I have been writing what I thought was Literary Fiction...
But I went to my favorite pub and the owner cornered me, gave me a big hug (cus my wife and I are ALWAYS there) and we started talking...
I told her I wanted to host a write in at the pub and showed her my novel....
Well, everything went wrong from there...
The upshot... I am writing chick lit.
Let me set something strait right now.
I enjoy so called "chick lit."
No, I am not gay. No I am not a girly man.
I just enjoy character driven stories.
My non-NaNo novel is about a strong, silent type man who fought and killed for what he believed in. Then, years later, he discovered he had a daughter he did not know about... and he reached out to her...
So, is there something wrong with me?
Is it wrong that the RIGHT kind of lit is chick lit?
Does my wife need to perform a "man check" when I get home, or am I ok?
-Moogipal
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50,712 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2008 - 14 13
Keep writing!
----------warm fuzzies~ Lex
2005 Winner Untitled
2007 Winner "Surviving Serengeti"
18,379 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2008 - 19 38
don't let a noxious label deter you from your idea.
i find a lot of really great things are hidden behind names that make me want to run away as fast as i possibly can. Defy the labelmakers! VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
----------7,252 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2008 - 04 05
Well,
I'm afraid all hope is lost for you!
Let's face it, you Mr are a disgrace for manly men all over the world, its types like you that have set out to ruin our hard aquired renown! I hope you feel well when exposing us, the men of the world, as actually being in possesion of so called 'feelings' (yuck).
May you and that lousy Mr Sparks, I blame him for driving good honest manly men to write the dreaded 'chick-lit', enjoy living in your sappy little, touchy-feely worlds!
P.S.: I like that outline, though I would really have thought it to be the kind of stuff I wouldn't want to touch with a pole twenty years ago. :p
Labels should only be used to make it easier to pick the read that suits us best at a given moment, we should never let us feel restrained or actively put-off by them (says Mr I-do-not-read-Fantasy, boy I sure hope that hypocrisy is a minor sin).
P.P.S.: That's right, most Literary Fiction can easily be classed as Chick-Lit, too, in so far as all women are thought to be about the characters and all men are thought to be only about the action ... and the more spicy action.
50,181 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2008 - 20 45
Sounds very Nicholas Sparks. Nothing wrong with that! He is considered mainstream fiction, I think, but he does have the romantic element. Don't fret! Just write it!
------------Jessica
2008: Brighter Than Sunshine: Win.
36,826 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2008 - 21 01
Keep writing! If you wrote something else just to fit a label of what you think you're "supposed" to write it wouldn't ring true. Do what you love. Write what you love. Damn the labels!
----------________
"The race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself."
23,030 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2008 - 09 25
i'm going to go with the herd here and say by all means keep going! don't let labels stop you! as for feeling like less of a "man" for writing a more sensitive novel, i for one have always believed sensitive men are the most manly :)
----------"all i can do is be me, whoever that is."
-bob dylan
31,067 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2008 - 16 22
Don't feel bad I started what I thought was a pretty good Sci Fi idea with time travel. I was going to give it a little romantic tension between the MC's but somewhere along the line a little romance developed turning a good SciFi novel into chick lit.
Instead of fighting it I just embraced it. It is now much more character driven, and schmaltzy.
The Science I had planned is now barely visable but I still try to put it in here and there.
Just remember your not alone, many manly men have written chick lit.
A good story is a good story regardless of the audience.
Keep going.
Maybe we need a support group, or at least a hug. :)