{"id":96,"date":"2025-12-30T16:16:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=96"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:34:21","slug":"category-choice-in-creative-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=96","title":{"rendered":"Category choice in creative writing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By&nbsp;<strong>Donald Nordberg<\/strong>, manuscript accepted for publication in 2021 at&nbsp;<em>New Writing<\/em>&nbsp;(Routledge,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14790726.2020.1855200\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14790726.2020.1855200<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong>: Would-be writers of fiction face choices as soon as they start thinking about how to get published: What sort of a work is this? Where will the book sit on the shelf? What does the publisher tell the reader about what to expect? And then, where does it sit in company of other works, and where do you sit in the company of other writers? This paper examines three such questions of category choice: plot versus character, genre versus literary, psychology versus philosophy. It asks how do writers \u2013 and audiences \u2013 make sense of a work of fiction, and with what implications for the process of writing? It suggests how writers might use the differences between them to enhance the experience of reading beyond the expectations set by the categories to which the works have been placed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\/p\/category-choice-in-creative-writing\">Read more<\/a> at <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"179\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-94\" style=\"aspect-ratio:5.720948309366499;width:544px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-300x53.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-768x135.png 768w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large.png 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By&nbsp;Donald Nordberg, manuscript accepted for publication in 2021 at&nbsp;New Writing&nbsp;(Routledge,&nbsp;https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14790726.2020.1855200) Abstract: Would-be writers of fiction face choices as soon as they start thinking about how to get published: What sort of a work is this? Where will the book sit on the shelf? What does the publisher tell the reader about what to expect? And &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=96\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Category choice in creative writing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}