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INTRODUCTION:
"Am assured, receptive, response
woman of substance. My sense of self comes not from other
people but from... from... myself? That can't be right."
So speaks Bridget Jones, a character
often put at the forefront of a not-so-new literary genre playfully
called Chick Lit. Already years old in Britain, these coming-of-age
tales about urban twenty-or-thirty-somethings is storming shelves
in the U.S. and Europe as we speak... and with enough success that
it seems that almost every publisher is jumping on the bandwagon. So
what's the story behind these stories? Why are they popular,
how are they different than romance, and what does it take to write
them?
After this talk, I hope that you'll
have a better sense of this genre, who's looking for it, and whether
or not it's a market you want to pursue...
ROMANCE
v. WOMEN'S FICTION v. CHICK LIT
First, we'll start with some basic definitions.
Romance: One we all know. Romances
are stories centered around a love relationship between a man and
a woman, with equal time devoted to the female & male points
of view as a general rule. Traditionally told in the third
person, usually with alternating male and female POV. Can
be historical, contemporary, or futuristic, of varying lengths.
Women's Fiction: This is a more loosely
defined category. Technically, romance and Chick Lit could
both be considered sub-genres of Women's Fiction, if you consider
Women's Fiction to be any fiction that focuses on women's lives,
issues and concerns. Unlike romance, women's fiction
can cover friendships between women, the relationships within
a family (with particular emphasis on women) and not cover
a love relationship at all. Case in point: The
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, a story about the
dynamics of both a mother and daughter and a group of friends. Women's
fiction is often told in the third person, but it's not as
standard as in romance, and normally female POV is dominant. Also,
women's fiction is less structured and has more ability to
delve more deeply into "unhappy"
or "unheroic" subject matter. An example given:
in a single-title romance, the "hero" maybe have been
a former alcoholic, now sober... in women's fiction, the male
character can still be struggling with his addiction and how
the female characters respond to this struggle can be a focal
point. While the ending
of a women's fiction novel is often uplifting, it is by no means
a guarantee of Happily Ever After.
Which leads us to Chick Lit.
WHAT IS CHICK LIT,
ANYWAY?
Chick Lit is a subset of women's fiction that focuses on a
slightly younger reading demographic than most romances or standard
women's fiction, from approximately 18 to 35 years old. These
novels tend to have characters which are young women in that age
group (general late twenties -- early thirties) in a more urban
setting (New York, London, Chicago, Los Angeles). The majority
of the Red Dress Ink books published have been in the first person,
as have many other popular Chick Lit titles -- Melissa Bank's "Girl's
Guide to Hunting and Fishing", Sophie Kinsella's "Confessions
of a Shopaholic", or of course, the prototype for this genre,
the diary stylings of Helen Fielding's irrepressible Bridget Jones.
Male POV rarely invades this genre, although a parallel genre, called
"Lad Lit" by the London press, is making a showing with
books like "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby or "About
a Boy".
WHAT IS THE APPEAL
OF CHICK LIT FOR READERS?
Now -- keep in mind, these are my theories.
I haven't conducted a sociological study. These are based
on my observations on the Red Dress Ink message boards, from statements
made by readers in Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com reviews, and
culled from articles in newspapers and magazines, both here and
abroad.
Chick Lit readers can be romance readers... there
is a definite cross-over appeal, since Bridget Jones' Diary is basically
a romance, based on the classic Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."
Only in this case, Elizabeth Bennett would have slept with Wickham
several times while her mother left MR. Bennet for some kind of
elder gigolo-criminal type!
Characters in Chick Lit novels might be considered
promiscuous by romance standards. Even in the most steamy
romance novels, the hero and heroine largely remain monogamous.
