What is a family saga? I found this definition on Goodreads:
The family saga chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families. The typical novel follows the generations of a family through a period of time to portray particular historical events, changes of social circumstances, or the ebb and flow of fortunes from a multiple of perspectives.
For some reason after nearly 15 years of writing about two fictional families you would think I would have realized what I wrote was called family saga fiction (case of not seeing the forest for the trees). Thank God I finally know what my novels are since usually when people ask I turn into a complete idiot.
Anyway, I thought I’d share a little on this genre & family history each week (also, if anyone would like to share a piece of their own family saga, memoir or just plain old family memories let me know and we can work on posting it here).
And remember weekends are the perfect time to read family saga fiction!
Happy Friday,
A
LINKS:
MY LOVE OF READING by RITU BHATHAL
40 YEAR OLD FAMILY RECIPE BOOK BRINGS BACK MEMORIES AND TEARS
FIRST LOOK: THE COLLECTION a period drama
Author Adrienne Morris 
14 responses to “Family Saga Friday”
Thank you for the mention xxx
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Phew, glad that’s cleared up, Adrienne!! 😀😀 I know what you mean, it’s not easy to pigeon hole your writing but this sounds good…I wonder if that will suit my book? Wishing you a great weekend! 😀♥️
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Tell me about your book!
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Hi Adrienne, I haven’t written a proper synopsis of the book but this is how I described the book on my blog once: A contemporary novel entitled ‘Island Girl’, where a girl’s home island of love and freedom becomes her prison from which she has to flee to save her Self. It involves her relationship with her close and extended family, the social, religious and traditional restrictions on her life as she enters maturity and the wider world. I can’t find a genre that fits this exactly…your post comes the closest but perhaps there needs to be more family involved?
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It sounds like a lovely allegory–like Pilgrims Progress. I’ve been revisiting my childhood of love and freedom lately and mourning the loss of a few things along the way. Your book sounds really interesting!
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😀♥️
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Thanks for the insight, Adrienne. I have timidly used ‘family saga’ to describe one of my books. Now I’ll feel confident. Happy writing and Happy Weekend too! 🙂
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We writers can be timid at times!
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Your confession made me laugh. Figuring out what subgenre we write is helpful in describing our books, but inconsequential to writing. It may help readers find you! 🙂
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Exactly. I didn’t care what the genre was until I decided to sell books 🙂 But it’s also useful when just chatting to friends and acquaintances who don’t have a half hour to spare listening to you try to explain your life’s work 🙂
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I’m kind of chuckling with you, Adrienne, as I always find it challenging to identify the genre of my books, especially as current sensibility says to claim only one and not to invent some hybrid.
Am currently working on a family memoir, begun as an attempt to write about my parents when they were very young. Have discovered that every one of the stories my mom told me was (ack!) not true. What started as memoir loosely disguised as fiction has now turned into historical fiction, emphasis on fiction. Though under the circumstances, I should maybe call it hysterical fiction, emphasis on hysterical.
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Hysterical like funny or the other kind? 🙂 I bet half my mother’s stories are only semi true but I love them anyway. How did you find out the stories were false?
It’s interesting because historical fiction is just such a broad term. I’d say I don’t much like historical fiction as a way of learning or anything. I’d rather a really well-written non-fiction book. I read fiction for the character dynamics no matter the time period. But I hate labels anyway (unless I need them to sell books or figure out what’s in my ketchup!).
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Over the years I realized that story after story could not be true. As I got older, each story lost out to facts on the ground. The one I always believed in was that she met my dad because his sister wanted to meet mom’s brother, so they double dated. That had to be true, right? I’ve often asked my mom for details but she never could provide any, not even what they did on that first date – sporting event, movie, dance, dinner – then finally thought about 6 months ago to call my aunt and ask her. She said that it never happened – she never dated my mom’s brother, she never introduced her brother (my dad) to my mom. And so it goes – lies, all lies. LOL.
I have no idea if mom was trying to deceive me or if she was trying to create credible stories for herself for experiences she couldn’t remember. Now with her Alzheimer’s, there is no truth and no memory.
And so – I write fiction. Hysterical as in funny but still I sometimes cry.
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Consistently fabricated
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