Outside the comfort zone

So I've given my self the hardest writing task I possibly could. I've decide to write a romantic fiction. Why? About two week ago I came across this random fact that 50 shades of grey had been read more than Harry Potter. Well, that was the last straw in my ever growing irritation of what romance was in writings of Tennyson, Wordsworth, Allen Poe, and countless others, versus what it is with Stephanie Myers and E. L. James. Now I'm that person whose all for write whatever you want to express. I have not the least bit problem with them being published or read. My problem is with pop culture turning such writings into literature. That's like a slap in the face to the literary geniuses of past 20 centuries!

I've read twilight series, but I've refused to touch 50 shades. In retrospect, twilight almost seems worthy of considering as literature. As books, I'm good with existence and acknowledgement of all books. When I dislike something a book presents, it's not my wish that the books didn't exist, I'm more for such thoughts, and whatever they originated from, didn't exist. But not all books, not all poems, not all stories are literature.

I had a sketch that went with this one, but this pic from my childhood, captures the frustration of both - down fall of literature and embarking on this impossible task. When I thought of using it for this blog, I couldn't stop Laughing.  

I'm a writer. I write things by the dozen every week, but most of it, I would never qualify as literature. Like this blog, it's not about good literary or academic writing, it's just raw thoughts as they come, minimally edited. This is more of passionate writing than literary. I've written things with literary and academic value, as few as they might be as of now, but even only as a reader, I know the difference.   

Hence, my annoyance with what of late has been considered 'good books' and far worse - literature. Now writing a romance that fits in with the style of romantic era, would be easy. It'd be a whole lot of work, but still what I consider easy (I define easy as not the ease of doing the work but ease of willingness to do said work).  But romantic fiction, creating two fictional characters and making them fall in love, is to me, hard.

There is not much that is out of my comfort zone, but this most certainly is. If I were to describe my comfort zone in physical terms, its like I'm the same tiny human I am, but my comfort zone spreads along the ozone layer, and this decision of mine is like creating the hole in it. The thing is as a writer, even in fiction, I've always kept the principle of writing from experience. Now, on love, the general emotion, I have a better grasp than most. But of falling in love in sense of romance, well I've been raking about all my friends dating life, which is a first. Generally the rule there is, unless it's serious and you may get married, I don't wanna know. 

We'll see where this gets me. Although as a result, I've read a bunch of classics and contemporary romantic fictions for research. All that I would happily qualify as literary excellence. I've half a mind of just constructing a good reading list of Romantic fictions and calling it quits, but I'm horrible at giving up. I'm certain I'll give myself nightmares by giving up, although not giving up may reek havoc with my dreams anyway.