Hearts

Monday, I talked to you a bit about comedy. It’s a genre that I do read from time to time, but not one I work with a lot. Today’s genre, however, is one that I used to read all the time, and one that I work with frequently now, as an editor. It’s also one of the most popular genres out there.

Romance

Now, just to clarify, let me say that I’m not talking about erotica. I don’t read that, and I honestly don’t like it at all. What I’m talking about is romance, love stories, novels whose sole focus is the love between two characters. All right, now we have that out of the way.

Why do we enjoy it?

Who doesn’t like a love story? I know some of you will say that you don’t, that you prefer action over all else, but when it comes right down to it, we all like love. We do. It’s ingrained in us, whether we’ve experienced much of it at all. Each and every one of us love the idea of love, if nothing else.

So, we enjoy it because we enjoy love. We like to see how these two people came together, what obstacles this man faced to get to this woman, what perils they went through in order to be together. We want to see all of this, because we want to see how love prevails throughout everything. We enjoy reading romance because we enjoy the happy endings, the knowledge that love will last above all else, even in the cases where the relationship doesn't. 

Then only one question remains: what do we gain from it?

There’s a lot to be gained from a good love story. We learn pickup lines, how to woo the one we love, even how to behave around the people we’re attracted to. But those are just the simple things, if I’m being honest.

Romance, as a genre, teaches us a lot about the love that exists between husband and wife. It shows us how we really need to be, how we can’t put ourselves above our loves, lest we lose those we love. It’s a lesson in how to love, in what it takes to truly love. And that’s something a lot more of us could stand to learn, these days.

Love is a big part of life, every single facet of life, and it’s important that we learn about it, and that we teach about it. So, writers, keep writing romance. Keep teaching people about love through the actions of your characters. And readers, keep reading romance. There’s a lot to gain from this genre.

Let’s never give it up.

[love]

{Rani Divine}