Current Project: Leg Shaving Leads to Trouble
Status: Rewrites
I've got swine flu on the brain. Thankfully that's not literally. It's been the focus of my job for nearly a week - practically eating, drinking and sleeping all things swine flu related. It got me thinking about writing, specifically about incorporating major real life issues into our writing.
I remember that after 9/11 - I wasn't involved in romance writing at that point, but people still talk about how publishers didn't want terror-related suspense plots for a while. But then there seemed to be a surge of them released, as if it was finally okay to open the flood gates.
Do you ever wonder what other issues will take their place in writing? I wonder if epidemics, mass scare of a virus, things like that have their place (on a major scale) in romance novels. Do you think we'll see a rash of plots with pandemic scares? I find it interesting to see how authors interpret those events for their own books.
Have you incorporated any major issues into your writing? On a general scale, what is your feeling on reading those? Sorry to keep it short, but it's work work work time! People are meeting today to determine if Western is going to be closed further, so it will be a few hours until I pop back on for comments.
7 comments:
Lisa -- Mainstream and mysteries have been covering the pandemic scare for years in books such as "Pandora's Box" and others whose names I can't recall. The film "Outbreak" was made at least twenty years ago. So romance? Sure, why not, I bet there are even books out there that have touched on it (determined scientist heroine trying to convince the powers that be an epidemic is afoot...)
Ir's weird that you've been so immersed in the Swine Flu thing while I've have had nothing to do with it. And it seems to me it's following the recent patterns -- outbreak, media blitz, fear, stepping back -- oh, it's not that bad afterall. I just read that last part in the newspaper this weekend.
Hope this week is calmer for you!
Outbreak was 20 yrs ago? NO WAY. Alice you're making me feel oooooooold.
Okay...just went and checked. Outbreak was made in 1995. I knew I couldn't be THAT old! That's only 14 yrs ago.
I was thinking of you this morning, Lisa, and wondering how things were going over there.
As for writing...STOLEN HEAT has a terrorist element to it. I didn't consciously set out to write a plot around terrorism, it just happened. I am fascinated by real-world events though, so I'll never rule anything out. I think part of what makes fiction so fun to read is the possibility that, 'okay, it sounds far-fetched, but it COULD happen this way!'
Interesting post, Lisa. I think real life issues are a common plot element in all fiction, romance included. In my DESERT GUARDIAN, the plot was based on the Heaven's Gate tragedy. I enjoy taking tragic elements from true events. Even in fantasy and science fiction, it's quite common. The world I created for MYSTIC TAXI has a strong racial theme running through it.
Interesting topic, Lisa. It wasn't that long ago that the Avian Flu was what everyone was talking about and large corporations were required to create plans for dealing with the pandemic when it hit (my company was no exception). What about SARS a few years before that? This isn't new territory, but it's new today. I think anything that has the potential for drama or tragedy is fair game and that includes ideas "ripped from today's headlines."
Ah, Elisabeth, I had to laugh at your feeling oooooold comment. The first example that came to my mind wasn't Outbreak, but Stephen King's The Stand, which started off with the release of a deadly man-made pathogen--originally published in 1978! I read it when it first came out. ;-)
Alice, thank you! It's been pretty crazy. It's been a crazy year altogether at work. Lots of stuff going on.
Eli, LOL! I swear I'll be on IM soon. It's been quite a ride :) And I agree with you about the far-fetched bit. If it's pulled off well and made to sound believable (to a degree) it can be very exciting. I read a book recently that was a paranormal that just wasn't executed well and I couldn't buy in to it at all.
Karen, I really like to see how people take real events and incorporate them into their stories. Sort of like the writing exercises where several people are given the same prompt to see how others think.
Debbie, I've been thinking about sars too. I wonder how our Chinese international students on campus are reacting to the whole thing. I never gave a second thought to avian flu, but it never really hit campus. Funny how the exposure levels are different for everyone.
Lisa, hope things have settled down for you. I surfaced long enough the other day to read an article in the paper quoting you and also quoting another PR person I know. Sent you empathy vibes--hope you felt them through all the craziness of your current work! Then I promptly crawled back into my cave where no kind of flu or illness exists.
Sure, I think current events can work in romances. I use child abuse, domestic violence and other traumatic events in my stories. I just have to be careful because what sometimes happens in real cases doesn't sound believable enough for fiction. :)
With my historicals I use events- bank robberies, diptheria outbreaks that happened at the time in the areas. And in my contemporaries I use more personal crisis- like miscarriages, sexual abuse, and handicaps.
I'm not a terrorist/plague person. I don't like reading books or watching movies about those things.
Hope your week is ending better than it started, Lisa!
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