Romancing the Romance Novelist

We wenches here on the RWR talk about stereotypes a lot. We talk about stereotypical romance characters; we talk about stereotypical romance plots. Being the pirates we are, we bash our heads against expectations in our writing and attempt to bend stereotypes in order to write a fresh book. And though we find these stereotypes frustrating, some of the stereotypes I find most frustrating are the ones out there about romance novelists.

I was watching “Romancing the Stone” this past week. For those of you unfamiliar with this movie, it stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. The plot of the movie revolves around romance writer Joan Wilder, played by Kathleen Turner, who travels to Colombia to find her kidnapped sister. She falls in love with a mercenary and the two become romantically involved as they search for a precious stone which the kidnappers want.

I have a love/hate relationship with this movie. It’s an entertaining flick with lots of chemistry between Turner and Douglas. There are plenty of action-packed plot twists and it satisfies my romantic nature, what with the whole HEA.

However, I hate the stereotypes it plays in to about romance writers. In the beginning of the movie Joan Wilder is frumpy, nearly anti-social, and has virtually no sex appeal. She's a cautious mouse living her exciting life through her books. Worse, she is what I always think the public expects romance novelists to be: a bunch of sex-starved, out-of-touch-with-reality ninnies.

She does change as a result of her relationship with Douglas' character. However, her transformation brings up so many feminist/post-feminist arguments that I will save that for someone else's blog.

But, my main issue with how the "romance novelist" is portrayed is that it doesn’t jive with the romance writers I know. We’re an intellectual lot, I think, with plenty of degrees, and advanced degrees, among us. The majority of us are busy with our real lives while we try to carve a niche for ourselves in the industry. We’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, secretaries, librarians, and pirates. We’re wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and goddesses. With all the nametags and hats we all wear, some of us even wearing multiple nametags/hats at the same time, it's insulting to try to define us so narrowly.

Yet, I know a lot of us write “in the closet” because we don’t want to deal with all the stuff people believe about us.

So, tell us what stereotypes you think exist for romance writers. Which ones do you think are valid and which ones do you think are ridiculous and, if you write in secret, which of them, if any, keep you silent? Also, can you think of any other pop cultural portrayals of romance novelists? Perhaps some that make us out to be the super-writers we are? If so, do tell!

The Other "F" Word...

This weekend was an exercise in FRUSTRATION. Yes, that's the *other* "F" word I'm talking about. Every Friday I have high hopes for the weekend. I have 48 hours to accomplish every single thing I didn't get done during the week. Emptying the dish washer (picking the pockets of Smelly the Dish Washer), finishing that last load of laundry (a little Whisky on that Rum stain should do the trick), eating that last piece of chocolate cake (now that's plunder!). Clearly, I have my priorities in order.

This weekend, I had one tiny homework assignment to finish (which I did) and then I could work on the writing. But the more I worked, the more frustrated I became. I realized I've only been writing on the surface. No layering. No scenery. Little action between the lines of dialogue. Where I've been used to knocking out pages in an hour, this weekend I could barely knock out two sentences in a day. And when I did manage to make it better, feel better about it, I'd page down and find more. More dreck and more work. It feels like treading water but every time I get close to the surface, someone reaches in and pushes me down again.

How do you survive this? How long can I hold my breath? How long before I walk out of the water and say to hell with it? Because I almost did that this weekend. What do you do when it's not fun anymore?

This is what I'm doing. I'm still opening the file and struggling away. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I've put blood, sweat and tears into this thing now, not to mention the money, and I couldn't live with myself if I gave up. Maybe because if I give up now, Cap'n Hellion will have my ass.

How do you deal with frustration? What do you do to keep from dropping the sails and letting the sea have her way with ya? And if you say you don't have frustration, prepare to be flogged!