Originally posted by Supermom:
Back to Yvonne's original post...
...I want to see if there's any correlation between writing style and whether you read a lot of romance or not.
Yeah, I forgot this was the purpose of the post. I got so wrapped up in talking about reading that I forgot all about writing. <G>
Do I think my lois and clark stories are influenced by romance novels and sound much like romance novels? In a word: yes.
Here's the long answer <G> : I started reading romance novels in high school, but only read them very sporadically. They made up a tiny fraction of my reading list. However, once I started writing, I started reading more and more of them. A million and one sucessful writers have said that the key to becoming a better writer is to read, read, read. That doesn't mean copying someone else's style, that means reading lots of different things and seeing what you like and what you don't. Finding what works for you. It also helps develop things like characterization, plot, etc. All the basics. So when I started writing romancy Lois and Clark stories, I stared reading more romance novels and I'm sure that affected my writing. Yes, most of my scenes do sound like they are lifted straight from a romance novel (hopefully a decent romance novel, not the ones that make me cringe, but the jury's still out on that one <G>). I've actually had so much fun writing romance (which I never thought would happen) that I've started a couple of original romance novels. I still have my "serious" writing that I'm working on slowly but surely, but now I have fun romance novels to work on, too. I think they are a great practice for my more serious writing, and they are also fun in and of their own right.
Annie