I can think of several cases where the hero sleeps with other women,
usually early on, before he becomes emotionally involved with the
heroine. Always, cases of "infidelity" or promiscuity
are explained, since there is an emotional connection. The
other main exceptions to this rule are the super erotics, like Susan
Johnson or Emma Holly, or anything from Black Lace. In Chick
Lit, sex doesn't have to have emotional involvement -- although
it's something that the female characters often want, they often
meet with dismal or hilarious failures on this front. This
is what separates it from the erotics, as well... the fact that
the "heroine" may sleep with several men has little to
do with eroticism and titillation. Rather, it's often a way
to illustrate with wry humor and not a little bit of frustration
that the modern woman has to kiss a lot of frogs if she wants to
find a prince... if there's even one out there.
Nevertheless, sex is only one issue covered by
Chick Lit novels... and it's not a predominant one. The female
characters deal with issues anyone who's been single in a city in
the nineties should be able to relate to: sex is only one
of them. The others? Relationships are right there at
the fore: women are still looking for love, and in this age
of having-it-all, they are contemplating who exactly Mr. Right is
and whether or not they want him. The relationship traumas
and depictions of single life are covered more intently than they
might be in romances. The readers have seen an increasing
divorce rate, they've suffered nothing but frogs in their dating
pool for some time, and while the occasional romance novel is definitely
entertaining and heartwarming, it can also be depressing when you
finish and return to your half-empty fridge, empty apartment, and
zero-message answering machine. As screwball and far-fetched
as some Chick Lit scenarios can become, Chick Lit readers find it
far more likely that a woman like themselves would be thrown in
jail in Thailand than be swept off their feet by a handsome multi-millionaire
Beta hero that they then fight their attraction for. When
a Chick Lit heroine finds true love, it's usually after enough of
a realistic struggle that the readers feels like she, too, has a
chance, even with a history of bad dates, worse sex, and outrageous
bad fortune... and when a Chick Lit novel doesn't end with a relationship,
marriage, kids, or guarantees of any sort, but still winds up happy
and fulfilled, the reader feels that vindication as well.
Beyond questions of love, relationships and men,
what other issues are brought up in Chick Lit? Running a close
second: careers. Early Chick Lit novels were populated
by such high-profile fields as publicity, publishing, advertising,
marketing, fashion. Ordinarily the heroine would be in a low
level position in one of these glamorous fields, plagued with questions
of personal fulfillment, advancement, and office politics.
Again, these should be funny, but still resonate with the reader.
Think Ally McBeal meets Dilbert... a single woman trapped in the
hell of Cubeville with an evil boss, that they may or may not be
attracted to or hate, or both.
There are also issues of friendships and family.
There are some stock "friend" characters in the world
of Chick Lit, and these characters can either be pushed to the fore
and share the story (as in Marian Keyes' "Last Chance Saloon"
or my RDI, "L.A. Woman") or they become vehicles to demonstrate
the heroines environment, much as friend characters have been used
in romance novels for years. They often help with humor and
contribute to the overall "Voice" of the story.
As far as family, they can provide both comedy and drama, because
they're rarely simple relationships. IN many cases, friends
can be more like family to the Chick Lit heroine than blood relatives.
A case in point: See Jane Date, by Melissa Senate, has her
heroine jumping through hoops to meet family expectations -- expectations
that are hurtful and seem like a throwback to a stereotypical fifties
where a woman's value is based on her marital status.
Finally, I think there's a definite theme of "What
should I be doing with my life?" This is literature about
women in crossroad situations. Bridget Jones is in crossroads
because she's realizing that she's going to die single and be discovered
half-eaten by wild dogs if she doesn't get her act together.
