Steal, steal, and then steal some more

[Mindfire]

I think there's another, as yet unmentioned problem with encouraging the use of literary style. Some people just have no talent for it. And trying to force literary when you have no talent for it is courting disaster. A horribly long-winded, pretentious disaster.

 

[Penpilot]

I think there's another, as yet unmentioned problem with encouraging the use of literary style. Some people just have no talent for it. And trying to force literary when you have no talent for it is courting disaster. A horribly long-winded, pretentious disaster.

Yeah, I agree. You have to be true to your own voice. Learn from all sources. Steal from all sources. But if what you learn and steal don't fit who you are, and you try to cram it into your work when it obviously doesn't fit, you'll end up looking like the guy/gal who's trying too hard to be "cool".

There's a lot genre writers can learn from literary fiction, but I also believe there's a lot literary writers can learn from genre fiction.

 

[Steerpike]

I agree, you go with what the reader is interested in. If someone is trying to write literary fiction and you don't think they're good at it, discouraging them from writing it makes no sense. They should be encouraged to continue at it and improve. If they want to write genre fiction (and there is literary genre fiction, but lets set that aside), then encourage them in accordance with that goal.

Ideally, you want to have reviewers and commenters who have a range of experience in dealing with fiction. If I'm trying to do something a little more literary or experimental with a piece, it does me little good to have comments from someone who has no experience with it or can't get beyond the limitations of their own preferences to try to see what I'm doing.

Conversely, if you're writing mainstream genre fiction, ideally you want someone who has experience with that.