If some of your characters are more than twenty or so years apart, then you’ve stumbled upon multigenerational fiction writing.
In a way. After all, that’s kind of more of a genre these days. It’s a saga that spans generations. But you don’t have to give your book a fifty year or more timeline in order to need to address issues with multigenerational fiction writing.
Observations on Multigenerational Fiction Writing
Many of us have heard of most of the current American generations. We may identify well with our own, or feel we were born too early, or too late.
Consider the boomer generation. It’s enormous. Part of this is due to the literal baby boom. But it’s also due to the fact that it’s when the boomers came of age that the rapid acceleration of change in life really hit the gas.
As a result, I feel that the boomer generation is too wide-ranging in terms of years. It makes a lot more sense to divide it into early boomers (born 1945 – either 1950 or 1955 or 1960) and Generation Jones (born 1951, 1956, or 1961 – 1965). This all depends on who you talk to.
What are the Current Twentieth and Twenty-First Century American Generations?
Parents.com has a great guide to the different generations and it defines most of them well.
But they don’t cover Generation Jones.
So, let’s look at the American generations where there’s someone still alive right now.
The Greatest Generation or GI Generation
This generation covers birth years from 1901 through 1927.
These folks are in the same generation as three of my four grandparents. My mother’s father was born in 1897. He was part of the Lost Generation, which covered birth years from 1883 to 1900. Babe Ruth was in this generation. Of course, there are none of them left.
But let’s get back to the Greatest Generation.
These aren’t the ones who fought in the First World War. They fought in the second. Yes, these are the people who defeated the Nazis.
They’re also the people who escaped from the Nazis. For my family, my father’s side was in Europe during the First World War and left after it ended. My mother’s family was already here.
For the people in this generation, the only ones who are left are from birth years 1908 to 1927. The oldest person in the world (verified), as of the original writing of this blog post, is a woman in Japan who is 116.
Famous folks in this generation include Marilyn Monroe and JFK.
The Silent Generation
This generation covers birth years from 1928 to 1945. Both of my parents, and both of my inlaws are in this group, as they were all born in the 1930s.
Only the very oldest of this generation may have fought in WWII. And if they did so, they were only 17 and lied to get in. Men of this generation, including my dad and my father-in-law, were drafted for the Korean War. They may have even gone to Vietnam as advisors (my dad and father-in-law did not).
But since the US didn’t really have an official military presence until about 1962, it’s only the last half who may have gone to Vietnam and carried a gun.
Famous folks from this generation include Elvis, Audrey Hepburn, and John Lennon.
Baby Boomers
This generation covers birth years from 1946 to 1964.
Hey, that’s me!
Since I feel the boomer generation is way too large, I’m going to divide them into early and Jones. I’m using the year span defined by Jonathan Pontell, who was the first person to coin the term Generation Jones in the first place. So, he ought to know.
Early Boomers
This generational cohort covers birth years from 1946 to 1953. When people make Ok Boomer jokes, they tend to be talking about these folks. Sorry! Don’t shoot the messenger!
Bill and Hilary Clinton, and George and Laura Bush are early boomers.
This generation went to Vietnam, and they went to Woodstock. They know where they were when Kennedy was shot.
Generation Jones
This generational cohort covers birth years from 1954 to 1964. I am a member of this cohort. So are Madonna and Barack Obama.
This cohort grew up with Watergate and the gas crisis. We saw punk rise from the ashes of disco, and free love came crashing to a halt with the AIDS crisis.
Generation X
This generation covers birth years from 1965 to 1980. It’s a baby bust, with a lot fewer births.
Gen X went to Afghanistan, and they were a latchkey generation, fending for themselves when their mothers went out to work. But the same is true of Jonesers.
Famous Gen Xers include Kurt Cobain, Gwen Stefani, and Robert Downey, Jr.
The Millennial Generation or Generation Y
This generation covers birth years from 1981 to 1996. Millennials aren’t kids anymore!
Just like Gen X, they also went to Afghanistan. As of the writing of this page, this is the generation trying to buy homes and start families. But predatory college lending practices are crushing those dreams. College loan forgiveness affects them directly.
Famous millennials include Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Rihanna.
Generation Z or iGen
This generation covers birth years from 1997 to 2012. Much like with Gen Y, the older folks in this cohort can often be dealing with having to pay off school loans. They are also the kids who witnessed a ton of school shootings as a regular fact of life.
While school shootings predate the American Revolution, the numbers start to really rise in the 1970s. And they truly take a turn in 1999, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold perpetrated the killings at Columbine High School in Colorado.
This generation is also peers to the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
Famous Gen Zers (Zoomers) include Greta Thunberg and Billie Eilish.
Generation Alpha
This generation covers birth years from 2013 and beyond. It will probably cut off at around 2028, given current trends.
Famous Alphas include all of the children of Prince William and Prince Harry.
The next generation will most likely be called Generation Beta, and so forth.
These days, the length of a generation is fifteen years. This better reflects the enormous changes that happen so quickly these days. Gone are the days of twenty-five year generations. Early Boomers vs. Jonesers put the stake in that coffin.
Consider a Few Differences with Multigenerational Fiction Writing
Early boomers came of age in the 60s. Their cultural touchstones are the JFK assassination and Woodstock (and more, but I don’t want this page to get too long).
Jonesers came of age in the 70s and early 80s. Their cultural touchstones are more like the rise of the punk movement and the Challenger explosion.
The whole ok boomer deal is really mocking how some early boomers behave, often with reference to technology (although not always). But it tars Jonesers with the same brush, even though that’s not really accurate.
This is because Jonesers were in their 30s or so when computers in the workplace became ubiquitous, versus 40s or early 50s for early boomers.
Multigenerational Fiction Writing – A Look At Pivotal Years
I feel a better metric for understanding the various generations is considering what a person’s 18th, 25th, and 35th years are/were like. So, in the supporting blog posts, I will look at those years, and the 65th year for anyone who’s lived that long.
Takeaways for Multigenerational Fiction Writing
The experiences, language choices, and occupations of each generational group will tend to be different. But generations aren’t a monolith. These are merely guidelines. There’s always someone who bucks the trends.
Do keep that in mind whenever you’re engaging in multigenerational fiction writing.
Want more about writing fiction about current generations? Then be sure to check out my blog posts in this series:
• The Greatest Generation
† The Silent Generation
• Early Boomers
† Generation Jones
• Generation X
† Millennials AKA Generation Y
• Generation Z AKA Zoomers
† Generation Alpha