How to Write Killer Prose (16)

Romance

            I'm reading a fascinating book. Entitled Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, it's a collection of essays on romance writing. As a genre, romance gets a tough time. Feminists deride it as anti-feminist. High-lit types say it's silly and badly-written, and that all romance novels are variations on the same hokey story. Publishers are often sniffy and dismissive, even as they acknowledge that romance is one of the most bankable genres in their industry.

            Let's step back. There are elements of truth in the criticism. Romance novels can be silly, and many are poorly written. But the top romance writers boast awesomely vast and faithful readerships, and fans of the genre insist that the books deliver a unique emotional charge. There are all sorts of reasons why we, as writers and readers, should take the romance novel seriously, because there's so much to be learnt from it.