Types of fiction

 Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical, cinematic or musical work. Fiction contrasts with non-fiction, which deals exclusively with factual (or, at least, assumed factual) events, descriptions, observations, etc. (e.g., biographies, histories).

 Types of fiction

• Realistic fiction
• Non-realistic fiction
• Semi-fiction

Realistic fiction

Realistic fiction, although untrue, could actually happen. Some events, people, and places may even be real. This is termed “faction”.

It can be possible that in the future imagined events could physically happen. For example, Jules Verne’s novel From The Earth To The Moon, which at that time was just a product of his rich imagination, was proven possible in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon, and the team returned safely to Earth.

Realistic fiction strives to make the reader feel as if they’re reading something that is actually happening—something that though not real, is described in a believable way that helps the reader make a picture as if it were an actual event. This can also confuse the reader into making the reader thinking it’s non-fiction.

Non-realistic fiction

Non-realistic fiction is that in which the story’s events could not happen in real life, because they are supernatural, or involve an alternate form of history of mankind other than that recorded, or need impossible technology. A good deal of fiction books are like this, e.g. Alice In Wonderland, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

However, even fantastic literature is bidimensional: it is situated between the poles of realism and the marvelous or mythic. Geographical details, character descriptions etc. create a rhetoric of realism, which “invites the reader to ignore the text’s artifice, to suspend one’s disbelief, exercise poetic faith and thereby indulge in the narrative’s imaginative world.” The bidimensionality appears within the story as astonishment or frightening. According to G.W. Young and G. Wolfe, fictional realities outside the text are evoked, and the reader’s previous conceptions of reality are exposed as incomplete. Hence, “by fiction is one able to gain even fuller constructs of what constitutes reality”. On the other hand, the infinite fictional possibilities signal the impossibility of fully knowing reality. There is no criterion to measure constructs of reality − in the last resort they are “entirely fictional”.

Semi-fiction

Semi-fiction is fiction implementing a great deal of non-fiction, for example: a fictional depiction “based on a true story”, or a fictionalized account, or a reconstructed biography. Often, even when the author claims the story is true, there may be significant additions and subtractions from the true story to make it more suitable for storytelling.