Writing in Style: Chick Lit

Realistic and Humorous Tone Resonates with Readers

You’ve probably seen the pink books or covers with stylized female characters stacked on the endcaps and strewn across tables in your local retail bookstore. Many of these titles are dubbed “chick lit,” a fun and often personal genre targeted toward modern women who want an infusion of pop culture and everyday ordeals in their literature. Though some critics are quick to dismiss chick lit as a fad, many women continue to identify with the heroines of this popular genre. The Devil Wears Prada spent six months on the New York Times Best seller list and sold over a million copies before becoming a major motion picture in 2006.

The genre was launched ten years ago with the success of Bridget Jones’s Diary, a novel about a woman in modern London who is dealing with the issues associated with being a single thirty-something: work, family and romance. The genre has included novels such as Sex in the City, which was adapted to a popular TV show and The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which has become a Francis Ford Coppola film project. But what is it, exactly, that separates chick lit writing from mainstream women’s literature?

The Debate between Plot and Tone

Critics dismiss the chick lit genre as formulaic and contrived. The authors of This is Not Chick Lit, an anthology of stories by women writers, dismisses the plot of every chick lit novel as, “Girl in big city desperately searches for Mr. Right in between dieting and shopping for shoes. Girl gets dumped (sometimes repeatedly). Girl finds Prince Charming.” The editors of the anthology also remind their readers that “for every stock protagonist with a designer handbag and three boyfriends, there is a woman writer pushing the envelope of literary fiction with imagination, humor, and depth.”

Those who read and enjoy chick lit’s offerings argue that the difference is largely in the tone of the writing, not the events of the plot. Chick lit, they say, refuses to take itself too seriously and therefore the writing can humorously explore relationships and situations as they appear in modern life. “It’s like having a best friend tell you about her life,” Chicklitbooks.com explains. “Or watching various characters go through things you have gone through yourself, or witnessed others going through.” Readers that have been turned off by traditional literary fiction are invited back to indulge in realist fiction directly related to their lives.

Expanding the Genre to Stay Modern

The world has changed drastically over the last decade, and chick lit has evolved along with it. More recently its writers have delved in and explored the issues of race, religion, sexuality, values and gender roles at home and at the office. In a March 2006 New York Times story on Chick lit, Rachel Donadio noted, “Sometimes dismissed as a marketing ploy, Western cultural imperialism or a throwback to pre-feminism, chick lit is proving an extremely adaptable genre, one that has tapped into larger social shifts in places like India and post-Communist Eastern Europe, where traditional values collide in unexpected ways with a new economic order.” Though chick lit may have originally relied on pink covers and stereotypes, in the last few years it has been exploring new territory.

Lindsay Moss, author of You Made This Drink, You Drink It set out to write a book based on real life experiences. In the book, Lexxie Parker is a dancer who has struggled to swim upstream of her family's dirty little alcoholic secret for her entire life. Barely making it to the end of her twenties with her sanity and humor somewhat intact, she's faced with the ultimate challenge: Planning the wedding of her dreams with the Queen of Lunacy--her mother. “My work is relatable and identifiable. I think that’s why it resonates with readers,” says Moss.

Moss has received positive reviews from readers and the media alike, and credits her success to the reader’s ability to her honest and direct writing style. “Women are very honest, especially when they discuss their own lives. They want an honest ‘no beating around the bush’ story,” says Moss. “People don’t always want to admit the dysfunction in their lives, but I’ve embraced it.” Though You Made This Drink, You Drink It may not fit in the original chick lit mold, it exemplifies the expanding genre. “I’ve had many men who told me they enjoyed the book,” Moss continues, “They say ‘It’s a pink book, but it’s not a pink read.”

Is Moss’ future representative the future of the genre? She has just finished adapting You Made This Drink, You Drink It into a screenplay, and has been working with a Hollywood producer to get the project to the big screen. With the genre and Moss’ adaptability, honesty, and realistic approach to writing about modern life, both appear to be built to last.

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