I mentioned in a comment of my previous post on trying to figure out how to structure a new romance story that I’d just purchased two craft books and experienced one of those Aha! moments while reading the first one: On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels.
I shall now go bang my head against my desk.
Ok. Still here? I can’t believe I’ve been sitting here since August and I haven’t read this book yet. To say, “It’s what I’ve been looking for,” is an understatement. Either that, or the time was finally right for me to find it. It’s not a magic formula book by any means, but Chapter Three (Essential Elements) floored me. It wasn’t the following sentence:
A romance novel is the story of a man and a woman who, while they’re solving a problem that threatens to keep them apart, discover that the love they feel for each other is the sort that comes along only once in a lifetime; this discover leads to a permanent commitment and a happy ending.
Leigh Michaels, On Writing Romance, p. 39
No, that was familiar enough and I’ve read it enough times in the last eight months or so. No, what floored me was the diagram on the next page, complete with its cute little heart. Lemme see if I can do it any kind of justice.
HERO |
<cute little heart> |
HEROINE |
|
|
|
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Pulled together by a PROBLEM, which is the story’s conflict. |
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ONCE-IN-A-
LIFETIME-LOVE develops, but will the conflict permit it to blossom? |
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ACTION (the plot) develops and continues. |
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The conflict is resolved realistically. The HAPPY ENDING leaves the reader satisfied. |
|
Leigh Michaels, On Writing Romance, p. 40
You’ll have to imagine some lines on your own. One line connects Hero and Heroine to the heart, from there a single line drops to the problem box, then it splits to the Love story and the Action plot to converge again at the Happy Ending. I don’t feel like I’ve done it any justice at all. However, the important thing is that I felt a shift in my thinking. Then as I read through Chapter Five, which is all about the Conflict in a romance novel, I felt things shift again. Getting them up in trees and throwing rocks at them apparently isn’t enough.
Simply giving your characters a problem doesn’t automatically create conflict. Only when the problem involves both of them and creates tension between them do you have conflict.
Leigh Michaels, On Writing Romance, p. 62
The inside of my head must have looked like the bank of paparazzi along the red carpet when a car door opens.
You have to get them up in the SAME tree and it can’t be just any old rocks, they have to be tailor made for them and their internal issues.
No wonder the Snowbound story didn’t really work. It’s also why my masquerade story isn’t quite clicking yet. Barrington cares, but he’s not really affected by her problems. I could go on, but the energy would be better spent fixing the problems.
She goes on to explain about Short Term (External) and Long Term (Internal) Problems that the hero and heroine must face. Pretty standard fare there and made sense as she described how they fit together and gave some strategies for creating them.
Then, I turned the page again and WHAM!
Leigh Michaels deserves a spot on the Jedi Council for her explanation of The Force and how you have to use it in conjunction with the Short Term and Long Term Problems, otherwise your Hero and Heroine, smart and reasonable as you’ve constructed them, will simply walk away. What keeps them together? They have to need each other so badly they don’t want to walk away, one has a good reason for forcing the other into this predicament, or there are outside influences keeping them in close proximity.
I’ve read most of the rest of the book (there’s some awesome stuff in Section Three: Writing Your Book) but I think I need to go reread the first eighty pages again to make sure it’s imprinted on my brain. There are summary questions at the end of each section that are helpful in illustrating the point. It’s not very workbook-like, but if that’s your thing, you can make it so. Or not. Her use of published examples and off-the-cuff throw-away ideas were extremely helpful to me.
So, it’s back to the drawing board for me, but if you’re finding that what you’re writing isn’t living up to what you’re reading, this book may help provide insight on what’s missing and it doesn’t come down on either side of the whole pantser/plotter debate.
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