What Does It Mean to Write Women’s Fiction?
A female writer’s musings on the challenges of an imposed niche
I wrote my first novel when I was 19. It was a mess, as any first novel should be, but it was that novel that introduced me to a character who has been with me ever since. We’ll call her Mary.
She was a background character in that first book, one who died at the end. It was all so melodramatic. Looking back, I can see I used her as a way to manipulate the plot, to force another character into a completion of his own emotional journey.
I knew, as soon as I wrote the last words of the last chapter, that she deserved better. In fact, I realized she was the most interesting character in the entire novel.
So I did what any writer devoted to their craft would do: I wrote another version of that novel, centering Mary and her story. (Take note: She didn’t die in this version.)
Yet again, I found that something was off. It was too overwrought. Too melancholy. Too…something I couldn’t put my finger on.
I took a break and wrote another novel — a simple, straightforward detective novel, along with the beginning chapters of two sequels. I hated those, too.
