I have gone off reading violent thrillers or books where suspense is too high.

It gets downright vicious towards the end.
If by vicious you mean Bambi/Old Yeller style innocence-shattering pathos... spot on.

I can't do violence anymore. I used to love a good American gangster movie, or some Joe Abercrombie or tooth-splitting James Ellroy, but I can't stomach it anymore. I've especially had enough of genocidal superpowers, be it from the Man of Steel, Kuang's Poppy War, or Jemisin's Broken Earth. It's violence p**n.

I find myself seeking out more stories of people overcoming the easy desire for destruction in favor of the more difficult desire for building. I see it in (the original) Star Wars, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, The Color Purple, Tad Williams MS&T.

Tearing things down is easy and boring, despite the visceral adrenal thrill. Putting things together... that's a challenge worth embracing.

And if you don't want suspense. Tad is your man. His stories take their tiiiiiime...
 
I have been experimenting with different authors John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. I have also got Sir Walter Scott's journals to look forward to as well.
Another author I'm looking into is Thomas Merton, he wrote The Seven Storey Mountain.

I'm also studying Haiku poems.
 
I have been experimenting with different authors John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. I have also got Sir Walter Scott's journals to look forward to as well.
Another author I'm looking into is Thomas Merton, he wrote The Seven Storey Mountain.

I'm also studying Haiku poems.
haiku? my condolenses :) or are you planning seppuku?
 
If you can get hold of any Robert Neill - his tales of witchcraft aren't the most tense thrillers but they're really vivid, warm and beautiful to read. Sadly The Mist Over Pendle (and a modern edit at that) is the only one that's currently in print but others do come up. He's by far my favourite ever writer.
 
Thrillers are still not on my radar. And my anger is so much more controllable. Biographies seem to be popular with me.

If you want something unfailingly positive then look at Jane Yeadon - tales of Nursing in the Sixties and on a Highland Farm. Her work is realistic about hardships but has a great outlook on life.
 
As I start to enter a new year, I am trying to seek inspiration from the classics, modern and traditional.
One author I'm looking forward to reading is Charles Dickens.
I may revisit The Hobbit and The Earthsea Saga.
One non fiction book that has caught my eye is The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean.

Of course I am teaching myself Haiku from the traditionalists. Basho, Issa and Buson.

All in all I am starting to possess a calmness and stillness attitude away from anger. And to tell you the truth I am enjoying it.
 
Thrillers are still out of bounds for me. Although now I am hooked on romantic novels.
This has led me to think about writing romantic stories as they seem to be quite popular.
 
This has led me to think about writing romantic stories as they seem to be quite popular.

Yes but..... research the markets and subgenres carefully as there can be some very strict expectations and even rules. (OK everyone, no jokes about strict please, I couldn't think of a better word after I decided "firm" was right out.)

The top level bit is whether you just feel like writing something romantic in your own style, or whether you are looking for publication. The books range from erotica to angst, a lot include murder mystery, there frequently seem to be tea shops, coffee shops, cup cakes, looming, misunderstandings...... I too like some romance novels, include fantasy with romance, urban fantasy/witch with mysteries and romance, but some books drive me up the wall, screaming. (And not in a fun way.) Anyway, since you've been reading some I guess you will want to be writing like what you've read, so that is the obvious starting place. Just be aware of the very fine gradations in requirements, from how much nudity, how descriptive, whether it is happily ever after or not etc etc. You could write a lovely book and if it doesn't fall exactly in an expected category, you could have lots of trouble selling it.
 
Writing a good romantic novel is quite a talent. However, it can be a reasonable part time living even for those below mid-list. I learned my early writing skills in a chatroom with romance and erotic fiction writers, and they taught me an awful lot about the publishing industry. In terms of trends, marketing and technology, romance is usually years ahead of any other genre.

I can't do it - my males aren't alpha or I think the other is gamma enough and I don't always write a HEA/HFN ending.
 
I read a Barbara Cartland once, for the sake of it, and was nearly moved to violence by the experience.
I remember on Round the Horn they had Babara Cartload who when asked if it was true that she had written over 300 books replied that she had written one book over 300 times.
 
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien This is one the bizarre book ive ever read in my life. Im not quite sure what it was about but I could not stop reading it. This book grapples with the notions of comical eternal damnation and , is the world really usage shaped ?
 
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@Ian Fortytwo

Occurs to me you might like the new trend of Regency Romances with fantasy additions. The following more or less lack an alpha male structure. Kowal comes the closest as the main male character has a big personality and a lot of intensity about his magic, but not really alpha.

Mary Robinette Kowal was an early one, with her Lady Illusionist series which is a definite tribute to Jane Austen, with young ladies all being expected to be able to cast polite illusions.

Scales and Sensibility: A Regency Fantasy Rom-Com (Regency Dragons Book 1)
by Stephanie Burgis

Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons) (A Miss Percy Guide Book 1)
Quenby Olson
I'm currently reading the last of these and it is amusing and no alpha-ing going on.
 

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