Rachel in Marian Keyes' "Rachel's Holiday" discovers that
she has a serious drug addiction, and while a lot of her observations
are humorous (she goes into rehab thinking it will be a cool place
to meet celebrities, lose weight and enjoy a lot of spa-like amenities)
the subject matter -- addiction and recover -- is eye-opening and
serious. While it could be argued that romantic fiction usually
also starts with a crossroads-type choice (otherwise known as the
Inciting Incident), the questions that Chick Lit prompts usually
involve women who don't know what the right answer is,
while in romantic fiction, there is usually a dire situation which
prompts a main goal for the hero and/or heroine. For example:
Nora Roberts' "Heaven and Earth" opens with a woman who
is trying to run away from her abusive husband. That is a
crossroad situation: go back to life of abuse, or attempt
to hide, living in fear? Her goal becomes clear: hide
from husband. During the course of the story, all her choices
will be made with that in mind, and you know that she will prevail
and fall in love in the process. Or take a category novel,
with less serious overtones. In Jennifer Cruisie's "Manhunting",
her heroine decides in the beginning (because her life is in a crossroad)
that she needs to find a husband who is suitable for her, and plots
a course of action to achieve just that. In Chick Lit, the
crossroad is less clearly defined, and the consequent action plan
much less linear. For example, Sara Milnowski's "MilkRun"
has the following inciting incident: the heroine, Jackie,
is dumped via email by her boyfriend who is "finding himself"
in Thailand. Her only goal is to "get over him"...
but does that mean by finding a new man, or not finding a new man?
Further, there are frequent side-voyages, into her career, her friendships,
and how she deals with her life. Chick Lit can be much less
linear than romantic fiction. It may not always work, granted,
but it is accepted.
VOICE A.K.A.
WHAT THE HELL IS 'HIP' AND 'EDGY'?
Voice is already an elusive subject, for any genre fiction
writer. So how can you see if you have the right "voice"
for RDI or any form of Chick Lit? Red Dress Ink has stated
that they're looking for stories that are 'hip', 'urban' and 'edgy.'
So what does that mean? Here
are my own definitions... here's hoping they help.
HIP: in step with, or one step ahead of,
what's currently in style... generally related to popular culture.
Being 'hip' is meant to show the readers that the author and novel's
characters should be both empathized with and envied by turns by
the target readership. Readers on the RDI boards post that
they "live vicariously through RDI novels." They
want experiences they understand, but they also want experiences
that are more exciting than their lives. Examples in use:
often brand names of popular designers, stores, popular shows, cultural
references. "With my next promotion, I was hoping to
upgrade my wardrobe from The Gap to DKNY." Note:
both the references to the stores and the verb 'upgrade' count on
the hip factor... this is a relatively lame example, but you get
the idea. However, I would also warn further -- a little goes
a long way. You don't want to say "One glance at my Swatch
watch told me I was late, so I threw on my Manolo Blahniks, chugged
the last of my Odwalla and jumped into my Passat."
URBAN:
Pertaining to experiences that are common
to people in large urban areas. High housing costs, high profile
jobs, and larger-than-life social settings that are more appropriate
to large metropolitan areas are prime examples. A more diverse
group of friends or people the characters interact with. A faster
pace, both in lifestyle and in writing style, exemplifies this.
EDGY: Often
shocking (or borderline shocking), unapologetic, truthful, and most
importantly to anyone who's been turned down in category fiction:
unheroic. A woman who sleeps around in category is promiscuous...
in Chick Lit, she's having fun and exploring her options.
Not that edginess only pertains to sex, but it's one of the easiest
ways to be both shocking and truthful. Using the example of
Rachel again -- you have a heroine who goes on a cocaine binge.
(Warning -- this won't fly at Red Dress. Drugs are still a
taboo.)
The best way to see if you have (or even want)
a Chick Lit voice is to read some examples or watch movies in a
similar vein, tuning in to both situations and dialogue (examples:
BJD, Life or Something Like It, Someone Like You). The best
way to develop a Chick lit voice is the same -- although
beware of mimicking too closely. There is now enough of a
body of work in this genre for definite stereotypes to have cropped
up -- and while readers are looking for the familiar, they're also
more likely to become easily bored with something too close to what
they've already read. RDI is currently dealing with the growing
pains of their second and third year of purchases. While their
initial offerings centered around a female character and the trials
and tribulations of dating, they're now trying to expand away from
that format and offer more diverse fare. More on that in the
Market section.
