Anna W. Waggener's Blog

Interesting post from Neil Gaiman about reading things aloud.

In book news, everyone is freaking out about Dan Brown and wondering how fall sales will go for authors who didn’t write The Lost Symbol. Related to this, as E-books emerge as the “new media”, questions about pub dates in general emerge. Can publishers successfully delay release dates for electronic copies of their books? I doubt it.

But publishing venues aside, writers across the pond are up in arms about new rules on the vetting of speakers in schools. Phillip Pullman? Angry. And I think all British authors have a reason to be. Now, obviously we want to protect children, but something tells me that the creation of this plan is less about the children and more about the £64 registry fee.

Now onward to my own writing news! I hit 50,000 words today! Celebrations all around. I’m having some concerns about balance right now. I think that the fluctuation between excitement and downtime is pretty good, but I’m questioning the evolution of some relationships. Romance, for example, is an important aspect to the character development in this book, as well as to the plot, but I don’t want to swamp the work with angst and sap. Not to mention the fact that there are a lot of other emotions running high, which can make romance seem inane and poorly timed (and not in a cute awkward way). As a result, I’ve been trying to tread lightly. More talk, more thought, more shock. If I’m lucky, romance will highlight and accent the overall story. If I’m not, I’ll probably get a severe talking to after my first reader has a look come fall. My instinct is telling me that the second scenario is more likely as of now.

But the question raises a larger question that I’ve always been curious about. I’ve always kind of thought that the presence of overt romance throws a novel to the girls. Maybe this is only because females tend to read more in general, or maybe it’s because the numbers just show that women read more books in the “romance” genre and I often over-generalize, but what do you think? Does love and affection in a story (be it sci-fi, horror, fantasy, historical, or anything else) make it more “girl-oriented”? Does it make it more marketable? Or less marketable, if boys really are less likely to pick it up? Now, I’m not asking about authors who would throw in sex just to make a book sell more. I’m talking about the organic growth of a relationship between two characters. I’m thinking specifically, I suppose, about the YA genre. I think it matters less in adult lit (the presence or absence, either way), but, really, when was the last time you saw a boy reading Twilight? Bad example? Maybe so. But are readers of different genders more willing to accept/more eager to read romance in different levels?

Maybe the best way to think about that question is by examining your own reading patterns. I for one don’t mind the absence of romantic relationships in books, but the presence of them can certainly make a work more compelling. Still, if they are there, I want them to be realistic. Nothing pisses me off more than a stilted relationship that the author clearly thinks is organic. I can’t stand weak, desperate girls. I can’t stand overbearing or oversensitive boys. I also can’t stand Female Main Characters who think (and are written in such a way that the reader is also pressured to think) that they’re strong when they clearly aren’t, or Male Main Characters who are supposed to be dashing/receptive but are just illogical and impractical (that’s not called “being charming”, it’s called “being creepy”, and it’s putting women’s rights back sixty years.) I guess that the best rule is to write them real, write them with flaws, or don’t write them at all. But I digress.

So, that love story. Yes or no? And does the reader’s own gender (or even perhaps sexual orientation) have anything to do with it?