Fall into Genres: Author Ute Carbone's Guest Post

Today I'm deeply honored to host Author Ute Carbone's post.

With Ute we will be exploring two important Genres: Romance and Women's Fiction. And the way they relate and differ from one another.
The reason why I asked Ute to discuss these genres with me, is because my debut novel is a romance, and the book I'm currently working on falls into the Contemporary Women/Women's Fiction genre, and I want to understand better what writing women's fiction truly means.



I am not a pretty girl—how women’s fiction differs from romance.

As I write this, I’m listening to Anni DiFranco’s “Pretty Girl”. I don’t know if you’ve heard the song, but it sums up how I feel about women’s fiction as it compares to romance. Women’s fiction writers (like me) could use “I am not a pretty girl” as our theme song.
I say this tongue in cheek, of course. Though, quite honestly, it sometimes feels as though women’s fiction is the nerdy cousin at the romance girl picnic. Picture it, the romances are all making out with the cute boys. They’re done up pretty, not a hair out of place, not a nail bitten down. They have perfect curves, perfectly shown off in cut offs, and painted toes in flip flops. The WF cousin is sitting under the oaks with a thick book, her hair a perpetual mess that refuses to stay in the ponytail. She sighs, eying the guy with glasses, who hasn’t stripped down for the group skinny dip. She wonders if he’s read Proust or Emily Dickenson’s poems.
Our girl isn’t drop dead gorgeous, she’s not heroic, her figure isn’t perfect. The men she’s attracted to aren’t billionaires with six pack abs.
As you can no doubt see, from the way I’ve stretched a metaphor much farther than it ought to be stretched, is that there are definite differences between women’s fiction and romance. And while it’s more or less easy to define romance—a story about a love relationship front and center with a happy ending—women’s fiction is tougher to define. Sometimes, as in the picnic example, it’s easier to define it by what it’s not. While it can include good looking men, it’s not about handsome heroes. Although things often end happily, this isn’t necessarily the case. There is often a love story, but the love relationship may or may not be at the center of the story. Women’s fiction doesn’t follow trope or formula.
Women’s fiction is about ordinary women, women with struggles and barriers to overcome. Bad things can happen—spouses die, marriages fail, and careers don’t work out as planned. The characters on these pages aren’t gorgeous or infallible; they have warts and bad habits, they make a lot of mistakes.
But always, women’s fiction is about transcending. Women’s fictions is filled with characters who face the challenges of life, who learn to swim in deep water and learn to fly without wings. These ordinary women, it turns out, are extraordinary in their own right. They become the champions of their own lives.
At the end of “Pretty Girl” Anni Defranco sings “I want to be so much more than a pretty girl.” Yup. That’s it.


Thank you, Ute!



About author Ute Carbone:

Ute (who pronounces her name Oooh-tah) Carbone is an award winning author of women's fiction, comedy, and romance. She and her husband live in New Hampshire, where she spends her days walking, eating chocolate and dreaming up stories.


Books and Stories by Ute Carbone:

Blueberry Truth
The P-Town Queen
Afterglow
Searching for Superman
Sweet Lenora
The Lilac Hour
To the Wind
Dancing in the White Room


For more about Ute and her books, Please Visit:

Web page: www.utecarbone.com
Blog: ute-carbone.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Ute-Carbone/23...
Twitter: twitter.com/Wildwords2
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5114798...
Amazon: www.amazon.com/Ute-Carbone/e/B005G7U8...
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/utecarbone/
Love Stories (available daily via Paper Li): paper.li/Wildwords2/1355247882?utm_so...#