How about romance:I need a genre!

So how am I going with the question of historical romance?  Sure myself that my definition of historical is correct but I am out of step with the world I turned my attention to the next question. Have I written a romance?  Well I wasn’t immediately sure; being an old woman my definition of romance is a little broader than seems to be the case these days – and it doesn’t start with love affairs. Thinking I may be wrong I went back to the dictionary.

 Oxford Dictionary

Romance is defined thus

1  a: Latin derived languages

   b:Medieval vernacular verse or prose narrative relating to legendary or extraordinary adventure of hero, of chivalry

  c: Extravagant fiction – wild exaggeration

  d: Historical ballad, short epic poem (in Spanish context)

  e: Fictitious narrative depicting setting and events remote from everyday life especially 16th & 17th century

   f: Literary genre with romantic love and highly imaginative events or adventures forming central theme

   g: Romantic or imaginative character – prevailing sense of wonder or mystery surrounding mutual attraction in a love affair and/or suggestion or association with adventurous or extraordinary events.

Romantic

 2 a: Narrative etc having the nature or qualities of romance in the form or content

    b: Tending towards or characterised by romance in stylistic basis

    c: Pertaining to movement or style of late 18th and early 19th century in Europe - marked by emphasis on feeling, individuality and passion

    d: Of a story, novel, film etc having romance or love affair as a subject

    e: Characterised by idealised fantastic or sentimental view of life, love or reality appealing to imagination and feelings

    f: Influenced by imagination

    g: Fantastic, quixotic, impractical project

Romantic love between unmarried man and woman does appear in the list, but it is not the first or even the second definition.  The definition of romance that I grew up with is the wide one.  It is the epic narrative, the natural, emotion and feeling driven; fantastical, wild and adventurous.  I cut my reading teeth on novels of a hundred or more years ago.  I read and thrilled to Sir Walter Scott and Herman Melville later reading James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving and, of course, all those wonderful epic narratives such as Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the Arthurian legends.  These merged effortlessly into works from Dante and Spencer.  Romance, but not I fear in today’s terms

I discovered historical romances with the likes of  The Scarlet Pimpernel and, as I grew,  discovered the newer definition of romance in William Makepeace Thackeray, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens, with their huge sweeps of life.  Then George Elliot, the Bronte’s and Jane Austin.  If I had realised it at the time the definition of romance was growing ever narrower.

I realize that romance is now equated only with love between man and woman although it means I have to re-file all those great novels and epic narrative poems I grew up with to different areas, a little sulkily I admit because the very word romance conjures up to me wonderful vistas of excitement and adventure, larger than life heroes and heroines, amazing deeds and splendid sweeping tales straddling every known emotion.  Feasts indeed.

But reading, on the advice of many, the guide lines of Romance Writers of America I also realize that the world has not only captured and caged the bird of romance but has clipped off its wings and de-beaked it as well.

Guide Lines

            Plot must revolve around two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship with each other.

            Both conflict and climax should be directly related to that core theme, developing romantic relationship.

            Must have emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Although they have allowed, for instance, that Romeo and Juliet is a romance because the focus of the story is romantic love.

            As long as these basic guide lines are followed there are many sub genres allowed into ‘Romantic Fiction’.  They include amongst them:

            Paranormal

            Sci-Fi

            Fantasy

            Time Travel

            Futuristic

            Pirate

I’m thinking these ones should be in the main genre and the romantic love between man and woman, not married, should be a sub genre – but hey, that’s this old woman wondering where the excitement in romance has gone!! My, what a straitjacket romance and romantic writing has been tied into.

Well the first two of my series could just about be shoe-horned into this definition , just about because I hope they are more than romantic love. 

My books need something else, they I suppose belong to a sub genre - dreadful expression! So it seems I must turn my attention to Science Fiction which many of my readers say is what I have written.  This turns out to be more sub genre divided than romance.

I Need A Genre!

