Skeletal Writings

First of all, I will get it out of the way: I am/was a genre loyalist (of sorts) myself.  Not that I haven't read much in the way of horror novels since the big publishing company went in a very, very, VERY bad direction (ebooks and trade paperback), but when I DID, I was.  As in, loved, loved, LOVED my horror.  Had to have two or three horror novels in my To Be Read pile.  Would not enjoy novels that didn't have some sort of horror element (although, at this point, urban fantasy was getting extremely formulaic; if it had been awesome and every author's work had been their own, I would've also loved, loved, LOVED my urban fantasy for different reasons).  Here's the biggie:  I did not want to hear people say "Oh, the horror genre sucks!"  I also had problems with this idea that some book reviewers and commenters on their articles said "Only scary people read horror."  Uh, absolutely not.  I think, in the case of this comment, I was justified in being insulted.  But I had genre loyalty and it was BAD. 

This brings me to my point.  Right now, there are a bunch of romance readers and writers up in arms over a woman saying "Romance as a whole is rapey and there is nothing feminist about reading romance." 

I semi agree on point number one and completely agree on point number two, and I promise this is important to my overall point.  I tend to stick with paranormal romance because I like supernatural elements in anything I read, and oh boy is it bad relationships all over the place.  I wouldn't say they're "rapey" as much as "guy calls all the shots."  Even books that are "progressive" where the man and the woman agree to work as an equal unit end up with the guy making most of the decisions and getting all possessive and so on.  Never mind that a lot of these relationships are based on claiming, and sometimes it doesn't even make sense.  I could get the claiming if the man is, say, a part-time creature.  I don't understand it when the man is a god or demon.  As for the second point, I think most women read romance for the fantasy of it.  A few even admit to inserting themselves in place of the female lead at all times.  It just seems like, with all the garbage in the genre (not that all of it is garbage, by the way), you'd want to read it as an escape but say "I'm glad that's NOT me."  Unfortunately, I've never heard THAT from anyone.  Oh well, I have high expectations, so...take from that what you will.

Really, the only reason I read romance is because I can't write relationships.  I've never been in a relationship and it doesn't seem like something that'll happen anytime soon (for various reasons).  There is so much more to this paragraph, but I'll wait a few paragraphs down to make it.

The larger point I wanted to make is this: Romance readers/writers, there are going to be people who hate your genre.  I know, it sucks.  Try thinking you're a well adjusted person, only to be told you can't possibly be a functioning, decent member of the community because you read horror novels.  It's a part of life.  But more importantly, it's okay that people hate your genre.  Not everyone is going to love it just because you do.  In fact, I'd take it a step further and say most people hate the genre, not YOU.  So please, please, PLEASE for the love of everything cute and fluffy stop getting insulted over people saying stuff that may even possibly be true about your genre.  Now, it's different if someone actually does hate you for what you read.  You might be able to make a better case for yourself then.  But from what I've been seeing, it's you folks not being able to handle negative comments because you're such genre loyalists.

And here's some food for thought.  Okay, let's take me.  The two paragraphs above, I say I only read romance so I can write relationships in my own work.  There's more to it.  See, a lot of women read romance for the steaminess and such (which is part of the escape, I guess).  I can't physically/mentally get turned on by that.  I don't know why, I just can't.  I'd also like to add that there are a few book blog websites that have this feature where they post an image of this hot guy.  A lot of people get a lot out of this.  I look at those images and think "Hmmmmm, interesting scenery." or "Odd, I've never seen anyone off the street look like that." or even "Meh."  I do, however, love when these book blog websites post images of locations inspired by the books they read.  Here's another thing: When I read romance, I base my opinion on the book on how the female lead is written.  I like a good female lead (which kind of contradicts my love of horror novels but perfectly explains why I like some urban fantasy).  A book could get a "Oh hey, that was actually really good" because the female lead was engaging, intelligent, someone worth reading about, sarcastic without going over the top, or other related stuff.  The men may be interesting as well, but I do not give books high ratings because of them.  The men just do not do it for me in any sense.  Of course, I read romance novels for different reasons than most (it really is research, and I have learned a lot).  Still, the genre just doesn't appeal to me the way it does to others.

I'd like these genre loyalists to consider that.  Maybe their favorite genre is just not doing it for others.  It doesn't necessarily mean we hate you (and if someone comes across that way, whether it's me or Mr. Random, feel free to ignore/walk away), it just means we don't like the genre.

On a very related note, I am not, by any means, a scary person.  I have a part-time job that I am reasonably capable at.  I want a much more substantial part-time job, and I know I can do the work.  I will be going to college either this summer or this fall (whichever semester I can get into) on a partial scholarship (that I intend to keep all four years by working my butt off).  I may not look like the traditional girl, but I use good hygiene (please excuse the possible misspelling) and take care of myself.  I live at home at the moment, but I help around the house and take care of the pets (a tortoiseshell cat and tuxedo cat; they are fantabulous, usually).  I am a writer (unpublished as of right now) and although I'd love to write in my favorite genre (which is still horror in spite of not being able to keep up with it at the moment) I can't write my novel the right way for it.  I do not have the right edge, which is actually a good point.