After a period of indecision and doubt, I’ve finally accepted that I am writing a romance, and that feels good. Now that I’m all in, I’m better able to fully lean into the genre and lift Love And Distraction up to its full romantic heights.
With the decision finally made, it’s a good time to reflect on why I’m writing a romance at all. I’m not the typical romance author, so how did I get here?
I Like Romance
I’m not writing a romance because it sells by the bucket load. I’m not writing a romance because I’ve spotted a gap in the market for a love stories written by XY chromosomes. I’m not writing a romance because I believe it to be easy (it’s not). I’m writing a romance because I read the genre and I like it.
It’s not quite as simple as that though. My favourite genre has always been science fiction. I’m a male computer programmer, and a love a science fiction is almost mandatory in the profession. But as I get older, I read less and less science fiction, and I prefer books that have a stronger emotional content. I like books that make me feel something. I like books that make me cry. So I read books with a strong romantic element.
Once again it isn’t a simple as that. Some of my absolute favourite romances, actually aren’t romances at all, as they lack the mandatory happy ending. They are love stories rather than straight romance. What I have always liked though is romance in TV and film, and that is enough for me to feel comfortable writing in the romance genre.
Romance Fits A Story About Meditation
When I started, my intention was to write a novel about meditation and all the crazy things I’ve seen in classes over the years, and add in a heap of other crazy stuff that I’d invent. The original notion was a knock-about meditation comedy bonanza.
There were a few problems with that. Firstly meditation isn’t that funny – some (most?) people find it all a bit dull. Secondly, a bunch of disconnected scenes don’t make a novel, no matter how amusing those scenes may or may not be.
Therefore I needed a story and the best fit was romance. It’s a bunch of people hanging around a meditation class trying to get in touch with their feelings, and nothing other than romance really worked.
Framing Creativity
Early on I decided to write in genre. Though a lot of my reading is literary fiction, when I’m creating I like the frame that a genre offers. Creativity within a definitive set of rules is helpful, and unbounded creativity feels like playing tennis without a net – hit the ball anywhere and it will be fine.
Romance in particular has got strict genre conventions, and that forces greater creativity, not less – for me anyway.
Positivity
Writing a novel is a Herculean task, and in its bleaker moments it has the quality of endlessness to it. I thought I’d be finished in 8 months and here I am 10 months in and I’m still revising it. I’ll be lucky to be done in 18 months, and I’m a pretty quick writer who writes every day.
I’m spending an enormous amount of my free time with my novel, immersed in the characters and imagining their lives, so I need it to be a positive experience. I don’t want to spend every day suffused in terror, danger and general unpleasantness. I want to revel in kindness, lingering looks and surging emotions, and it want it all wrapped up in a happy ending. That’s how I want to spend my free time.
Therefore, I want to write a romance. I’ll leave the horror for the more robust of spirit.
Challenging and Tractable
I’ve a sense that the romance genre is both easy and difficult to write into. It’s easy because it’s a limited and contained framework, and as long as there is a happy ending and the love story is central to the plot then it’s done – a romance has been written. It’s difficult because it’s a limited and contained framework, so to write something original, or at least fresh, will be hard. Every romance story possible has already been written, or at least it feels like that in darker writing days.
Moreover, writing love scenes is a challenge, and bringing the necessary emotional payoff into the story at those crucial scenes is daunting. But this is the point and this is the challenge, and happily that challenge is tractable. With enough practice, enough advice, and enough willingness to put something out there, I’ll get there, and one day I’ll be able to write wonderful emotionally vibrant romance novels that make the reader’s heart sing and mind spin.
That’s my hope, and that hope is why I’m a romance writer.
