3 Tips for Writing Literary Fiction That Doesn't Drag

Because literary fiction is way cooler than assigned reading in high school!!

I recently had the pleasure of reading the first 5,000 words of a literary fiction manuscript by an anonymous author. Below, I’ve compiled a few thoughts based on my feedback.

Pssst—want feedback on your first 5,000 words? Check out this post.

Literary fiction gets a bad rap for being slow, self-serious, or too obsessed with the color of the wallpaper. But when it’s done right, it can be immersive, surprising, and loaded with personality. If you want to write the kind of story that slow-builds (without putting your readers to sleep), here are a few ways to breathe some extra life into your pages.

Photo by Geilan Malet-Bates on Unsplash

1. Voice Is Everything

If plot is what happens, then voice is how it happens. And in literary fiction, that “how” is where all the magic is.

More often than not, literary fiction is written in third-person POV, but don’t let that scare you. It doesn’t have to feel distant or stuffy—you can absolutely build intimacy and personality through your word choice, syntax, and attitude.

A strong voice sounds like someone specific is telling the story, even if you never use “I.” This concept is often called “third-person limited,” and essentially trades that random-fly-on-the-wall POV for an intimate view inside a character’s head without sacrificing the perks of third-person (like the flexibility to dip in and out of interiority for pacing, or switch character POVs entirely).

2. Observation Is Characterization

In literary fiction, description is both a tool to show the reader what’s there as well as who is looking. The details your character notices (and the ones they don’t) can be just as helpful as backstory.

For example, a meticulous character might notice tiny details like a chip in the banister or a slightly off-kilter picture frame. A romantic character might linger on the sentimentality of something that once happened on that staircase or the image in the frame. And a straight-shooting character might just notice that the house was two stories with a few things on the walls.

Ask yourself: Is your character nostalgic? Restless? Hyper-aware? All of that comes through in the observation itself.

3. Slow Pacing Isn’t a Sin, But Give It a Spine

Let’s be honest: literary fiction moves at its own pace. Sometimes the whole point is to linger, to watch in real-time as a character slowly changes. But there’s a difference between slow and stalled.

Readers will happily stay with you through pages of reflection and memory if they sense a quiet momentum beneath it all: this can be a question, a conflict, or something unresolved. You don’t need a car chase, but you do need an undercurrent.

Ask yourself: what’s at stake emotionally? What does your character need that they don’t yet have (connection, forgiveness, clarity, belonging)? Why does this matter now? What’s at risk if your character does nothing?

You don’t need to spell it out point-blank, but it’s important to give the introspection of your novel somewhere to go. It’s also a strong idea to make these stakes known early on. Otherwise, it can be unclear to the reader why they’re reading the book in the first place.

—

All opinions are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer, company, or any other organization.