What about Romance Fiction

My wife tells me I should write stories that appeal to women.  I keep telling her I write stories that appeal to everyone.

Women account for 69% to 80% of book sales in the U.S.  Romance fiction, at 23% of all fiction sales, is the largest-selling genre.  In 2023, 58% of Amazon’s most-sold eBooks were of the romance genre.  This is a whole lot of romance book sales!

But wait. If the majority of women prefer romantic novels featuring relationships with ideal men, why do most modern movies portray men as self-centered, deceitful, incompetent dolts?  Surely the men in theaters don’t want to be looked upon as embarrassments.

Perhaps women prefer to see men outside their romance novels schooled, corrected, beaten, and shamed.  Male-bashing may also stem from Hollywood’s obsession with being an agent of change rather than a provider of entertainment.

Modern movies are hulking $250-million behemoths coalesced by a conglomerate of innumerable people managed by executives telling them what to do, while novels are written by individual authors who, like nimble ninjas, can craft their stories as they please.

Literary fiction is an elegant dinner at a fine restaurant, while cinematic fiction is a seven-course meal blended together into a mushy soup and served in a yellow plastic cup with a straw.

Shana Figueroa has come up with an excellent explanation for why most romantic novels don’t make it to the big screen.  You can read her full post here.  She points out that most fictional stories contain a standard story structure across all genres—except for romance novels, which have no such constraints.  This lack of story structure makes romance novels difficult to convert to the big screen.

The traditional fictional story structure is as follows:

• Hook (first page)

• Inciting Incident (anywhere before Plot Point 1)

• Plot Point 1 (~25% into the story)

• Midpoint Shift (~50% into the story)

• Plot Point 2 (~75% into the story)

• Climax (~90% into the story)

• Resolution

What’s fascinating to me is I wrote three novels before knowing what most of those elements were, and yet they’re in all three stories as if I’d written them on purpose.  Fiction is magical that way.

So, should authors write only romance novels?  The following are some famous novels that have no dominant romantic element:

• Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

• Moby Dick (1851)

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

• Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

• The Hobbit (1937)

• The Screwtape Letters (1942)

• The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

• Charlotte’s Web (1952)

• The Lord of the Rings (1954)

• To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

• Midnight Cowboy (1965)

• Papillon (1969)

• Housekeeping (1980)

• The Goonies (1985)

• Midnight (1989)

• The Road (2006)

Notice that, besides not being romance novels, the listed stories do not attempt to change culture.  They just tell a story.  This helps them be timeless because who wants to be lectured to for the rest of eternity?

The rebuttal to such a sparkly list of exceptional novels is the many thousands of romance novels published every year.  Between 2020 and 2023, romance novel sales in the U.S. more than doubled.  The more successful romance novel authors publish 3 to 6 novels per year.

Why is there such a dominance of romance fiction in the market?  Is it because,

1. There isn’t enough true, real love in modern culture (2 Timothy 3:2-3)?

2. Women are addicted to idealistic, escapist romance?

3. All other fiction is written poorly.

I prefer the third explanation, because that’s where I come in and write the best fiction ever.

What’s the big deal?

What’s wrong with women reading romance novels?  Should men not watch sports, hang out at the bar for an hour after work every day, or go on weekend-long fishing or hunting trips?  What about all the video gaming?  (Although women are catching up with men.)

One answer, which applies to everyone's diversionary activities, is whether the action is for enjoyment (preference) or to avoid painful situations (potential addiction).

Behavioral (psychological) addictions in all their varieties are commonplace, such as 57% of Americans admitting to having a smartphone addiction.

So why am I picking on just one issue?  Perhaps it's because the basic family unit is being attacked from every conceivable angle.  How many movies, TV shows, and novels portray marriages and families in a negative light?  I know we can do better!

We need to avoid any action that can diminish or distort expectations for real-life relationships. Such leads to dissatisfaction and neglect of life’s responsibilities and commitments, and results in feelings of emptiness and depression.

Some Statistics

I don’t wish to be even more negative, but U.S. birth rates have been falling steadily since the 1950s.  Marriage rates have fallen dramatically since the 1970s.  Since 2018, fewer than 50% of U.S. adults attend church regularly, and that percentage continues to decline.  Just where are we heading as a culture?

Why can’t we choose more uplifting forms of entertainment?  If the traditional family unit is being attacked from every side, let’s move in the opposite direction and seek activities that strengthen our families.  Maybe then moviemakers and authors will start creating more stories that promote family relationships.

No one wants to be preached at

There is a tremendous amount of sermonizing in movies, TV shows, and books, and it all seems one-sided.  I’m old enough to notice that much of what we see on screen today wasn't considered watchable years ago.  And it is getting more intense.

So how can story creators portray honorable, good behavior while keeping the story entertaining and commercially viable?

This is where creativity comes in.  How many fathers would love to have the ability to give their kids a swift, deserved scolding and then have their children say, “That was great, Dad!  When can we be scolded again?”

Good writing allows the viewer or reader to want the message and feel better about it because they have become a little better from witnessing the story.

Consider the movie Galaxy Quest (1999), which is a spoof of the Star Trek TV series.  Before you snicker and roll your eyes, consider the following lessons taught in the movie:

• Teamwork

• Commitment

• The power of belief

• Examples of heroism

• Moping around helps no one

• Loyalty to a good cause, even at risk of life

• The most insignificant contributions matter

• When people have nowhere else to turn, help them

• If you can’t find your way out of a problem, get creative

• Service and sacrifice promote respect, love, and adoration

How about this touching scene from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?  What about Good Will Hunting for something more serious?  Or this intense scene from Big Fish, or from Frequency.

We can handle it

Apparently, the problem is left to us authors.  While we’re trying to improve ourselves, let’s help others get better by providing more uplifting entertainment.  Let’s create stories about good people, or about bad people trying to become good, who are also overcoming great adversity.

I don’t mind doing double duty.  Someone must be committed to it until this world is a much more wonderful place.