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Romance
A Reader/Writer's POV *
"What is the hook?" That is the question that all
popular fiction editors ask prospective authors. Within the romance genre,
there are many different answers. The wide-appealing range is one of the
strengths of the genre.
According the Romance Writers of America (RWA) website, there
are two components to a romance: a central love story and an emotionally
satisfying ending. It is this broad definition that allows for stories
with elements of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, western, and all other
popular fiction genres to be represented.
The romance industry is one in constant flux. Editors try
to predict what readers are going to want two years into the future (average
time between sale of manuscript and publication). Editors' predictions
are usually based upon current national events. I've heard through my
writing groups, that while cops and firefighters have been perennially
favored, their demand is going to go up in direct response to the events
of September 11th.
Which brings me to my next point. Heroes sell. Most "tip"
sheets that publishers give to authors state that the lead female and
male characters must behave "heroically." When asked what about
the romance genre specifically appeals to me, I always say that it is
like watching two ordinary people that you could meet on the street and
how they deal with extraordinary situations.
But what else appeals to today's readers? At the 2001 Romantic
Times convention, a roundtable with published authors, booksellers and
readers discussed this issue.
According to Tina Wainscott's summarization in the Romance
Writers Report, readers like strong characters, sex (as long as it was
relevant to the plot), a plot, realistic women (ie. no size 2s), characters
whose maturity level were equivalent to their age, interesting careers
for the characters, an understanding of why the hero and heroine fall
in love, heroes and heroines who work together rather than against to
conquer the conflict, more mature heroines in historicals, new settings.
This is quite a list, and only the highlights.
From the above list, you can see that one of the recurring
themes in what readers want deals with characterization. In her book,
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published, Julie Beard
states as one of her tips for potential authors: "Characters are
at the heart of every romance…romances aren't about events; they're
about people and feelings." In a recent meeting of my chapter of
RWA, one of my fellow writers stated that her requested manuscript had
been told that it was rejected because it had too much plot.
A paradox in readers' expectations and the core of what drives
a romance has now been created. Readers fall in love with characters and
will come back for more books that feature these characters, especially
if it is the same author writing. However, they will not stay if there
is not a strong plot. Creating a satisfying balance is one of the toughest
things for a writer to do.
Though it is slow to show, the romance industry does reflect,
or at least tries to, what readers want. Harlequin, Ltd. launched a new
line last August in response to readers demand for hotter romances. Speaking
with Donna Kauffman, a Blaze writer, she has said that while the line
is still finding its feet among writers, the sales numbers have exceeded
Harlequin's expectations.
What is it that I, as a reader, get out of romance? Many things.
I have been reading romance for around 10 years now. I think one of the
reasons that I was first drawn to them was because of their optimistic
nature. Yes, the girl will get the guy. Wait, what was that? Don't I mean
the guy will get the girl? No. The romance genre empowered me as a young
woman that I can get the guy who would treasure me as a woman. And if
he happened to be rich, powerful, strong, tall, and gorgeous to boot,
that was icing. One of the enduring reasons of why women read romance
is because it makes them feel good about themselves. It has only been
recently that my self-esteem has begun to crawl out of the crapper. Romance
could and did make me feel joyous to be myself and to be alive. Jennifer
Crusie has said on a number of occasions that when she had to read 100
romance novels as part of her dissertation, she began reading feeling
very low about herself and just lay in bed reading them. By the time she
finished, she felt like she could take on the world.
The other thing that many of the more involved fans of the
genre get out it is the sense of community. With the advent of Romantic
Times, there was a place where readers could go and celebrate their love
of the genre and would not feel denigrated for it. In her book "How
to Write a Dirty Story", Susie Bright states "sexual fiction
has been ridiculed for lack of intellectual substance or eloquence, and
for its commerciality or its dehumanizing qualities." You could easily
substitute the word "romance" for "sexual" in that
statement. In fact, romance brings a whole other layer to this statement
because, although the genre is one for women written by women, the strongest
opponents to it are women. Because of the perceived stigma of reading
romance, partially due to the cover artwork, readers feel like they must
hide the fact that they want a happy ending.
Within academic circles, romances are the lowest of the low
of popular fiction. Romance is not worthy of value. Whether in research
or critique. Jennifer Crusie explores the paradox of the research into
the romance genre without doing research. Many base their studies on 10
or less books. One study that I looked at by M.E. Ryder in 1999 looked
at one book by Barbara Cartland published in 1953 as the basis for the
whole structure of the modern romance novel. According to RWA, there were
2,289 romances published in 2000 alone. I feel that as an academic that
I can quite easily disregard any and all conclusions reached by those
studies as false and uninformed based upon, not only faulty, but irresponsible
research ethics.
To quote Ryder "magicians, politicians, and romance writers
share a common goal, to sell their audience dreams without substance."
I can argue Ms. Ryder's assumption based upon the above information on
an academic level. As a reader, I can quite honestly tell that Ms. Ryder
has never taken the time to read a romance novel just to read. This is
the type of prejudice that romance readers are constantly bombarded with.
But they still come back for more after being called ignorant, stupid,
mindless, and downright backward by other women. We read for pleasure.
We read for escapism. Do I expect to have Roarke from J.D. Robb's "In
Death" series to be knocking on my door in the next ten minutes?
No, I do not. I am a rational human being. We all are. In our groups of
fellow readers we may talk about these characters as if they were real.
We get into fights. As a writer I get into fights with my characters.
But that is because they are real to me. They are my neighbors, they are
my friends, they are the people that I will run into at the supermarket.
Ms. Ryder speaks about "dreams without substance."
I take it that she does not wish for herself any kind of fulfilling relationship
with any other human being. That is part of what romance is about: a person's
relationship with the world and those that people his or her immediate
circle.
Within mainstream romance, the primary person is a woman,
and her primary relationship is with a man. But there are romances out
there that speak to the gay and lesbian relationship. Everyone has the
right to hope for sharing their life with the person of their dreams.
To not have that hope and want to deny it and degrade it for others is
not only ignorant but also cruel.
In conclusion, I think that the main reason why people read romance (I was comparing notes one with a gentleman who had just retired), it is because they are books of hope. They guarantee a happy ending in each and every book. No other genre does that. With all that has happened with our world, there is still the fantasy that people are entitled to lead happy fulfilling lives with the man or woman of their dreams after they have worked hard to deserve. We know that there are trials and tribulations ahead, but if the author has done their job well, we also know that the couple will work together to conquer all.
References:
Beard, Julie. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published. Indianapolis, IN. Alpha Books. 2000.
Bright, Susie. How to Write a Dirty Story: Reading, Writing, and Publishing Erotica. New York. Simon & Schuster. 2002.
Crusie, Jennifer Smith. "Romancing Reality: The Power of Romance Fiction." Para-doxa: Studies in World Literary Genres. v. 1-2, 1997. pg. 81-93.
Romance Writers of America (RWA). Statistics. http://www.rwanational.org/statistics.stm. July 16, 2001.
Ryder, Mary Ellen. "Smoke and mirrors: Event patterns in the discourse structure of a romance novel." Journal of Pragmatics. v. 31, 1999. pg. 1067-1080.
Wainscott, Tina. "Can We Talk? Booksellers and Readers Speak Out." Romance Writers Report. v. 22. n. 3. pg. 23-25.