PROS AND CONS OF WRITING
FOR CHICK LIT:
 Pros:
- More flexibility in story line, since
it's a broader genre. You can have a love story... or not.
It can be a series of vignettes (although if you're writing for
Red Dress Ink, a recognizable character/story arc is still necessary.)
It can have first or third person POV, from one or many characters.
And it's still evolving.
- More freedom in language and
subject matter. Again, if you've written for category, the
ability to name people and brand names, to curse if you want to,
and to use slang is a welcome change. The only taboo I've
hit so far is drug use... and in Bridget Jones The Edge Of Reason,
there's a hysterical depiction of a psychedelic mushroom trip, so
even that's not an across-the-board rule.
- Higher visibility
as a writer. Every RDI since its inception has been reviewed
in Publisher's Weekly... not always positively, granted, but it's
more than you're likely to get from a category or most standard
Single Titles. The covers are more artistic, and they're being
more prominently placed in many retail bookstores. RDI is
also doing well in foreign markets.
- More money.
Advances run from $7k to $10k, often with multi-book deals for first-time
authors.
Cons:
- If you include modern references
in an attempt to be 'hip', your work will be easily dated.
Don't necessarily expect a reprint of it ten or 20 years later.
With a lot of contemporary details, you shorten the shelf life.
- You may lose your genre
readership if you use your romance pen name... or you'll have difficulty
transferring your Chick Lit fans to romance should you decide to
genre-jump. If you plan to retain both readerships, it's a
tough sell -- there's overlap, but it's not completely interchangeable.
- It's 95-110k words...
a bigger time investment than if you're used to writing 50-60k category
fiction.
- It's NOT FOR EVERYONE.
Just as some historical writers shouldn't try contempt simply because
"the money's good," no one should try Chick Lit for purely
financial reasons. Still, if you feel like you've got a story
for modern, urban dating women, about coping with Mr. Maybes and
day-jobs-from-hell, still trying to get your act together &
having a lot of fun in the process, then Chick Lit may be the venue
for you!
The Market
There is a lot of buzz in the industry about Chick Lit right
now -- while many may be blasé about the genre on the other
side of the pond (in Britain), in the U.S. it's a growing market
that taps on a coveted younger demographic of female readers.
Harlequin's Red Dress Ink is an example. While they have stated
that they will not treat RDI as a "line" like their other
romance novels, many readers are recognizing the publisher and picking
up their offerings in a manner similar to the category "line"
mentality -- they're picking up a Red Dress Ink, not necessarily
the author. At least, not yet. The print run has been
quoted as 50 thousand, and the first offering, Melissa Senate's
See Jane Date, is scheduled for a mass-market reprint next year,
and sales have apparently been strong... strong enough that they're
definitely moving forward, and they're beginning to "evolve"
the line. Now, Margaret Marbury is looking for women's fiction
in any format, whether it's a novel or linked stories (like Girl's
Guide to Hunting & Fishing), or three novellas like Jane Green's
"Babyville." She's looking for grounded fiction
rather than fantastical situations and she said that anything goes
as long as it appeals to women and has strong commercial appeal,
something that's high concept can be easily distilled into an appealing
back cover copy. NAL has also been bidding aggressively on
various Chick Lit offerings, in addition to women's fiction trade
paperback for its "Accent" line. (People who were
at New Orleans probably got the trade paperback giveaway "Tending
Roses".) Pocket has also been aggressively buying
for its Downtown Press imprint.
It definitely looks like a promising situation
for writers -- and it's new enough to be a volatile and changing
market with tons of opportunities. If what I've talked about
today sounds exactly like your cup of tea, I have to tell you...
there couldn't be a better time to try.
More articles by Cathy Yardley coming to this
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