My mom and my aunt used to write Harlequin romances (oh snap! shit just got real!) and yes, they make fun of the genre occasionally too. And they’re the first to discuss with you the “formula” and why it works.

But that’s the thing…certain stories do work, and for a good reason. Humans since the dawn of time have loved certain story structures and that’s okay. And as much as my mom has a sense of humor about those Harlequins, the truth is that she also works damn hard to write, rewrite, revise, redraft, and write again to create a really, really good story. Just like the sitcoms that TD mentioned, her writing takes hard artistic work. It’s hard to write something entertaining and enjoyable. It’s challenging. It’s much easier to NOT write a book, and to simply make fun of “bodice-rippers.”

(And then there’s the gender issue too….people don’t make fun of commercial, accessible action-thriller books as much as they make fun of “bodice-rippers.” Perhaps because the latter are written mostly for men, by men, and Harlequins are mostly created and bought by women.)

I feel like for some reason, people grant more leeway to movies and television in this regard. People are always saying things like “That film was formulaic and had a lot of gratuitious car chases, but what can I say? I loved it!” But for some reason books are expected to always be dense and boringly edifying simply because they’re books. It’s ridiculous.

On Writing is a fabulous book, by the way. Glad someone else read it! (Actually, the audio book is pretty cool because it’s King himself reading it.) My mom actually recommended it to me and I was not disappointed.

My only critique: remember that “entertaining” and/or “commercial” are not mutually exclusive to “smart” or “nuanced.”

I know someone who’s a librarian and well-read in all the “great literature.” What does she curl up with at night? A “trashy” romance novel a la Harlequin. Why? Because it’s a nice escape, and there’s nothing wrong with feeling good.