Saturday, January 13, 2007

Chick lit in The Times

For years we have read the Times every day, a compromise on marriage between an occasional Guardian reader (me) and a die hard Thatcherite (him, though he has since recovered). The books section, to be honest, tends to be rather dry and I prefer the Review section of the Guardian.

Imagine my surprise when I opened it up this morning and found a two page spread on how to write chick lit, with quotes from writers and a substantial excerpt from 'See Jane Write', the very book I picked up from the Oxfam shop on Tuesday!

To be fair, I am still not intending to write chick lit, I'm much more interested in fiction for a slightly older market ( hen lit perhaps?), but I do think you can pick up tips from all sorts of these 'how to' books as you find your way towards establishing your own voice and themes. At the end of the day I don't think the 'rules' for good writing really change, it is just the way that they are applied in any particular genre and of course the skill of the writer.

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