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During the interview, Hazelwood discussed how writing fanfiction is different from writing a book \u201cfrom scratch,\u201d stating that fanfiction is \u201cmostly about the characters and their interactions, so you don’t need to have a story with a first, second, and third act, and the beats, and character arcs.\u201d It was this difference in approach that caused her to struggle with her second book, since she had no existing media to jump off of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So how did she approach the issue of writing \u201cfrom scratch?\u201d Hazelwood said that she dedicated a lot of time to reading craft books and studying her favorite romance novels, figuring out what made the work tick and how to replicate that feeling. This is a pretty common approach to writing, as it\u2019s very rare to find an author that doesn\u2019t read anything within the genre they write. Not everyone can sit down and create an entirely new genre for fun (looking at you, Mary Shelley). For most of us, half of writing is reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What drove criticism from the literary community was Hazelwood\u2019s following statement: \u201cI kind of didn’t even know where to start, and my agent guided me a lot. […] She gave me a bunch of tropes that she wanted me to build the story around, which was really, really helpful because I am very indecisive and had no idea what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While we can all relate to having a little writer\u2019s block and needing advice from those with more experience, the idea of a bestselling author writing a book based on a list of tropes they were spoon-fed by their agent can seem unconventional, to say the least. This prompted an ensuing discussion surrounding the tropeification of literature and privilege within the publishing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The romance genre is well-known for relying on tropes, both in the writing and the marketing aspects of its books. Booktok\u2014one of the most influential consumer bases nowadays\u2014also relies heavily on tropes to recommend books, often including only the title, star rating, and tropes of any given book in a recommendation video. This means that when it comes to selling books, making a clever and evident use of tropes is essential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key here lies in clever<\/em>. While there are many readers who don\u2019t mind reading the same trope over and over again (myself included), there is an expectation that the author will put in the work in other aspects of the story. If the plot is predictable, then the characters had better be interesting. Good characterization, proper pacing, and an engaging writing style are essential; the work cannot stand on its own if it\u2019s built solely on tropes and nothing else of substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And reducing genre fiction\u2014such as romance\u2014to tropes is doing it a disservice. The romance genre is so oversaturated and its premises so few that a romance book basically has to reinvent the wheel in order to gain any recognition outside\u2014or even within\u2014the readers of the genre. Although, at times, it may feel like there is no such thing as an original love story, it takes skill to write one that makes the reader feel the emotional stakes in the narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the latest push towards reducing romance to a handful of tropes means that books like Hazelwood\u2019s don\u2019t particularly need to be well-written to be successful\u2014they just need to use a trope that TikTok is interested in, and pray for good luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding Hazelwood\u2019s writing, Kate from the book club Bitch Bookshelf<\/em><\/a> <\/em>said: <\/em>\u201cAs much as I enjoy Hazelwood\u2019s works, it\u2019s because they appeal to the tropes and topics that interest me as a reader. They are, as a whole, fairly mediocre, bringing nothing new to the romance genre. Sure, there\u2019s always a feminist, STEM spin\u2014but we\u2019ve seen that in other works.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n Many readers seem to tire of publishing\u2019s current approach to writing and tropes, but it is undeniable that these books are very successful, and for the most part, very well-loved. The Love Hypothesis <\/em>has a 4.28\/5 rating on Goodreads and a similar score on Storygraph. It is a New York Times<\/em> best seller. Who cares if the writing is a little bland and the characters unoriginal? It\u2019s clearly what people want to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now it feels like we\u2019re doing a disservice to the readers, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without getting too deep into the argument of literature as an art versus literature as a marketable product, there is another issue that Hazelwood\u2019s statement brought to light:\u201cIt is more than okay that Hazelwood, a white woman, has taken on guidance from those she works with to write her novels, but has the same grace been granted to BIPOC authors looking to break into the industry?\u201d asked Kate from Bitch Bookshelf.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Booktok\u2019s success currently drives a great number of book sales, but it is more of a gamble than a science; it is very hard to predict when a book might become Booktok famous. Even before TikTok, authors might not have their breakthrough title until they have had multiple published titles under their belt\u2014most likely with a couple unpublished manuscripts\u2019 worth of experience too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering how white the publishing industry is<\/a>, it\u2019s worth asking whose mediocrity gets rewarded in publishing. Who gets to write a book that is an insubstantial agglomeration of tropes without their ability as a writer being brought into question? Whose perspective tends to blow up on Tiktok? (Unsurprisingly, a white<\/a> perspective too<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope that, as I write more and more, I’ll become a little bit more independent and I won\u2019t have to harass people, but, as of right now, I’m still at a phase in my writing where I really need a lot of help and a lot of guidance. I definitely need all of the hand-holding that I can get!\u201d said Hazelwood. This handholding is a privilege that not many BIPOC authors are afforded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also the matter of trend cycles and profitability in publishing. Hazelwood\u2019s agent clearly wanted to capitalize on the momentum that her debut amassed, but pushing a debuting author to write more than they are able to seems like a great way to constrain their growth as a writer. I wonder what Hazelwood\u2019s original concepts would have looked like had she been allowed to develop her craft without the pressure to ride on the coattails of her past success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hazelwood\u2019s interview had the misfortune of highlighting many aspects of publishing that warrant criticism. While I feel bad that she got caught in the crossfire, I do think that these conversations need to happen. Publishing seems to keep moving into the realm of profitability over art: what used to be an industry where breaking even was considered enough is quickly becoming more concerned with maximizing profit rather than with creating cultural materials. This process is leaving both publishers and authors behind as wages and advances stagnate, and marginalized voices get pushed to the bottom of the priority list while everyone is busy renegotiating film rights on the new Booktok hit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ana Garcia-Cubas Assemat \/\/ Blog Writer In an interview with Goodreads, neuroscientist and romance author Ali Hazelwood confessed that she struggled to write her second book, which followed the debut…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2807,"featured_media":2218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-publishing","category-about-reading","category-about-writing","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2807"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2222,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217\/revisions\/2222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2022\/10\/s-l500.jpg\")