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Category: Writing

Posts in which we talk about the writing craft and process

Far-fetched Plots and Giveaway

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In my mess-in-progress, the hero is a gentleman by birth and by virtue of having been an army officer, but he takes up ballooning as a business, not just a hobby. I haven’t found any historical examples of anyone like him, but I have come up with what I hope is a decent explanation for why he takes up flying.

A lot of stories might not see the light of day if the authors worried too much about plausibility. Chicks-in-pants is one of those plot themes. Although there are some historical examples of women who pulled off pretending to be men… And it worked for Shakespeare, so why not?

12thnight

One of my other more unlikely plots was in The Redwyck Charm, which I recently re-released in paperback. The heroine tries to escape an arranged marriage by masquerading as an opera-dancer. Silly, yes, but it was fun to write and is a favorite with my readers who say they like lighter stories. The idea came to me when I read this passage in The Mirror of Graces (an etiquette book of sorts published in 1811):

Extraordinary as it may seem, at a period when dancing is so entirely neglected by men in general, women appear to be taking the most pains to acquire the art. Our female youth are now not satisfied with what used to be considered a good dancing-master; that is, one who made teaching his sole profession; but now our girls must be taught by the leading dancers at the Opera-house.

 

I found it interesting that young ladies might have learned some elements of ballet. The author goes on to say that no gentlewoman could take the time and effort to develop true proficiency. Though I tend to agree, I don’t pretend that my heroine is more than a half-way decent amateur, getting by more because she’s a big hit with the young bucks who go to the opera to ogle the dancers.

greenroomHow do you feel about far-fetched plots? Any favorite examples that worked (or didn’t)?

I’ll give away one copy of The Redwyck Charm to a random commenter.  Comment by next Thursday (2/14) and I will announce the winner on Friday.

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

 

rednewth

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged | 11 Replies

With my body I thee worship…

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Last Sunday at church the sermon topic was “Sex and Attraction: An Embodied Spirituality.” (I go to a really cool church.) The minister made the point that religion has sometimes, though not always, created this duality of “spirit=divine and therefore good/body=beastly and therefore evil”. A lot of our culture has embraced this duality, along with the implication that what is good must be boring and what is fun must be evil. It ignores the intimate connection between the spiritual and the physical. Love as an abstract concept doesn’t mean much; it needs to be expressed through the physical: smiles, words, loving acts, including sex.
I think most romance authors understand this body-and-soul thing. But I have heard some authors of so-called “sweet” romance imply that their books are about the relationship and that the so-called “hot” books are “only” about sex. I don’t think so. The hottest erotic romances I’ve read are the ones with strong emotions driving the characters. The most moving “sweet” romances I’ve read are those where the author used the power of simple things like a smoldering gaze, the touch of a hand.
An erotic romance I read a few years ago bombed for me. The characters were so generic and the situation so contrived that it felt as silly as Benny Hill. On the other extreme, I’ve read several inspirational romances which were so careful to avoid not only the act of sex, but any hint of sexuality, that it felt unnatural. I don’t need to always read about sex and stories shouldn’t go further than makes sense for the characters and their situation. But if it’s a romance, I want to feel the sexual attraction, even if it’s expressed in subtle ways. If they kiss, let them enjoy it!
The other thing I’ve been ambivalent about is the fade-out, where the h/h start making love and the next thing we know they are smiling at each other over breakfast. I don’t think authors have to make a scene of it every time the hero and heroine make love. But if it’s the first time or at a turning point in their relationship, it feels like I missed something.
Anyway, what do you think? Does the dichotomy of “sweet” vs “hot” ever bother you? How do you feel about fade-outs? Who does “body and soul” best?
Elena
Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged , | 7 Replies

Sleep On It

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Inspiration comes from so many places.

Mother’s Day is tomorrow, and as usual, what I want for Mother’s Day can be summed up in one word:
Sleep.

Now, I know I can be a bit…obsessed about getting more sleep. I never get enough, and I always want more. But there’s more to it than that: I’ve found that I am able to work things out while I sleep, which means that when I am stuck in terms of writing, I take a bath and then a nap, and usually the answer comes to me while I am unconscious.

