I went to a couple of sessions at the Perth Writers Festival on the weekend. In the past, I’ve rarely found much that I wanted to see, mostly because there often doesn’t seem to be much that’s relevant to what I write. It’s also heavily focused on literary fiction, to the point of aggression. But this year I found a few workshops and a panel that I thought would be worthwhile.
Image courtesy of Theeradech Sanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
In the end it was a waste of time. I can’t say I learned anything new except where my tolerance level of literary snobbery lies.
It’s very low.
Now, I admit I am only a recent convert to romance fiction and I’m sure, in my younger days, I turned my nose up at the very idea of writing a “Mills&Boon”. I’m glad to say that I have changed.
Unfortunately, what I saw in the workshops I attended was a general derision against romance. “Women’s literary fiction” and “chicklit” were ok (though even chicklit was a bit snubbed) but mention genre romance? Oh no!
I really should expect it from a general audience but what I was most disappointed in was having to hear the presenter’s rejection of the biggest fiction genre in the world. I, perhaps wrongly, expect a person who expects people to pay to hear what they have to say to have some worldliness and tolerance. I’m an idealist.
So, here are a few of the quotes from the weekend:
When discussing why positive emotions are so much harder to write than negative emotions: “Those chick-lit/Danielle Steele novels are a bit cliché and they’re all about happiness.”
“Happiness as its own reward at the end of the story is a bit pat.”
Then something to the effect that “literature” explores emotions better.
When editing a cliché out of a sentence: “Skipped a beat is what you’d find in a Mills&Boon.”
When discussing a particularly flowery phrase in a story from the turn of the 20th century: “It was in a popular, non-literary…” (This was more telling of literature than anything else.)
When discussing genre, the presenter quite happily said: “I’m not going to sit on my high horse and say sci-fi is no good. It’s up to people’s taste.”
And finally, from one participant who was in a love and sex writing session and talked about the sex scenes she writes and the difficulty she has: “It’s either clunky or Mills&Boon.”
I’m being overly sensitive, I’m sure, but I’m used to the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the Romance Writers of Australia conference (in Perth, August 2013), so to sit in a couple of workshops and feel like an outsider is not my idea of a good time.
What impressed me was many of the participants. There was a broad cross-section of the population, though more women than men, and I was glad to see so many people who were there to give writing a go, to extend themselves, to learn and to grow.
There were some “popular” sessions at the festival so I think it is loosening up a bit, but I would like to see more. Perhaps they might actually get more people attending. Or is that not what it’s about?
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