The Four Hundred: The Writer's Room talks Millennial Fiction

Robert Kneschke / EyeEm

Some of us may like to jump into books for escapism, while others like to dive into a good read that is relatable. But what is "relatable" material to a generation still growing and learning?

The generation gets criticism left and right for their apparent unwillingness to start a life with marriage and children, and would instead spend their money on avocado toast and Uber rides everywhere, but is that all that makes the Millennial experience?

In 1A's podcast episode, "Millennial Fiction," host Jenn White sat down with three female millennial authors to discuss the evolving sub-genre of literature and the writers behind it who are referred to as "Millennial writers." 

Through a couple of jokes and laughs about generational stereotypes, the women get into how Millennial writers can succeed in writing fiction that spans ages without letting the label 'millennial' get too fused into the story.

Both readers and writers from said generation "if they have a common aim, push against labels, pedestals and the uncritical lauding of spokespeople," as stated by Olivia Sudjic in her analysis of millennial writers in The Guardian. 

While attempting to deconstruct the idea of the growing genre, White takes comments and questions from viewers who tuned into the episode live on April 8; some inquired about novel recommendations that defy the usual tropes while others added their perspective on the millennial experience. 

Authenticity became a frequently used word in the episode. Each author described that Millennials value stories where they can see themselves as the protagonist, facing similar issues and feeling less alone.

All three authors agreed that the biggest challenge in millennial fiction is avoiding steering away from the uncomfortable while also making the material readable. 

Kiley Reid, author of "Such A Fun Age," discussed the issues of race, privilege, and class. Topics that are construed through her story of a young Black babysitter, Ameera, who gets accused of kidnapping her client's son, who is white, while grocery shopping at the local supermarket in the late evening. 

"She's 25, and she's on her parents' health insurance and she doesn't know what she's going to do," Reid explained, "she blames herself, she says 'my friends have figured it out, I just haven't figured it out,' but she doesn't really look at the fact that she was put into systems that were meant to make people like her fail."

What makes millennial fiction interesting to these authors and White, is that the genre is still developing. When asked about the Lost generation of writers, all the women were in similar agreement that the effects of social media, technology and the plot twist that is the COVID-19 pandemic, is going to show through vividly in the next years within this group of writers.

Evans wrote the series of short stories called "The Office of Historical Corrections," which tells tales of modern love and lust, truths of American history that were otherwise glazed over, and social media posts for the millennials in the modern world. 

From a generation who grew up with dial-up internet to now owning the internet at their fingertips, social media and technology become an interesting concept to infuse into Millennial fiction. 

Reid argued that it could get 'cringey' fast with millennial writers who try too hard to be relatable with social media and use terminology or visuals that could be overkill, such as instant message bubbles popping up on the screen. But Evans suggested how it could also be used to writers' advantage.

"We have more access now to other people's in-group conversations," Evans explained, "it makes transparent to a certain degree the performance inherent in code-switching because you can see how people talk to each other when they're not talking for you."

"You could learn things that you'd never have access to as an external group member just by quietly watching," Evans continued.

For novelists such as these three women, depicting another social group in a story accurately breathes authenticity into a fictional piece that can resonate with readers of all categories.

Lauren Oyler, author of "Fake Accounts," noted that it is essential to recognize the unrealistic expectations the whole Millennial generation has grown up with and how the shared struggles can come through in writing as an almost solace for the reader. 

Oyler was criticized for having a protagonist that was 'too self-aware,' and her response? It's natural for humans to reflect and think clearly about things as if they were a third party.

"It seems to me that that's what a lot of people go through in the world, and I wanted to represent that; I think that if you're going to paint a portrait of this time," Oyler continued, "you have to have that in there otherwise, I think there's an element of sort of disorientation that is lost."

As much as all three women were hesitant to name it as its own genre, Millennial fiction is notable for its ability to convey and connect with a world so different from generations before. 

"What I think in particular, fiction can do is reflect interpersonal and individual lives within a broader social reality," Oyler said, "[by] using plot and using bigger structural elements of the novel to contradict or counteract what an individual character might feel or think."

It is an evolving sector of literature, but as Oyler mentioned at the beginning of the episode, "any kind of generational grouping is an attempt to historicize the present," and this generation is just getting started in making its mark.