On Not Being a Snob: Embracing One’s Inner Genre Writer

I have a friend who recently admitted shamefacedly to our writers’ group that she has been writing—and selling—Regency romances under an assumed name. We know her as a person committed to the highest standards of authorship, aspiring to real literary fiction, constantly refining and perfecting her style. And so our immediate reaction was to console, with a kind of world-weary fatalism. Gotta pay the bills, friend. Because those carefully crafted manuscripts had not sold.

But wait. Is there something wrong with genre romances that they should deserve our pity?

Genre Needn’t Be Generic

“Genre” writing gets a bad rap, as if anything widely enjoyed couldn’t be good. But why should that be? Just because there are numerous examples of bad romances (or… insert genre here), it doesn’t mean the genre itself is bad. What it is, is regimented. Almost all romances’ plots could be described in precisely the same words. There are very exacting rules—a kind of playbook, in fact—that permits even mediocre authors to follow the bouncing ball and manage to sing on tune. Perhaps the average reader isn’t too demanding of literary quality as long as the demands of the genre are fulfilled: bodices ripped, endings happy. But how much more enjoyable those books should be if, in addition to following the rules, the author actually writes well! And why can’t she? Rich descriptions, not generic (see how negative that sounds? It means “of the genre”…); original figures of speech, unforgettable characters, a little soul-searching here and there. Love is a very powerful thing, and universally human. You could touch on some deep stuff in the context of seeking love. And star-crossed love… well, adversity makes for great conflict scenes with great dialogue. Can literary books only have downer endings? Surely not. No, folks, any genre that began with Jane Eyre and proceeded through Jane Austin can’t be all bad!

Likewise, every thriller isn’t as poorly written as Dan Brown’s. Because readers of thrillers don’t go looking for books that are poorly written. They look for excitement, high technology, bigger-than-life characters, and world-threatening stakes. And while all that can be done poorly, it can also be accomplished to a high literary standard. John Le Carré seemed to manage.

Write It and They Will Come

The genre of detective stories seems already to have raised the bar sufficiently high that the literary detective novel reigns supreme on the best-seller list, thanks to—to name only a few—Louise Penny, Donna Leon, and Robert Galbraith, as well as the Scandinavians. I’m not sure a truly bad detective story would sell any more. We’ve come to expect complex characters with well-presented back stories. By sticking to their literary guns, authors can bring up the reputation of their whole genre without changing its shape substantially. Let people come to expect quality, and they will demand it.

So, my friend: write those Regency romances! But do it beautifully, at the height of your craft.