What exactly is chick-lit?

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t all about shoes. Or clothes. Or purses. Yes, some chick-lit characters enjoy their fashion collections, but if an interest in designers’ names is what made you look for advice here, maybe you should grab Vogue instead. Chick-lit is also not all about getting a guy. Love may be a happy diversion, or a painful pothole, but the chick-lit story is about the main character’s path to self-discovery. Although there’s usually a satisfying and uplitfing conclusion, the ending is more about hope for the future than snagging Mr Right.

So if it’s not about shoes and guys, then what exactly is it? Well, chick-lit is often upbeat, always funny fiction about contemporary female characters and their everyday struggles with work, home, friendship, family or love. It’s about women growing up and figuring out who they are and what they need, versus what they think they want. It’s about observing life and finding the humour in a variety of situations, exchanges and people. It’s about coming of age (no matter how old the woman is — chick-lit heroines can be anywhere from teenaged to beyond middle-aged). It’s generally written by women for women. It’s honest, it reflects women’s lives today — their hopes and dreams as well as their trials and tribulations — and, well, it’s hugely popular. But you already knew all that, right?

Creating your main character

The single most important element of your chick-lit novel is your main character. What readers love about chick-lit is that the heroine is them — but with more attitude, more courage, or maybe just more shoes.

She is Everywoman, with quirks and problems that are believable yet larger than life. She’s confident yet insecure. Smart but naive. Loveable yet flawed. How you create her will depend largely on who you are and whom you’ve come into contact with in your life.

Like you but funnier

If you're comfortable writing autobiographical fiction, well, writing in the first person plus honesty basically gives you your main character — you. It helps if you’re funny and interesting and willing to humiliate yourself.
— Sarah Dunn, author of The Big Love

Most authors admit that although they’re not always consciously creating their protagonists in their image, sometimes they can’t help it. There’s a little bit of them in their main characters (or even their secondary characters), and that’s just the way it is. Nothing to be ashamed of. ()

But try to remember: you’re writing fiction. Of course, you’re going to draw on what you know and who you are; but don’t be afraid to veer off in a direction that’s completely unlike you. You and your main character could share some qualities, but she doesn’t have to be you.

Listen to your character

We can’t stress this enough: Don’t force your character to behave a certain way simply because that’s what you need her to do to make the story move from point A to point Hopeful Ending. If it doesn’t feel true, you may need to rework that particular plot point.

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