What is Women’s Fiction Day? It’s an annual celebration, begun by the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Its purpose is to celebrate women’s fiction, which the WFWA defines as: layered stories in which the plot is driven by the main character’s emotional journey.
I think of women’s fiction as a story driven by a character’s journey to personal growth. For me, the best stories tranform a protagonist, usually for the better. The story may be full of action and adventure, love and romance, family conflicts and secrets, or even murders, but the defining element for me is that the character changes through the events of the story. From A to B, there’s an arc.
Of course, some people would say that’s just one kind of story, not necessarily a woman’s story. That’s an interesting point. In my recent novel, The Time Gatherer, the protagonist is a young man. His journey is to discover how and why he was born with the genetic ability to travel through time, and how he realizes his gift isn’t meant to change history, but to change himself and aid others. I think my character George St. James is the protagonist in a women’s fiction story, even though he’s a man.
Perhaps the category of women’s fiction — now widely accepted in the publishing industry — needs to be refined to include the idea that a male character can be the protagonist in women’s fiction. Or even the name of the category needs to be revised to be more inclusive. But we may have to travel to the future to see that!
My favorite women’s fiction novel in the last year was Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho. The blurb says: Crazy Rich Asians meets Bridget Jones Diary. I’d add, “with laugh-aloud hilarity on nearly every page”. Poignant and interesting is the setting of Singapore’s Asian community. It’s romance, humor, satire, but so much more. It’s a layered story of a young woman finding herself and her direction, despite the pressures of family and cultural mandates. A great, funny, and touching read!