Write about a person you love. This apparently simple instruction may be more difficult than you think. What makes us love people? How do we avoid being sentimental when describing the attributes that make someone loveable? You will immediately be faced with the decision of writing about someone you love or loved romantically or as a friend. Or perhaps you’ll choose a family member. Your greatest challenge will be to make your reader love this person, too. Write no more than 600 words in your allotted 30 minutes.

Winning entry

There’s a man I know, who moulds me like putty in his perfectly formed hands. Every part of him conjures up a memory; the sound of his voice recalls lost idyll. My first taste of camembert, the warmth of hot springs, cool skin, crisp sheets, the buttery smell of croissants on a wintry Sunday morning, translucent white curtains lifting gently on a summer’s day.

He’s a man’s man, adored by women; strong, wise, brave, witty. And yet, on some days, he requires gentle tending, like a bird with a broken wing. He has seen the worst the world has to offer: limbless landmine victims and mass graves. He’s stepped over corpses to avoid sniper fire, the stench of death in his nostrils. He is damaged, often despairing, frequently depressed.

Peel back the crackling, world-burnished outer layers, though, and inside you find a tender green shoot, a soul that brims with art, with music, with poetry, with love. With the promise of something beautiful. He loves completely; gives too much of himself, generous to a fault. Is often taken for granted.

My heart is his.

“Critics cite many reasons in their dismissal of the genre, reasons that ostensibly aren’t rooted in literary snobbery. ‘The problem’ with chick-lit, I’m told, is that it doesn’t deal with the real issues that women face. Well actually, some of it does. From sibling rivalry to infidelity, addictions to poor body image, a woman can take her pick within the genre if she wants to. And the rest of it? It’s meant for pure indulgent enjoyment, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

“But why insist that chick-lit reflect the issues facing its readership when no other genre is measured by the same yardstick? It isn’t expected of science fiction, crime, mystery, historical fiction, or even most literary fiction. Women didn’t flock to buy We Need to Talk About Kevin thinking, ‘Gosh, my son is in prison too for picking off his classmates with a crossbow. That’s the book for me.’

“And there’s no need to fret over the malleable minds of chick-lit fans. Our poor little female brains aren’t going to turn to mush because we read light and breezy books. And it’s not as if women who read chick-lit read it exclusively. Most of us enjoy chocolate cake, but we don’t eat it every night for dinner.”

As you’ve probably gathered from past posts, I don’t find our strict, and often snobbish, distinctions between genres helpful at all. The genre doesn’t dictate how well a book is written – nor how much it says about society.

Chick lit and romance can and do deal with the issues of our times: attitudes of men to women and vice versa, dating rituals, the difficulty of finding love in modern society…

One of my favourite authors, Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer for his wonderful book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, recently wrote a book of essays on reading.

Chabon would like to see the distinction between “serious” and “popular” disappear. He argues that “serious” fiction has as many conventions and restrictions as any other. Far from being a higher form, it is just another genre, no different from any other.

Personally I like all kinds of fiction – and I have a great love of good crime novels. Besides having all kinds of worthy reasons for reading, I also find that it makes me happy. What can be wrong with that?

Jo-Anne Richards is a writer and lecturer in the Wits journalism department. Her novels include The Innocence of Roast Chicken, Touching the Lighthouse and Sad at the Edges. A new novel – My Brother’s Book– was released last year.

To get you in the mood to write romance why not try our free module. We have posted a completely new and much more exciting free module so if you have not yet done yet done it or would like to try it again please click here.

If you live in Johannesburg and would prefer to do a face-to-face romance writing course we have one starting on 3 March.

For advice and motivation why not read one of our blogs:
A Romance Writer’s World – Alissa Baxter shares her thoughts about writing romance and real-life relationships

Writing Tips and Quips – Jo-Anne Richards passes on the lessons she’s learned to make your writing better and muses on the challenges and excitement of a writer’s life.

