If you intend to write comedic fiction, then you better make it funny. If you intend to write women's fiction, then you better make it dramatically poignant to most women. If you intend to write an espionage thriller, you had better be equipped with valid inside sources.
The point here being if you're intending to write a story, you better make it authentic. If you fail to do that within your genre of choice - or meshed genres - you will not have accomplished the primary purpose of telling the story.
What prompted this post was I needed something "lighter" after reading and meditating on Chris Kyle's American Sniper and his tragic murder. Darkness and sorrow seem to cover over the USA in recent years.
So I picked a novel I knew would not normally entice me, but I got it for my Kindle anyway because the author is a Washingtonian. While the book could be classified in the romance genre, for me it's more like chick-lit which is not by any stretch a favored genre for me. I'm over halfway done with the book, and I had to decide whether or not to continue. When I examined my reasoning, I realized the intent of the story was to take a lighter look at a conflicted relationship which, of course, the two people involved both assume could never be anything but a somewhat difficult friendship due to their history.
Both hero's and heroine's viewpoints permeate the pages with occasional humorous and awkward moments, their stubborn personalities, and their remembrances of personal pain. And, although I might have hoped for a more meaningful story because that's what I prefer, I figured out this book's intent had been accomplished. Therefore, criticizing it would be a waste of time and prove to be unfair. I think that's important when assessing what we read. Giving it a negative review when it's done what it set out to do tells readers more about the reviewer than it does the story.
It should always be about the story and how that story is told.
Figure out your intentions and then go accomplish them.
Father, thank you for helping us understand our motives and directing our steps toward accomplishing our goals. Thank you for inspiration and perseverance. Thank you for always being what we need. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.