Myth 7: All romances are variations on the same theme

Contemporary romances have a massive amount of story scope compared with their earliest cousins but it has been said that 'There are no new stories in the world'. It is certainly true that some themes appear more commonly in romance--cinderella, beauty and the beast, ugly duckling type stories; hidden/unexpected child stories; forced proximity (desert island) stories. The themes are popular with readers and there are no end to the number of stories one can weave around a popular theme.

However some subjects are still on the 'no' list for 99% of authors. Controversial issues such as warfare (including terrorism), politically 'hot' issues, or social issues that will date (such as stock market crashes, diseases etc) are generally discouraged. As markets shift different types of story become difficult to sell -- stories featuring artists, actors or sports stars have in the past been discouraged. Don't ask me why, they sound like perfectly interesting people to me and it's hard to buy the arguement that readers don't find 'hollywood' stories realistic when they're buying millionaire/sheik stories by the container-load. But I assume they don't sell.

That our heroes and heroines are moral, decent, likeable people is important regardless of what story they are packaged in. This is because as readers we want to be able to relate to our heroines and fall in love with our heroes.

The general consensus is that if the writer is skilled they can breach convention and possibly get away with it. But one non-negotiable rule is that the hero must not be 'unheroic' and the heroine in conventional romance should demonstrate positive values -- she might be a stripper to support her disabled child but never to support her drug habit. A hero may kill adult humans for a living (ie: a reformed assassin, a soldier) but if he kills fluffy animals it would not be well-received by contemporary readers. Romance Author Anne Gracie says that 'there's something important and valuable' that women are getting from fantasies involving scenarios of sexual dominance and so stories with extremely dominant males overpowering the woman sexually still appear commonly, although the kind of aggressive, forced sexual relations that might have typified romances in the 50s and 60s--where a forced context was a convenient way to get your characters together sexually in a cultural context of women who weren't sexually liberated--is a big no-no these days.

In the case of romance giant Harlequin Mills & Boon, they bundle these story 'types' together carefully under tightly marketed lines so a reader knows what kind of story they will get just by picking up the latest title in their favourite lines. If a reader likes dashing princes, brooding businessmen and arrogant Sheiks then they look for a Silhouette Desire or a Harlequin Presents. If they want a more true-to-life story with storylines more closely aligned with 'real world' and very emotionally intense storylines they migth look for a Harlequin Romance or a Silhouette Special Edition. For fuller sexual expression and hip story-lines they might look for a Harlequin Modern Heat or a Harlequin Blaze.

And since most journalists or speculators are drawn like moths to a flame to the more glamourous, exotic, fantastic lines (hey, just like readers!) their view of romance tends to be skewed heavily.