And remember if you are busy writing at the moment or planning to write and need advice as far as motivation and you characters go please make use of our free service – Characters on the Couch. Gabriel St Claire our resident shrink turns his attention to solving the problems and exploring the motivations of your fictional characters. Want to find out what makes you character tick? Email Gabriel today at info@allaboutlove.net

Watch a Novel Grow – Richard Beynon offers a peek over his shoulder as he wrestles with the problems and shares the exhilaration of crafting a romance novel from the ground up.

Why not join us on facebook for regular updates and links to interesting articles.

Happy writing and happy Valentines Day
Jo-Anne and Richard

http://www.allaboutlove.net/

We tell stories, not just to entertain and to escape, but as a rehearsal for life. How would we handle this or that? How would we face the trials of our hero or heroine?

Romance novels should provide us with the characters and situations that we can, and choose to, identify with.

Lesbian Romance gives gay women the kind of love stories they can be drawn into – that provide them with a “rehearsal for life” in the love stakes.

The conventions in all published Romance novels are a little more strictly observed than the more “literary” novel.

All readers of genre fiction have expectations. Readers like to know certain things will happen and others won’t.

Certainly, there are different expectations for straight and lesbian Romance, because there are different conventions within straight and gay sub-cultures.

But in one profound respect, there is no difference at all. Both straight and gay Romance writing is about love. Both involve the intensity that we long for in our humdrum lives.

They make us believe – that great love is possible, and that Romance is alive and well.

Both involve the great search for The One. They take us through the unbearable conflict that holds the lovers apart. They keep us in suspense while we wonder if they can ever be together, even though it’s obvious they’re made for each other.

There are statistics on straight readers. By and large, they’re a pretty educated lot. Most have some college education and many are educated professionals. Most work outside the home part or full-time

There are little in the way of statistics for readers of gay Romance, but there’s no reason to suppose they’re any less educated and sophisticated.

It is thought that a significant number of lesbian Romance readers are in the closet – for many different reasons. That’s perhaps the reason many gay romance stories focus on coming out.

It’s a way of living out a gay life without having to do so in the real world. If you can’t talk about lesbian romance and sex, at least you can read about a young woman’s first gay adventures,  before she finds true love in the end.

As one gay reader puts it: “The stories help us to believe that our moms are wrong: that even if we do follow this path, and even if we do play around a bit, we’ll still find true love in the end.”

Gay romance is more tolerant of other sexual relationships than straight romance. Straight Romance heroines no longer need to be virgins. But we don’t tend to see them having wild sexual adventures (except with the hero) within the story being told.

On the other hand, gay readers are quite comfortable with a woman sowing her wild oats within the ambit of the story, particularly in coming-out stories.

The main character could be with someone else when the story begins. Or she, her love interest or both, could mistakenly think they are in love with another partner, before they discover, or rediscover, each other.

Lesbian Romance doesn’t always follow this pattern. Like straight Romance, it often involves two people who meet, are wildly attracted but held apart by their own issues or external factors.

In straight Romance, old-style brutes don’t hack it any more. The same is true for lesbian romance. Old-style butch brutes don’t hack it any longer either.

Lesbian romances are far more nuanced than that. Not all lesbian relationships are based on the idea that there has to be a “male” and a “female” role player. Some couples want this and others don’t, but all couples want love.

Of course, a happy ending is the most important part of any Romance. Imagine a reader’s disappointment if the lovely mysterious Lucinda gathers the beautiful desirable Arusha in her arms, only to mutter: “I’m not really sure that I’m ready for this level of relationship.”

There is the odd love story that ends in tragedy – all the more heartbreaking since it was true love. And the odd lesbian Romance will end with tantalising potential rather than with the conventional happy ending.

But the general rule is that, no matter how she struggles to get there, or how many adventures she must undertake first, the main character should be happily settled at the end.

Our sister site Allaboutlove.net runs online courses.

Sign up for the Basic Guide to Writing Lesbian Romantic Fiction, the Basic Guide to Writing Romantic Fiction for straight writers or start by doing our free Preparation for Writing Romance.