger story. Yet there it is. In these moments, I move with confidence for I know that all will come around full and tell the tale as it must be told. These wild and sometimes bizarre images often bleed into the actual lives of my characters causing them to see beyond the pale of this world into another, a world dreamlike or magical or eternal. They are often self-revealing for my characters. For it is here, where my characters embrace these broad intense realities, that they often find meaning and resolution. I cannot say why or how this is so, I just know this is what happens.
As a writer it is still all wonder to me.
Henry
Henry Lewis, Writer 