I have mentioned in the past my confusion about and dislike of the concept of ‘genre’.  When Ellen’s Tale was deemed ready to be sent to agents this word was the bugbear of my life.  Being told by some ‘experts’ that I was writing science fiction displeased me.  I was writing a novel.  Did I?  My memories of sci fi were so different from what I had written; I discounted the experts.  My tale was a love story: was it a romance?  Never, they said.  Was it historical?  Ah, come off it, they scorned. 

For various reasons and nothing to do with the above I decided to self publish and naively thought that particular problem was behind me.  After all in cyberspace there are no bookshelves, are there?  Wrong, wrong, oh how wrong.  Every site I wished to place news of Ellen’s Tale needed, with a passion, to know what genre I wrote in so that it could occupy its appropriate pigeon hole.  I hate pigeon holes.  I am not a pigeon, neither is Ellen, I would mutter with a scowl. I won’t even wear my name tag at conferences!

It has become an increasing problem and now I really do have to solve it.  Planning my virtual book tour this autumn, I find I’m unsure which blogs to approach while I don’t know what genre I am writing in. 

I have been researching over the past couple of months (again).  Discovering new fields of lunacy – er sub divisions!  In my ferreting around different information I have also made some interesting discoveries, found new authors to read, dipped my toes in genres I thought never to read.  It’s been fun.  Mind you, I’m no nearer discovering the true Alberta.

The following posts will be shorter than usual as I tackle each genre I might be writing in.  Maybe other confused writers will discover themselves along the way, just don’t hold your breath!

Self Publishing - what to do?

Well the book was written. Now what?  Oh the advice that came in was overwhelming and contradictory.  I’d re-read the great work – I'd considered the man hours involved, not just mine but those of my friends who had read, corrected, edited and commented.  The trees destroyed in the copying of different drafts, electricity used to power the computer.  Those 250 pages were the result, so then what to do with it?

Publish of course!  Isn’t that what we all want having put pen to paper – well finger to keyboard.  Print and go straight to Hollywood.  Another blockbuster. Another millionaire.

Back in the real world, on this planet, the doubts set in.  Publish, who would want to do so? I wrote it so it can’t be worth publishing, can it?  I re-read it again; I had by then re-read the dratted thing so often I could quote it word for word.  Well I would have been able to if I hadn’t  kept changing things.  I had to confess I liked the story.  Should I? Should I have enjoyed writing it so much?  I felt maybe I was fooling myself.  Not everyone liked it, my best friend, of oh I have lost count of how many decades, has read it almost as many times as I had and she did not like it. The subject matter interested her not at all, my style of writing grates on her nerves, she had been editing it for me and there was nothing about the book she liked, which actually made her a very good editor  Equally other friends who had been helping with the editing did like it.

I made a decision; I would try and get it out there. So then all the problems really began.  I  short listed the agencies who might be interested.  The first and most major  of stumbling blocks.  I had not written a ‘genre specific’ story.  I had just wrote a story.  I had drawn on interests and experiences of my own, as we are all advised to do.  Influences from other authors? Probably, I had been reading hungrily for over half a century.  My reading tastes were catholic and my interests and experiences were wide ranging.

Was my story science fiction?  Many said yes because it is set in the future and amongst other things deals with genetic manipulation.  I wasn't so sure , where were the space flights!  It certainly wasn't science fantasy - not a single dragon in sight!  My story was a romance but no bodice ripper.  I liked to think it is General Fiction but those agents are eagle eyed on time periods and if it isn’t set in contemporary life, General Fiction it is not.  I liked to think it was a little bit historical as it was looking backwards from 150 years in the future to 100 years in the future, but if it’s ahead of our times it is not historical. Ah well it was worth a try.

I put it on hold for a few weeks while I read novels set in the future.  I read Margaret Attwood, Ballard  and Maggie Gee amongst many in a whole long list.  They came into General Fiction as well as being Science Fiction, I could, I thought, slot myself in with them.  Who did think I was kidding? An unknown author trying to nestle in with the greats - I don’t think so.  Should I rework my story to fit in?  I have never been easy with fitting in.  So should I go it alone?

 Scary!

first published on
http://www.albertaross.co.uk/

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http://wwwdidyoueverkissafrog.typepad.com/
(on all sorts!)

http://www.sefuty.livejournal.com/
(on reading and books mainly)