Reading Books

In my bid to see what excites me about Mills&Boon books, and to find out what works and what doesn't, I've been on a marathon read. Most of the books I've been reading have been borrowed from the library, some have been bought new and others have been found at my local Oxfam shop.

I really recommend Oxfam to other writers - it's the only way to find books that may go back a few years, at a low cost (usually between 59p and 99p a book, though I managed to get some books recently published for just 39p). If you are going to read several hundred (or even thousand) books, it's the only way to keep down the cost.

Most of the Mills&Boon books in Oxfam tend to be recent novels - clearly some people simply buy them every month, read them and then donate to Oxfam. Occasionally you get books from years back - I recently came upon a whole stash of Charlotte Lamb books from the 80's and early 90's. My God she was a good writer! - economical, direct, a real gift for describing tension between men and women, and you never feel jarred or bored as sometimes happens with writers who arn't of her calibre. In my opinion her level of craft is better than that in some of current authors. I just wish Mills&Boon would republish some of her best work.

I also came across some early Helen Bianchin books. A confession - I first read Helen Bianchin as a teenager, when I happened on some romances my mother had borrowed from the library. At the time (early 80's) they didn't often have what were then termed "bedroom scenes" in romances - but Helen Bianchin's books were an exception, she practically invented what eventually became the Presents genre. And as a 13-year-old, of course I avidly read these books to read the sex scenes! On re-reading them, I was struck by how good her early books were. She's deteriorated over time, with her recent books becoming cliched and formulaic and the language a little over-done (she likes to use complex words, but doesn't always use them correctly, and of course this interupts the process of reading, as you stop to think, that's not right, did she really mean to say that?). However the early books have none of these problems. They are written with minimal cliche and showcases her best strength, describing sex with real sensuality.

It led me to wonder whether the pressure to churn out x amount of books year in year out starts to dull the writer's ability to see things from the readers point of view. Or maybe some years you are in the zone, but other years you are not. I defeinitely think that when you are in the zone, you should write as much as possible, so you have material ready for the lean times, as the creative energy always fades, and there is nothing worse than trying to write when you are off your game.