How to Use a Book Reference In Your Novel
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Is it savvy to use a book reference to pop culture or other timely elements in your work of fiction, or does a book reference distract? It really depends. When you use a book reference, you peg your project (or whatever you’re creating) in a certain culture and time. This can either be good—if you’re writing a specific historical novel and your book reference points help to flesh out the era you’re writing about—or bad—in the case of dating your project by being too specific to a period that’s about to pass us all by. Every writer has a different tolerance for whether they like book reference tidbits in their work. What you do is up to you!
Making a Book Reference Effectively
What do you make of the use of pop culture references in fiction? Some writers believe that they should keep their book reference points to a minimum, or to avoid them altogether in order to make their work timeless. Trends can take you on an explosive ride if you peg your work via book reference to a timely subject that ends up going viral, but trends also spark and fade very quickly. Today’s hot book reference might be tomorrow’s dated and irrelevant passage that will jump out at readers … in a bad way.
It’s generally best to mention technology or pop culture sparingly when you want to make a book reference. “Less is more” is the watchword here. Overuse of such elements can lead to a work becoming outdated—imagine stumbling across a book reference to MySpace today. It’d inspire some secondhand embarrassment from me. But there’s a whole decade of YA novels that are printed with this, or other, reference to a bygone era. (A related thought: some writers invent their own social networks and popular names, others are fine using brand names like Instagram and Uber.)
Technology, current events, famous names, and politics in books fall in the category of a risky book reference. It’s tough for a book to remain relevant if the products, technologies, and popular phrases it uses have fallen out of favor. Of course, you can use mentions from pop culture to add flavor to a story, but too much reliance on book reference points can make the writing feel labored and even stale over time.
A Book Reference Exception
However, pop culture references in fiction and assorted finer details can be essential in creating the universe of a novel. As we mentioned above, this is especially true if you’re writing historical fiction. A carefully placed book reference for setting and culture will help to flesh out the world of the book. The longer ago that your novel takes place, the more you might want to add book reference points to help orient readers in a specific time period or location. (Book reference information can apply to stories set in different locations, not just time periods. Every setting on this planet—and on other planets—has its own worldbuilding details.)
In an interview, Nick Hornby, famous author of coming of age fiction that’s laced with book references, was adamant that future anthropologists who peruse our literature (whether it’s a hundred, two hundred or five hundred years from now) will use book reference mentions to learn about us and our time. Hence, he urged writers to make the most of contemporary references and not purge their work of these landmarks.
As counterpoint to this argument, consider the classic stories we read as children are still loved because of their wonderful book themes, memorable characters, and captivating plot points. The timelessness of these works outweighs any benefit they might have gotten by indulging in book reference material. Some would argue that this is what makes the classics read as timeless and meaningful, even today. The ultimate decision about whether or not to use a book reference, when, what kind, and how often, lies with you.
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