Warriors Fanfics: Specialized Writing Guide

Literary Merit of Warriors fanfiction

[Beyond this point, I should note, is mostly my own observations and opinions. No one internationally recognized or certified body defines what literary fiction is, so quoting outside sources would just be quoting another's opinion.]

That's the real question for this section: can Warriors fanfics fit in the literary fiction category? They share themes with well-known literary works. And it's not like it's the first animal story out there; Religions and ethnic folklore featured talking animals that pray long before the Erins were around. First, let's look at the broader genre of Warriors. It's categorized as children's literature and sometimes YA. There are no Warriors books intentionally targeted at adults. And all Warriors fiction features talking animals. The other series of novels to the Erins' name, Survivors, Seekers, and Bravelands, also feature talking animals and are targeted at a young audience, though they pivot from Warriors with their in-universe social structures and the species of animals. Warriors books have their own narratives, but tie into the same universe and take place in a chronological order. The books share themes like nature-vs-nurture, gray morality, and faith (for more discussion on the themes of Warriors, see the similarly titled sections). There's certainly narrative talent in the series. It has adult fans, even, and is pretty violent and dictated by in-universe geopolitics. It's far from just another children's book about talking animals. So why, by the standards defined by literary fiction, does it and more popular genre fiction hold little to no literary value?

If we go deeper into literary fiction, from the points listed above, it generally has some kind of connection to the human condition. While Warriors isn't particularly deep, its themes alone would qualify it for literary fiction. No literary circle or publishing house would ever categorize the series as such, though. It has talking cats who are also the main characters. Immediate disqualification.

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WHAT WORKS CAN BE LITERARY FICTION?

Let's take a look at three relatively well-known western animal stories.

Black Beauty is our first example. Black Beauty is the story of a stallion going through life with many different owners and handlers, some good and some bad, and commentating on how each of them acts, his thoughts, how others feel about it, etc. The 1877 book, written by Anna Sewell, was written primarily to shine a light on the mistreatment of horses as both working and recreational animals. It ultimately led to changes in both the United States and the United Kingdom on how horses were handled. As the book became more popular, such ideas spread across the entire western world. It's one of the best-selling books of all time, and one of my personal favorites. Its intended audience, and audience at the time, was adults. Though, over a hundred and forty years later, Black Beauty is regarded as a children's book. While children's literature is by no means insulting in and of itself, it seems demeaning that the book's characters, horses, relegates it to that. Black Beauty lost some of its literary merit because, over time, the literary community believed talking animals were for children. It was a combination of their use in animation, the inclusion of more real-world events in fictional books due to the extremely turbulent 20th century, the changing of audiences becoming more exposed to foreign cultures and customs, and a sharp decline in the use of animals as tools. Does it lose some of the punch behind its themes and morals if targeted at an audience of children? In the minds of critics, probably (though western society has changed its collective opinion on pet ownership and replaced horses as working animals over the last century.) Warriors features talking animals. Warriors, while violent, isn't nearly as apathetic as Black Beauty's original print. Yet both are treated the same.