For the past few weeks, in between my writing schedule, I’ve been reading several books and manuscripts as a judge for various contests. While it has definitely added to my already busy schedule, I have to say I’ve enjoyed the task. I’ve been judging contests literally for decades. And boy-oh-boy have things changed in twenty years. Aspiring writers have so many more resources available to them nowadays, and most are wise enough to take advantage of those resources. People have found online critique groups, book “doctors,” freelance editors, writers loops that share information, online courses, a plethora of how-to books—and they’re using them! Gone are the days (at least in my recent experience) of receiving a manuscript where the entries are barely readable.
The romance market has matured, of course. The demand is greater but with this wider exposure come many more writers aspiring to write for such a popular market. Romance sales hold a huge share of overall book sales, and competition for a spot in the field has only increased—which naturally raises the quality. Editors not only have more to choose from, but they’re more demanding and discriminating. They can afford to be, with so many people drawn to writing.
That’s all the good news. The bad news is that my foray into judging has been mostly in the secular romance area, and the secular romance market has also developed over the years. What might have been considered racy twenty years ago, even ten, is merely tame these days.
If I’ve been asked to read something that I normally wouldn’t choose for myself, I usually don’t refuse to judge it. Only if it contains an aspect that I find blatantly insulting to my faith would I contact the coordinator and ask for the piece to be assigned another judge. But when judging secular writing, I don’t refuse to read books that have more graphic sex or violence than I would otherwise choose to read. For one thing, the majority of secular books include these aspects and it’s hard to volunteer as a judge without agreeing to read something containing such material. For another, and to me this is the more important argument, my faith is strong enough (and old enough) to read such things without feeling my spirit tugged downward. I judge the book for what it is: all of the entries in this particular contest are required to be a romance. Does the romance work? Is the writing engaging, even if the content isn’t something I would normally read? Has the story convinced me that someone looking for this kind of secular book would be satisfied or pleased to read this? Has the writer done the job of telling a compelling, believable story, using all of the elements she’s introduced without extraneous scenes, characters or subplots, and populate it with characters that touch the reader in some way?
Which are all, by the way, things I ask myself as I’m writing my own
stories . . .
So now I’m off to do some writing, and then a good deal of reading. This is one of those days when I feel truly blessed to be able to plan my days in such a way!
I agree with you that it's acceptable to read more graphic books if there's a reason for it (in your case it's professional, for me sometimes the artistic quality of the book or a truly great story outweighs the tedium of wading through the sex scenes).
But I have my limits. Just before reading your post, I read a post from a romance blog I follow because of their occasional rather clever insights into genre and sub genre. The post was about their new sensuality ratings.
At the top was Burning, which covered "Sex with more extreme variations. Anal penetration, extreme bondage, multiple partners, homoeroticism. The book is still about the romance, though, not the eroticism. I’d say that sex with a manimal would be included here, too."
OK, it's obviously a very long time since I read a secular romance. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Romance now stretches to…what on EARTH is a manimal?
Please tell me you don't read Burning romances, because I'll giggle all the way through our next meeting if you do.
I've been concerned for years about the direction romance is taking as far as "pushing the envelope" of sexual content. Many women I know who actually enjoy secular romances tell me they skim/skip over the sex scenes. They don't, after all, add a thing to the plot that couldn't be understood with a fade-out on specifics.
Only one of the entries I've read so far was truly objectionable, more in line with violence added to the mix. But rather than having the violence directed at the woman, which used to be the case and is likely the more common scenario in life, this scene had the violence initiated by the woman (at least she wasn't the heroine).
I found myself genuinely wondering why anyone would want to read such a thing. Still, as a judge I looked for the things I outlined above (sentence clarity, emotional involvement, etc.). I did find the emotional level lacking amid so many body parts to explain, which confused me further about why such a thing would be considered a romance of any kind (even if they call it an erotic romance). Romantic tales are about emotion, not the mechanics of sex.
This was an unpublished novel, so it wasn't along the lines of what you described above, Jane. And I'm thanking God I didn't receive any of those Burning books you mentioned! So far the Rita books I've been assigned have been well written – though more graphic than I would choose – but nothing too wild.
So no snickering at the meetings… And if you ever find out what a manimal is, I don't want to know. 🙂