Women's Fiction vs Romance

Women's fiction and romance have similarities, but also distinct differences. While many of the publishers may be the same for both genres, editors are looking for the key elements that make for compelling women's fiction. (Lisa Craig, Inkspot copyright 2000).

From the research I have completed, women's fiction may have romance as a component, but it is not the complete plot, just a part. Women's fiction revolves around a story-line that women (perhaps more than men) would enjoy reading. The issues involved should appeal to a woman, including the enpowerment of women.

Quoting Lisa Craig again: "Women's fiction, however -- like the women who read it -- has evolved to include subjects and themes that range far beyond romance."

In Craig's article, she quotes Literary Agent Linda Hyatt of the Hyatt Literary Agency: "Good women's commercial fiction usually touches the reader in ways other fiction cannot. Relationship stories, generational sagas, love stories and women's commercial fiction must touch on subjects women can relate to in their real lives. Whether there is a happily ever after ending, or a bittersweet one, whether the reader laughs or cries, women love reading stories that touch their emotions - and tug at their hearts."

I like the way author Eileen Goudge explains, first by quoting advice from her editor. "Think of your novel as a tapestry, woven with multicolored threads of various warps and wefts." Then Goudge compares women's fiction with that tapestry, saying the more intricate the tapestry of this genre, the richer it is. Each subplot starts as thread on the loom of imagination. The author's job is to weave the threads together in a way that's not only coherent but engrossing to the reader.

Her explanation actually applies to any writing, not just women's fiction, but she does give the picture of a plot more entailed than a straight romance plot.

Goudge later in her article (Women's fiction vs. romance, The Writer April 2007) states that the writing separates the two genre. Romance writers, she says, indulge in "verbiage that borders on purple prose." In women's fiction, flowery descriptive passages, unnecessary adverbs and love-scene metaphors are cut.

Although, differences may exist, the relationship between the genre is close, and they often overlap. Appealing to both audiences is possible and often desirable.


After teaching composition for twenty-five years and becoming an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ a site for Poetry, Vivian Gilbert Zabel, also writing as V. Gilbert Zabel, produced Hidden Lies and Other Stores, Walking the Earth:, and The Base Stealers Club, which can be ordered through most book stores and on Amazon.com.