Each of them can be taken down to similar building blocks as a good category romance. They have a hero and a heroine, some secondary characters, a strong conflict, an emotional build up and a happy ending. When it comes to the DVD’s ‘extras’ I’ve become a little obsessed. I love to hear the behind the scenes interviews from Directors and Authors about why they put together a particular scene or what their characters would and wouldn’t do. And I’m especially fascinated with the parts about deleted scenes and why they felt they did or didn’t work. It’s a good learning process, not just for film-makers, but for writers. Because it’s exactly what we have to do as writers. We need to decide why our characters would do the things they do, we need to ‘get inside their heads’ just like an actor playing the role would and we especially need to be able to see when a particular scene holds merit for the overall story or quite simply isn’t needed. It’s almost a study guide when you think about it…

   

So did you have a ‘chick-flick’ that you particularly enjoyed that I haven’t listed in the Pink Heart Hall of Fame? Was there ever a romance you read that you thought would make a great film, that you could almost see playing like a film in your mind as you read?

Nominations now being taken on the forum for the Pink Heart Hall Of Fame…

   

Arguments for the Defence - Part Two:

Shippers. ‘What’ I hear you cry? What on earth is a ‘Shipper’? Well, if you don’t know I shall enlighten you, ‘cos I’m one…

   

A Shipper is an internet term for a ‘Relation-shipper’. It’s someone who’s a fan of a TV series who picks up on a potential romantic relationship between two of the characters and forms their own interpretations of how that relationship builds. It’s huge on the Internet. For me it was ‘The X-Files’. I loved the show, can remember distinctly when it was first shown on the BBC over here and as a fan of the ‘science fiction’ genre I was hooked from the get-go. I loved the story lines but I always wanted to see something happen between Mulder and Scully. When I first tried looking for sneaky peaks of episodes before they hit my side of the world I found several sites where Mulder and Scully shippers were writing their own stories, often set ‘off screen’, with a lot of them very intricately woven into the Show’s own plots. And in the end, the Shippers got their way. (Much to the disgust of some it must be said.)

Now we have shows as diverse as ‘Without A Trace’ and ‘Battlestar Gallactica’ where the Shippers are out in force. And basically, guess what? They’re romance fans. And there’s loads of them! They take the characters they know and they build a set of conflicts on top of conflicts that already exist in the shows and they work their way through those conflicts to a happy ending. Which is a form of… category romance… isn’t it?

 

Shippers follow many different shows. They quite often take varying different characters as couples from those shows. Whichever couple they feel should ultimately be together in the end. But what I maybe didn’t mention is that the writers then split their stories down into categories somewhat like publishers do. There are adventure categories that take up on the shows plot lines, there are mysteries, paranormals, erotic, in fact for practically every genre of category romance there is on the marketplace there is a Shipper category to match! Which to me, means that they are indeed a strong validation that category/short contemporary romance is very much alive and kicking ‘Cos imitation is one of the greatest forms of a compliment, right?
Now yes, it has to be said that there is Shipper work out there that isn’t all that good. We could stand and quite honestly say that there is the very occasional piece of work out there that we, as readers, may think the same thing of in book form. But that’s all personal opinion. And what we must keep in mind is that the majority of Shippers are amateurs, writing something because they enjoy it and because they enjoy the show they write about. I happen to think that the main thing is that they DO write, and that people READ what they write. And that’s what really matters at the end of the day. So I for one am grateful for their existence and for their dedication.

So, if you find yourself with nothing to do for a little while, spend some time and Google a few of your favorite TV Shows and see if any of the fan sites have FANFIC categories on their sites. Then see if you can find any Shippers… You’ll see what I mean. They like a good romance as much as the rest of us!!!

Nominations for Shipper Shows now being taken on the forum for the Pink Heart Hall Of Fame…

   

Arguments for the Defence - Part Three:

Classical Literature aka: Romance that its socially acceptable for us to let people know we read...

A good friend of mine and fellow Pink Heart-er  brought to my attention an interesting article here and it makes some very valid points!

The main one which caught my eye (and there were a few) being the subject of books that are accepted amongst the literary society and those that aren't (i.e. Short/contemporary romances). Those include works by Jane Austin, but then we all knew those were romances didn't we? The Bronte sisters, yes, also a given. But there are romances all over the place in classic literature unless my interpretation and my love of romance reading have been leading me astray. Thomas Hardy, William Shakespeare, add as many in here as you like and please do! As the song goes, love is all around and there's just no avoiding the fact that whatever else may come and go in society from generation to generation, peoples need for romance endures!

We live in a busy world now, where time is a precious commodity, where women are juggling careers with their families in ways they haven't done since the last great war. So the need for a shorter book to still satisfy their need for escapism, to feed their need to believe in great romances has become all the more uncertainty.
Any of the people who are trying year after year to be published in the romance genre will tell you its not as easy as a walk in the park! The books, as the article above states, are about relationships and the trials and tribulations involved in maintaining them. And not only that, they are about how people grow and learn from their experiences of falling in love, about how their past may shape their future and about how there still is the possibility of a happily ever after for everyone. I mean, c'mon, what character in a pantomime is going to stand up and say bah to that kind of noble cause and not be thrown off the stage??

 

I think the thing we need to remember about critics is that by very nature of their title, they are there to poke holes in things. And I'd far rather make my way through my life looking for good rather than looking for bad.

Nominations for Classical Literature now being taken on the forum for the Pink Heart Hall Of Fame…