ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE....LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED.

When I was sixteen I had a crush on a boy in the crowd of friends that we'd hang out with. Couldn't believe my luck when he asked me out, just one on one. We went roller skating and as we walked back to the train station, hand in hand, he told me that even though we had fun, he thought we should stay 'just friends'.

Sigh. First love- first heart break.

No happy endings, no sunset walks on the beach, no romantic winings and dinings...

But then one of his friends asked me out, and heh at sixteen, love is a four letter word that is easily moulded to suit any occasion. And even though I'd sigh over 10CC's song 'I'm not in love'....I was onto the next cute boy. Such is life at sixteen.

I will put my hand up and say writing anything romantic is hard work. I don't have that head space for the happy-ever-afters ( in fact very few of my stories, poems or novels end up that way). I'm especially not into the Valentines Day-smoochy teddybears- chocolates and flowers-diamonds and pearls-fancy restaurants- focusing on one day to let someone know you love them- totally over advertised, over commercialised kind of love.

Not that I'll ever say no to chocolates or flowers, jewellery or a nice restaurant----let's be reasonable.


The Romance genre is one of the biggest in the industry. They fly off library shelves faster than any other, faster than Sci-fi, Mystery, Western- faster than all three put together.

But there is so much more to Romance writing than those bodice rippers who always appear to have an eye catching cover of a half naked woman in the arms of a half naked man.
Romance Writers of Australia and other sites offer up the reality of writing romantic fiction. They have good advice on the actual writing of stories, trying to find an agent and then the step of publication.

Writing, in any shape or form, whether you want to focus on a genre like Romance, or Young Adult or 'literary' is hard work. And romantic fiction is here to stay.

Lets face it, Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby....all classics. All romance. Modern writers such as Nora Roberts, Jodi Picoult, Meg Cabot...even dare I say Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight series (amongst the killing of vampires there is the strong love story) set romantic fiction onto the shelves alongside classics such as Dickens and Tolstoy.


Romantic fiction is a big seller, there is a huge audience, and quite a discerning audience, always eager for another 'happy ending'. Make it well written and you're on your way.

Unfortunately not for me.

Perhaps I should enjoy a chocolate or two for inspiration?

Comments

  1. LisaFebruary 14, 2012 at 9:36 PM

    Romance is not my 'thing' either Vicki which is unfortunate given the demand for romantic fiction...ah well...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beth MontgomeryMarch 1, 2012 at 5:20 PM

    I sympathise with you both. Romance is just something I don't get as a reader and in real life, and as a writer I don't find romance comes easily...

    ReplyDelete

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