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Okay so I am rereading only in July and I picked up this nonfiction guide to writing romance novels that I read ages ago. This may actually be one of the first ebooks I ever bought. And I'm shocked by how poorly it's held up.
There are four fundamental flaws, in my opinion:
1. Outdated information.
Now, this book did come out in 2007 initially. It's inevitable that the passing of time will render some advice useless. I would normally say, "Well, in 2024 it's no longer a great reference for romance authors" except that the book was updated and released in 2017! I say it was updated but frankly I don't think the original text was touched, though I haven't bothered to track down a previous version to confirm. I think they slapped the self-publishing section on and called it a day.
That means a lot of the advice about genre just doesn't make sense in our current landscape--more about that later--and the research section definitely feels useless now that the internet exists.
2. Diversity: it's not there
This is a very heteronormative book, targeted solely at authors of heterosexual romance. There is only a passing reference to the existence of queer romances and no mention of poly romance at all. In addition, Michaels frequently reminds the readers that their male and female leads must adhere to gender roles recognizably.
When she talks about naming characters, she clearly has not thought about how naming might work if, say, your character has a name from an ethnicity that isn't "generic English-speaking country white name". This would be less egregious except that the book's only mention of people who aren't white existing is when she mentions "ethnic" as a genre. Which is. A choice.
When talking about female characters, she assures us that the female lead doesn't have to look like a model, but still needs to take care of herself and be healthy or readers won't like her.
3. The prose
This is a very boring book. The advice is very generic and isn't presented in an interesting way. The prose is a little overwrought at times, and it feels like Michaels thinks her advice is much more groundbreaking than it actually is.
Everything in this book can be found in another writing manual in a more interesting and useful way. I recommend you read Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes and then How Not to Write a Novel by Howard MIttelmark and Sandra Newman instead.
4. So much of this is useless
Many of the things Michaels tells the reader cannot be or should never be done in a romance have been done. She eschews any even mildly 'problematic' element, down to telling readers that the correct level of cattiness for a female character to respond to their mean girls antagonists. But the fact is that books like 50 Shades of Grey have achieved huge sales and right now dark romance, enemies to lovers, and bad boy love interests are still pretty common.
In addition, huge chunks of this book are just giving generic writing advice that is not romance specific. As I say above, plenty of better books exist to explain how to write dialogue, how to choose a point of view, or how to use flashbacks.
There are four fundamental flaws, in my opinion:
1. Outdated information.
Now, this book did come out in 2007 initially. It's inevitable that the passing of time will render some advice useless. I would normally say, "Well, in 2024 it's no longer a great reference for romance authors" except that the book was updated and released in 2017! I say it was updated but frankly I don't think the original text was touched, though I haven't bothered to track down a previous version to confirm. I think they slapped the self-publishing section on and called it a day.
That means a lot of the advice about genre just doesn't make sense in our current landscape--more about that later--and the research section definitely feels useless now that the internet exists.
2. Diversity: it's not there
This is a very heteronormative book, targeted solely at authors of heterosexual romance. There is only a passing reference to the existence of queer romances and no mention of poly romance at all. In addition, Michaels frequently reminds the readers that their male and female leads must adhere to gender roles recognizably.
When she talks about naming characters, she clearly has not thought about how naming might work if, say, your character has a name from an ethnicity that isn't "generic English-speaking country white name". This would be less egregious except that the book's only mention of people who aren't white existing is when she mentions "ethnic" as a genre. Which is. A choice.
When talking about female characters, she assures us that the female lead doesn't have to look like a model, but still needs to take care of herself and be healthy or readers won't like her.
3. The prose
This is a very boring book. The advice is very generic and isn't presented in an interesting way. The prose is a little overwrought at times, and it feels like Michaels thinks her advice is much more groundbreaking than it actually is.
Everything in this book can be found in another writing manual in a more interesting and useful way. I recommend you read Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes and then How Not to Write a Novel by Howard MIttelmark and Sandra Newman instead.
4. So much of this is useless
Many of the things Michaels tells the reader cannot be or should never be done in a romance have been done. She eschews any even mildly 'problematic' element, down to telling readers that the correct level of cattiness for a female character to respond to their mean girls antagonists. But the fact is that books like 50 Shades of Grey have achieved huge sales and right now dark romance, enemies to lovers, and bad boy love interests are still pretty common.
In addition, huge chunks of this book are just giving generic writing advice that is not romance specific. As I say above, plenty of better books exist to explain how to write dialogue, how to choose a point of view, or how to use flashbacks.
