Most Romance Novels
are written
to be read at,
the minimum,
two levels.
The first level
is shallow.
And it is often the level
critics of Romance Novels
read at.
This is the bare bones plot.
The main character meets
the love interest.
The couple (or more) overcomes
a dark moment.
The couple (or more) changes enough
during that dark moment
to build a lasting love.
Some readers stop
reading
at this level.
They don’t ‘see’
anything else.
The second level
is where the theme
or the meaning of the story
resides.
For example,
I write mostly about tolerance.
I write about the ‘isms.
I’ve written about genocide
(yes, in a Romance Novel)
and about fascism.
But I write it in a way
that readers who don’t want
to ‘see’ the message
don’t have to ‘see’ it.
(This is especially important
now
when many readers
want the top level
and can’t mentally handle
the deeper meanings.)
The ability to write a story
at these two levels
well
sets aside an experienced writer
from a less skilled writer.
It is dang difficult.
But it is one of the reasons
Romance Novels
are so popular.
“If we only forward
the easy, short
and funny things
we read online,
why are we surprised that
our inbox is filled
with nothing
we’ll remember tomorrow?
What would happened if
instead, we shared the most complex,
useful and thoughtful things
we discovered instead?”
My counter to this is
–why don’t content builders
offer BOTH in one meme
or story
or commercial?
We don’t have to choose
between
simple
and complex,
entertaining
and
educational.
We can offer both.