I read something this morning that reminded me of how I got my start writing romance. See, I have a shameful confession to make. I used to be one of those people who insisted that she would Never Read a Romance Novel, after reading a bodice ripper in the 80s. I *love* romance, I *am* a romantic, but romance novels? Tut tut. Not for me.
When I decided to seriously pursue writing, I looked at the things I’d written, with their very solid romantic plots, and decided I’d give it a shot anyway. I mean, romance had a huge portion of the market, they were buying new writers and how hard could it be anyway? Pshh. I could do that.
I discovered in very short order that writing romance is *much* harder than I thought it was, that it actually took talent and not just filling out some not-so-mysterious formula. Characters had to be believably motivated. Plots had to, gosh, make sense. Happy endings weren’t worth it if there wasn’t a struggle to get there.
So I’m sort of a born-again Romance writer, I guess. Almost everything I write has at the least a romantic subplot. I defend my genre tooth and nail and I thrill when I hear about other people’s “conversions”.
And I know I’m not the only one. I won’t name names, but I’ve had this conversation with other authors before. So what about you? If you’re a writer, did you start out writing romance? If you’re a reader, did you read romance first or was something else your first love?
August 16th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Are you sure we aren’t, like, twins or something?
I grew up reading mostly science fiction and fantasy. Mom was a quasi-romance reader and had a couple bookshelves of books, mostly Regencies. I probably would’ve found the bodice rippers more appealing, cause I remember reading the books and thinking, “What’s the point of reading a romance if the sex is behind a closed door?”
I didn’t look at romance again until I joined my former writer’s community, which had several regular romance writers. After a discussion about Harlequin and their advances, I figured I’d try to write an Intrigue. After all, they’re short, and romance is easy to write … right?
Hahahahahahaha.
Let’s just put it this way: I learned my lesson. I still have the rough from that and might go back to it at some point, but probably not anytime soon.
That being said, after that, I realised that while I didn’t write “romance,” I wrote fantasy with integral romantic subplots; more like a plot layer than a subplot, really.
At that point, the romance writers in the community were telling me that romance pubs were requiring epilogues with marriage and babies, that I could never sell a paranormal, and the like. So I stepped away from the idea of fiddling with a single title.
These days, the romance market is fairly open to alternative / non-traditional romances, much more so than it used to be. Epublishing also has gotten much bigger than it used to be… so there’s now a place in the romance world for this weird-ass genre-straddling bitch.
August 16th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
OMG, you tapped my house right? Man was I ignorant when I started this journey. I read sci fi, mysteries and some romances. Mostly Mysteries. But when I decided to take my writing seriously, I went for the “easier” book to write. Boy! Was I silly. My wake up call came with the Best First Meeting contest at RD.
Reading everyone else’s stuff made me realize I had WORK to do.
I can’t say enough for just hanging out with other author.
August 16th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Lol, so true. I started writing Southern Lit, which is not easy and since I write kinda dark very depressing lol. I kind of drifted into fantasy/futuristic and then into romance. I like writing this better, but it’s definitely not easy.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:58 am
Well I’m one of those who started out reading romance, mostly historical. But I don’t know if I’ll ever attempt to write one even though I still like to read them. I think we all start out thinking it’s easy until someone reads what you’ve written and knock you down a peg or two.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:05 am
*raising hand*
Need I say more?
Granted, the Epic I want to work on IS more difficult than any romance I’ve written BUT, this is for two reasons:
1) My Epic is so friggin convuluted, with so much going on…I need a knot-expert to detangle it.
2) I’ve learned SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much from romance writers. Romance Divas and the friends I’ve made through Divas…I’ve learned a lot of stuff I never thought about before.
I used to be a storyteller…now I’m a writer. Which is pretty darn cool.
August 17th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
I always loved romance. I would pick up the Nancy Drew books that had more romance in them. And Sweet Valley High, I sucked up the romance. LOVED IT!