ChickLit can a tough genre to define!
The CBC came into existence after a group of us ChickLit writers connected over on the ChickLit club thread (if you're interested, it's pinned to the top of the 'General Fiction' club).
Early on we had some discussion about what the genre of ChickLit (CL) meant (and how much most of us hated the term – but that's another story!).
Ara and Lucy agree that first and foremost, CL is about women, which 99% of the time means a female main character.
A lot of the time CL can be lumped in with Romance, but the truth is that romantic plots are more of a tool for CL stories, and there are plenty of CL stories where romance is non-existent or only a minor sub-plot. We say this, because CL is about women, and women are so much more than love stories (although they are awesome and there is no shame in loving love!).
Heroines in Romance are often depicted as kind of just waiting for love *cough*lust*cough* to fall into their laps, which it does, and the story is about them trying to figure out whether to pursue the relationship or not (or waiting around while the love interest does).
Heroines in ChickLit perhaps are waiting for love too, but they are also living lives full of bittersweet complexity; responsibilities, consequences, choices, multi-faceted relationships, fears and scars that run deeper than they'll ever know (or you'll ever write about), learning how to be themselves and, more importantly, wanting to learn and know (eventually). The hot piece is either a minor subplot, or just a tool for these greater themes to be explored.
CL is about women doing life; juggling stress and routine with relationships, and trying to pinpoint and realise their own identity, their own goals and dreams.
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What do you think?
Do you agree with this definition of ChickLit?
If you disagree, how would you change or improve our definition of the genre?
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CBC: The Little Book of Red Tape (a.k.a. The Rule Book)
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