Considering that I haven't finished my first story yet, I would say all genres ^^ I doubt I would be able to write good romance, crime and comedic novels though.
Is romantic dialogue different from other dialogue? I mean, I can totally accept that some people don't enjoy writing in certain genres, but good dialogue, I think, is a relatively universal skill in general writing. I could be wrong, though.
I think he means the kind of dialogue specific to romance, namely, dialogue of this sort: "Oh, Theresa, your hair is so luscious! May I kiss it?" "Please do, Milton," she whispered, giving him a vigorous back-rub, "Oh, what muscles you have!" "Nothing to compare with your lips, my dear. So soft and sensuous. And your eyes! It is as if they were born of starlight!" Anyway, that sort of thing. I don't read romance, so I don't know whether that's representative, but that's what I think of when I hear "romantic dialogue."
I mean, I get that, but that's not "romantic dialogue." That's just poorly written dialogue. Good dialogue isn't genre specific, nor dialogue for that matter. EDIT: I don't read much romance, and I certainly don't write it, but I can pretty confidently say that your example is just poor dialogue, not romantic dialogue. And I don't mean that as an attack on you. I know it was just an example of what came to mind when you read the term "romantic dialogue." My argument is that there's no such thing as romance specific dialogue.
Twas the whistling of the BayBombs that awoke me from my slumber... that and the cursed colony of woodpeckers hammering about the forest.
Yeah, I can honestly say that even in my writing infancy, I've never written anything that resembled the example of dialogue above. For me the key to good dialogue is to write it based on my observation and experience with how people actually talk to each other, and no one I know talks to their romantic partner like that. On the original topic, I'm sure I would be awful at writing fantasy, sci-fi or YA. Luckily I have no desire to write in any of those genres, so no one will every have proof of how much I would suck at it.
In fairness, I think there is bad romance out there that does have all of those horrible cliches and sloppy gooey stuff. The same way there's a lot of bad Fantasy like Eragon. It's just they get publicised quite a lot sometimes and interfere with what's good about the genre
And I would assume that if someone came in here and talked about "Fantasy characterization" or whatever based on having read Eragon, the fantasy writers on the board would set the person straight. Maybe even some non-fantasy writers would speak up...
Ooey Gooey Rom? WHAT?! While admittedly I have a limited exposure to that niche genre, I can't say it was as you put it. But you must understand that every genres has its 'cliches' and 'tropes' that are quite common. and we like to poke fun at all of them regardless if it is in one we love or one we do not. So whether you like it or not you have to have at least some basis for what ever it is you are talking about. Are there books written poorly or are in poor taste to a particular genres? Sure. While I have not read Eragon (Not the biggest fan of Fantasy), I wouldn't say that all Fantasy is bad based upon my lack of enjoyment from it. Likewise when it comes to Rom. 50 Shades is a bad rep. to Rom as a genres in many ways, but it is not something that I would say makes Rom as a whole bad. As a Sci-Fi wingnut, I absolutely like poking fun at people who love the laser guns thing. Even though it sounds all futuristic and shit, the reality is in a space battle the two parties would be doing little more than push eachother away from one another, instead of causing any real damage. So to circle back around to where this all started off at. There are books that we will find bad or in poor taste being promoted over something written much better with a much better overall story. What I guess this whole thing is going for is, if you don't like it you don't have to read it. Not every award winning book is going to be a masterpiece loved by all. To conclude, just because you only see the 'bad' stuff getting all the praise, doesn't mean that there is not any good in a given genres (whether you read that particular one or not). And Rom is not ooey gooey (and I have read a few, to support that fact. Little bit on the outskirts of my normal reading habits but not anything as you put it.)
I like to think I could write anything with enough time and dedication - or at the least would certainly try. It all really depends on what the idea or character that reaches out and grabs me, ya know? I mostly drift towards drama, fantasy, horror, and crime. I'd never be opposed to writing romance or anything else, though or something with a more YA bent or historical fiction in some form or science fiction.
Which is fair enough -- I picked Eragon because I thought it was so terrible yet nonetheless it is very popular and well known. Someone who knows about the Romance genre like yourself will naturally have a more educated view than someone who has only read Fifty Shades of Grey (which probably falls more into Erotica) but just as Eragon is filled with stereotypes such as Elves and Dwarves there are many Romance books filled with insufferable dialogue and over the top language. I think actually this is a fair and relevant point to make because we're not talking about an anomaly but a trend that crops up from time to time in the genre. There are some great Romance books out there but I wouldn't blame someone who said they're sick of Fantasy for instance because of the number of dragons bombarding those books. Course, there are many good fantasy books that don't have this problem, but you know, such a saturated genre is bound to have a lot of bad in it too. So my point does stretch a lot further than just Eragon, but that is a good example of bad writing and cheesy / tedious portrayals. I do think I have some basis. In fairness to me I wasn't saying it's all black and white and making a statement that all Romance books are bad. I was just acknowledging the post from earlier that posted a parody of the genre and I wanted to clarify that there is some relevance and reason behind this interpretation. There are a fair share of poorly written books in the Romance genre and as you say with its tropes and cliches, but it's also at times rife with oversentimental, sloppy stuff that feels forced or adolescent/angsty and without any genuine emotion that reflects life. If that last point seems unfair then I apologise but I am fairly confident that this can be the case. I'm not disregarding all of the good books in that genre I'm just comparing it to Fantasy because these stereotypes do have power and can muddy our understanding of the genre. Also, this article does support the 'gooey' point: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/romance-novel-phrases_n_7545244.html (I am not saying this applies to all Romance and never did, just to add ) Yeah sure. I won't include Twilight but that's got to be on there. Firelight is one example of gooey stuff, by 'gooey' I mean anything that makes you roll your eyes and sigh. I was using that word flippantly but it's all in good fun. Love Comes Silently is another one that I found hard to read and didn't like. Maharaja’s Mistress. Desire's Bride. Beautiful Disaster. (Quote from this: "He oozed sex and rebelliousness with his buzzed, brown hair and tattooed forearms.") Also the book Thoughtless. My post was fairly lighthearted so I'm not trying to shoot down the Romance genre. I don't read that many books from Romance but I have read some. I did really enjoy a Song of Achilles, which could be seen as a Romance. Plus, I always found The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass to be heavily focused on romance and I loved that book and all of the love scenes in it. I just think there's a valid case when people make fun of the genre for being angsty or overbearing or even 'gooey' or over the top drama. But there's also plenty of mature Romance books about love and I like those and I'm sure they're the books you all like. I used to enjoy Jane Austen at University and I am a sucker for any love story.
Half the ones you mentioned aren't romances and the other half are pretty obscure. I don't think this makes for a "valid case" about the genre. Of course there are bad romance books out there. But to deny that romance gets disproportionately derided - and mostly from people who aren't familiar with the genre - is silly.
