I knew what I was getting into when I joined the Romance Writers of America and officially proclaimed myself a writer of romance. Despite being the most popular form of fiction, some people feel the need to belittle or denigrate the genre. I wonder what it is, specifically, that makes a small portion of the population feel the need to criticize. Is it the fact that so many of the authors and readers are women? Is it the regulatory Happily Ever After? The argument that it’s predictable is an outrageous criticism as all genre fiction is predicatble: mysteries get solved, bad guys lose, demons get sent back to hell, cowboys ride off into the sunset, and the planet Zebedar III is saved from imminent doom.
The argument of the sexual content is pretty null and void in my book, too, since so many other genres utilize it. And why wouldn’t they? It’s a natural function of healthy adults and an efficient way of progressing relationships within stories, no matter how graphic they may or may not be.
So many literary works could have easily been categorized as romances, especially if the ending is tweaked to make it happier. Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations could even have been classified as “Lad Lit”. Heck, the happy ending’s not even mandatory for that one. So is it the HEA that does people in? And if so, why does a sad ending automatically make a story stand above one with an HEA? Is something taken more seriously if it’s melancholy, bitter, or outright depressing?
Perhaps this is more the case. Perhaps some people think the idea of an HEA is ridiculous. Life’s not like that, they might say; it’s unrealistic. Well, yes, but come on. Some people may want to read about life and all its heartache, but others want to succumb to something safe and warm. Movies and television cater to this. Sports. Hobbies. They’re all an escape from work and responsibilities and the live-a-day life. Romance can’t be criticized for doing the same.
It’s certainly not the writing itself. Like every genre, romance has its good and its bad, and while the bad can be cringe-worthy, the good can be breathtaking. So many romance authors have crafted exquisite plots, beautiful prose, and profound characters. And what they really write about is the relationships between people, and not just between the hero and heroine though that is, naturally, the main focus. We write about how people relate to each other, and how those people grow from these relationships. Only our characters often benefit from the relationships as opposed to being injured by them, though many by no means are unscathed by the hurt people are capable of inflicting. Our stories are about healing and compassion. So why do they sometimes receive a sneer and snide comment?
It’s a sad, cynical person who doesn’t see the good in making another person smile.
My name is Nicole Reillan. And I write romance.
Strange Candy 