Chick Lit

Presently I'm trying my hand at my first novel, after writing but having no success selling three screenplays, and a non-fiction manuscript about a famous fashion designer (who read my manuscript, then decided she would write her own book -- which she still hasn't done, by the way).

I'm on the fence about chick lit. On the positive side, this new genre of literature by women for women is enabling more and more women to get published and become successful writers. Their success in turn inspires other women who thought it would be an exercise in futility to write a novel to actually sit down in front of their computer and tap into their creative juices (me being one of them). On the negative side, however, chick lit has been derided by many as being nothing more than shallow drivel about shoes and bad relationships. Many novels written by women today are automatically pigeonholed into the "chick lit" category if they even mention boyfriends or designer handbags. It's a double-edged sword. As a woman writing a lighthearted novel, as opposed to, say, a spy novel, or a depressing tale about illness or death, I know in order to have a better chance of getting it published, it might be to my advantage to categorize it as chick lit. The trouble is, I haven't liked any of the chick lit novels that I've read so far. To be fair, I haven't yet read the "classics" like Helen Fielding's "Bridget Jones' Diary" (the book that is credited with starting the whole Chick Lit Revolution), or "The Devil Wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger. All the chick lit novels I've read so far have been written by second-rate authors using the same contrivances they seem to think are expected of a chick lit book, like a spunky heroine who drops the F Bomb all the time and trades barbs with the romantic hero of the book but then ultimately ends up in bed with him. These contrivances seem to me like an attempt to make the heroine of the story seem modern and independent, to distinguish her from the weak-willed damsels in distress of Barbara Cartland romance novels. But all they do is make the heroine seem obnoxious, bratty, immature, or mean-spirited. It makes me NOT like them, and that's the exact opposite of what an author is supposed to do. And the sex scenes are so embarrassingly awful, they make me feel like I'm reading a Harlequin Romance Novel disguised as a chick lit book (because the heroine drops the F Bomb and has a fabulous job).

The bottom line is that there are good books and bad books in any genre of literature. And by reading bad chick lit, I have a better idea of what not to write. I think I'll stick with classic novels about romantic relationships with spunky but ladylike heroines, the precursors of chick lit, like "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith, or anything by Jane Austen. As for the book I'm working on, I like to think of it as a romantic comedy rather than a chick lit novel. Better yet, it's an anti-chick lit novel -- no sex, no F Bombs. This could be the start of a new movement!