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Any story that contains love could be said to be romantic fiction.
But some are more romance-heavy than others.
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ROMANCE
A story of a love
affair developing between a man and a woman from the moment they experience
that first frisson of chemistry right through to overcoming obstacles to the
culmination of their love.
Other issues are a
secondary to the romance. The real stakes are with the hero and heroine – when
they are going to get together after all the obstacles to their love are
overcome.
A romance novel/story
describes the progress of the love story, from the meeting to that moment of
commitment. All hoping for that Happily Ever After (HEA).
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| Barbara Cartland - what a doll! |
Love, mysterious,
exciting, sentimental – often scenes remote from ordinary life – I’ve never
knowingly met a billionaire, have you? Yet he is commonplace in many of the latest
HM&B titles which have a massive, loyal readership. Some stats say nearly 50% of all books sold are romance.
EXAMPLES:
Visions of pink
chiffon à la Barbara Cartland, Historical romance, Romance fantasy, Harlequin Mills
& Boon. And the stories - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight – any
story, any era, where romance rules and it's all about the characters finding love and fulfillment!
ROMANTIC
Characterised by the
subordination of form to theme, and by imagination and passion. Real characters
live real lives with a plot that may be simplicity itself or as complex as War
and Peace.
A much wider-ranging story and more
‘realistic’ than the ‘romance’. A
romantic story takes in the seamier side of life – grief, toughness,
unfairness, the tribulations and hardships. Issues much broader than the hero
and heroine. Modern romantic stories demand feisty characters with tons of plot
twists to keep the reader spellbound.
Even if the story is
bleak, there is usually a thread of hope and optimism running through it.
Characters suffer, but the heroes and heroines come up smiling…some of the time.
The romantic story/novel does not necessarily have a HEA.
EXAMPLES:
Gone With the Wind
comes to mind, novels by Nicolas Sparks, Anita Shreve, Paullina Symons, some
Jodi Picoult and many more – writers who write stories that resonate in your
head for years, not usually because of the romantic element, but because of the
way the issues, the background were cleverly intertwined with the
hero/heroine’s romance. If you think about your stories you'll probably find a romantic element there.
So, is one better than the other? Of course not!
Both ROMANCE and
ROMANTIC writing have their place. Myself, I think of pure romance as belonging to the
fantasy genre. This is why romance attracts criticism from those who don’t
understand it, while the James Bond type of fantasy is admired for all that
gung ho testosterone-fuelled action. Casual sex and violence is seen as more
commendable somehow than the boy-meets-girl story which is the basis of romance. But
isn’t romance more likely to be the experience of most people? Ah, well, I
don’t mind a bit of JB shaken and stirred, but I also go for the romance hero
being shaken and stirred by the heroine. Nothing wrong with that, is there?
I read both ROMANCE
and ROMANTIC novels. ROMANCE for pure entertainment and escapism – it’s my
preferred style of fantasy and I love a book where I can smile and giggle most
of the time. Helps get me through a rough patch. I read more ROMANTIC novels
these days, as this is more my style of writing. I mightn’t smile and giggle, maybe
I’ll cry more, but they are stories I can’t put down and think about long after
I’ve sadly read the last page.
I wrote this post with the two up-coming 'romantic' blogfests...the Lost & Found and the WEP Valentine's Day blogfest in mind. Neither blogfest is particularly looking for a hearts and flowers story (but that would be nice too!) There are just so many ways to tackle these challenges. In any case, I hope I explained the difference between romance and romantic to a point.
If you'd like to help promote the Lost & Found blogfest, tweet this:
Celebrate Loves Lost & Found with @Guilie73 @ArleeBird @AlexJCavanaugh @eseckman @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2016/01/lost-found-valentines-edition-blog-hop.html
We don't have our tweets ready for the WEP 'fest. We post our linky on Feb 1. Please spread the word!
Over at the WEP website, Francine Howarth is talking about collaboration in anthology writing.
Thanks for coming by! I appreciate it.