My friend described the brain process like a funnel–you’ve got all this stuff jammed up in the top part, then something shakes loose, and it comes pouring down. Being asleep lets stuff shake loose. So you’ve actually assembled the elements before you go to sleep, it’s just that it shakes loose while your mind is free to wander.

I’m working on the second book for my Loveswept releases, which means I am finding myself with the urge to nap–for work purposes, of course!–quite often. Just this morning I had some plot epiphanies, which were pretty cool, and this weekend my Mother’s Day gift will be writing time, so I’ll get a chance to implement them in the book.

When does your best creative time occur? How do you shake things loose?

Megan
PS: I’ll be relaunching my website next week, with a cool new design! Woot!

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 5 Replies

Social Justice Romance

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The book jacket of my edition of North and South states that “Critical generalizations about Mrs Gaskell have tended to portray her either as an essentially feminine novelist, full of charm, tenderness and little else, or as a pioneer of the ‘social problem’ novel. Neither view does sufficient justice to her best novels…”
I agree. This book should not be pigeon-holed based on either the romantic elements or the social issues, but apparently, this sort of categorization was happening long before bookstores divided books into “romance” and “fiction.”  Personally, I love how Gaskell fused these elements in this story. Characters don’t exist separate from the issues of their times.
When I first joined RWA, I heard a lot of advice on how to write the romance that sells, which included “No saving the whales”, i.e. don’t address any controversial issues. At the time I was glad that my Regency ideas were tugging more strongly at me, since my only idea for a contemporary romance involved marine biologists.
The purpose of a romance novel isn’t to preach, and I do understand the marketing rationale involved, but this feels very limiting. I like a romance where the characters have more interesting goals than the pursuit of wealth or sexual pleasure for its own sake (though even those goals can be interesting if it turns out they mask something deeper). They could be less controversial goals like caring for family or solving a mystery, but they could be the pursuit of a cause, as long as it’s integral to the characters.
Some of our Risky books and other historical romances have done this. I suspect social issues are a little easier in historical romance, since the issues have changed form in modern times. I doubt anyone in mainstream society would openly support slavery. But I think things like this are still with us in many ways, so maybe touching on them in historical romance is a subversive way of addressing them.
Anyway, maybe the industry prohibition against issues is thawing. I can’t remember when I read that there were some romances that dealt with wildlife preservation. I made a mental note to check some of them out, but life intervened, so I don’t know how well they worked. And indie authors can try things traditional publishers might not.
I think it would be tricky to have the hero and heroine on opposing sides of an issue, since it’s hard to make both sympathetic unless it’s an issue (unlike racism) where both sides have some merit and where compromise or creative solutions are a good answer. Otherwise, the cause could be something that unites the hero and heroine rather than the source of their conflict.
What do you think of issues in romance, historical or contemporary?  Any books that made the mix work particularly well?
Elena
Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Reply

The writing of words

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Shoot. Apologies to my fellow Riskies and our readers for bailing out last weekend on my post.
See, there was this Memorial Day weekend, and things to do, and words to write, and I’ve been feeling about as interesting as a rock. A BORING rock, so I haven’t come up with any kinds of fascinating blog topics.

But back to the writing of words–I am about halfway done with writing the first draft of The Hero’s Return, and I’m having a whole lotta fun. The thing is, though, I have no idea if it hangs together at all as a book rather than close to 40K worth of words. I hope to gain perspective, but it’s like looking too close at yourself in the mirror: You see your pores, and your blotches, and how much your eyebrows need plucking (yes, I know that’s me. Maybe it’s you, too?), but you don’t see your whole FACE.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve written:

She saw him swallow, and open his mouth, but he said nothing. She felt her insides flood with warmth as his eyes grew predatory again, not in a hunter kind of way, but in a ‘I am about to kiss you again’ type of way.

And she wanted it. At this moment, with this man, she wanted this kiss.

Perhaps later she would regret it—she knew she would, in fact—but for right now, it was all that mattered.

Next up is one of the black moments, not the ultimate black moments, but a middling black moment. Maybe it’s slate-gray? Anyway. I hope to top 40K words over the weekend, and then onto the house party section (right now the hero and heroine are traveling alone together. Yes, I know it’s not something the heroine would do; yes, I do make it somewhat justifiable). Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! And that your face is GORGEOUS close up.

Megan

Posted in Risky Book Talk, Writing | Tagged | 1 Reply
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