Monday, March 11, 2013

Death and taxes

By Elaine Charton

Ben Franklin once said the only thing certain in  life is death and taxes.  Jeffrey Deaver said, "Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming "

What does one thing have to do with the other, nothing really other than they've gotten your attention?  Actually, a good genre writer can make you forget about death and taxes, even for a little while.

Some people look down at genre fiction, saying it's formulaic. I don't think so. As any writer can tell you there are a finite  number of plot lines. It's what the individual author does with it that makes it so unique However you know what you will get. 
 
If its a mystery genre, there is a crime that is solved at the end, sometimes more than one. If it's sci fi or fantasy there is lots of world building and maybe some fantastic inventions. If it's paranormal you may have Demons, or vampires, witches and shape shifters, even the occasional ghosts. There may or may not be a romance and may or may not be a Happily ever after (hea).

Then there is the romance genre in all it's incarnations. Over the years that hascome to include a little bit of every genre, Mystery/suspense, paranormal, historical, even contemporary romance. One thing you do know is that no matter what you will have a happy ever after. Maybe there is something consistent other than death and taxes after all.

2 comments:

Judith Ashley said...

Hi Elaine,

Interesting post...I agree if you are reading a 'real romance' you know there will be a hea.

BTW: The Tucson Book Festival was on one of the CSPAN channels yesterday so I watched for awhile, looked for familiar faces when they panned the audience and thought of you. Very nice!

Sarah Raplee said...

Romance=HEA; so true. The trick is to get your readers so involved in the journey that they get to ride along and be uplifted with your characters. Sometimes an author even manages to make the reader doubt the HEA is possible for the couple. Now, that's good writing!