On the importance of romance

Beatbox32 posted on /r/writing:

I was working through the exercises in Nancy Kress's Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint and one of them said to choose a favorite romance novel and fill out a mini-bio on the heroine. I couldn't think of any romance novel that I've ever read, let alone a favourite. That genre has never really interested me, but I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to pick a few books up.

This is a great question! I responded with this:

I write fantasy and crime thrillers primarily. I have found that every good story I have written has a love element in it. Back when I first started writing, I had some really bad romances in the books. Then I read Twilight. (Please don't judge me)
I hated everything about it and myself for reading it, but it was the first 'romance' I read. After that I began to see that in almost every book ever written there is a strong tie to the romance genre!

Take my fantasy stories. The protagonist always seems to have a girl back home waiting for him, and it really helps to read some hardcore, pure romance novels to learn how to write these relationships and make them more believable.

In short, pick up some romance novels. I'm talking cheapo-1p-off-of-Amazon-used-copies-chick-flick novels. I read about 10 before I started writing my next crime thriller, and all of a sudden my noire story took on a whole new dimension.

I'm not saying copy the stuff in the romances you read, most of it is written like that to appeal to bored housewives who desperately need a holiday, but definitely, definitely take inspiration from them and it will help you to form more realistic characters in the future. I mean, practically everybody has a love interest in the world, and it makes sense to let the reader know about it, right?

PS. Don't read Twilight. 

 Any thoughts on this? Comments are open and welcome below!

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