Terescia's thoughts and such.

I read another post over on Romancing the Blog today (another old one that caught my eye!), in which the author discusses the use of soul mates in romance.

“…the concept that everyone has a “soul mate” is terribly romantic, but it has a tendency to perpetuate what I call “lazy romance.” Instead of showing two people learning to love and understand each other, the author so often just whips out the concept of soul mates and voila! Instant romance!

I’d go along with that, but I would trade the “instant romance” for “instant conflict”. These soul mate stories have an above average chance of having much more conflict to sustain the story and the romantic tension that most other kinds, if written correctly.

Regardless of their soul mate status, the characters still have to fall in love in a way that makes me care about their relationship and what happens to them. Otherwise, I’ve wasted my time reading a mediocre story, and who wants to leave a reader with that opinion of their book?

So, take the soul mate plot and make it work by focusing on the conflict that the characters have to overcome. Give them common goals, even if those goals don’t seem all that similar on the surface. Dig deeper and you might find that the core beliefs, wants, and needs of your characters fit together much better than they appear to do on the surface.

Personally, I like well-written soul mate stories. :-) Along with marriages of convenience, sham engagements, pretend boyfriends/girlfriends…

I recently had the pleasure of reading Sylvia Day’s new book Bad Boys Ahoy! so I could interview her about the book. I was excited to realize this was a historical entry into the Bad Boys anthology series from Brava.

I don’t usually recommend books on my blog, but I thought I would recommend this one. I really enjoyed reading the book and I think a lot of people are going to like this one. Especially those who enjoyed the earlier Bad Boys anthologies but grew tired of them. This isn’t the same old thing. It’s the first historical Bad Boys anthology from Brava.

I read an interesting post on Romancing the Blog today. It was my first real visit to the site and the word spreadsheet in the first sentence caught my interest. (Yes, I’m addicted to spreadsheets.) The post was When do you say when? by Yap Away Jay.

The post poses the question of when do you quit giving new authors the chance to impress you with their books. (Trust me, I’m paraphrasing here. If it sounds intriguing, I suggest you read the post.)

Although I agreed in principle with most of the stuff she said, I’ve found that with new authors I rarely remember their names, unless I just happen to love–and I mean LOVE–their books.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are a lot of writers out there who will tell you to write what you like to read. It seems like good advice–logical, intelligent advice.

Hah.

If you write what you like to read, be prepared to sound like your favorite authors and to lose some of the enjoyment of reading altogether. Because if you write what you read, you’ll find yourself becoming much more analytical about the books you used to love and you’ll find that your favorites don’t quite inspire you as much as they used to.

Of course, this isn’t advice for everyone–what advice ever is? :-) But this is experience talking, and you’d do well to at least spend some time considering it before you dismiss it.

Without your love of reading, is writing going to be the joy that it was?

If you choose to write stories that are different enough from your most precious reading, you could end up a much happier reader. And a happy reader is a much more enthusiastic writer.

I enjoy writing contemporary romantic suspense in both light and dark tones. I also enjoy writing sci-fi romance. But reading? Lately, I’ve stuck to fantasy novels, strict science fiction, and shied away from the suspense. (I have read enough suspense, both romance and mainstream, that I feel comfortable that I’m on the right track with my stories, but I’m not one of those authors who believe you have to read every new book that comes out in a certain genre to be able to write in that genre.)

Let me know if you agree or disagree with my reasoning. I’d love to have the opportunity to see another opinion on this.

Soon, I’d like to talk about why I enjoy writing dark suspense, but why I don’t enjoy reading it–and it’s not for the reasons you might think!

I’ve been thinking about the choices I’ve made as a writer. My first attempt at fiction revolved around glitz and glamour, which wasn’t such a big surprise, since I started out reading my mother’s Barbara Taylor Bradford and Sidney Sheldon books. Before long, I was reading V.C. Andrews, Sally Beauman, and Dean Koontz. With Koontz, I found happiness and I was a huge fan for many years. Then I started reading category romance and I was hooked on love.

One of the reasons I’ve always liked Koontz is his ability to write into his books a very genuine affection between his lead characters. He often writes romance into his stories and for that I’ve always been grateful.

Somewhere in here, I read a lot of fantasy and science-fiction, but no particular author stands out, with the exception of C.J. Cherryh.

I read tons of historical–historical novels and historical romances–and I can remember a few Jayne Taylor books and more than a few books set during and after World War II. But the author who stands out the most, the author who became my absolute favorite historical writer of all time was Johanna Lindsey.

About the time high-school ended, I was reading more romance than anything else.

But I didn’t automatically start writing romance. My next story was a romantic thriller. And the one after that was too. And then I finally decided I should get serious and I started major revisions of that last book and made it a died-in-the-wool romance.

These days though, I’ve been getting restless. My reading has tapered off, and romance isn’t as engrossing as it used to be. Despite this, I still prefer to write books with a strong focus on the hero and heroine’s relationship, and the thought of writing something without romance in it at all makes me not want to write at all. So I think it’s clear, my problem isn’t with romance, it’s with reading.

I don’t want to read the way I used to. I could lose myself in a book only a few years ago, but today, I feel like reading is a struggle. I find myself wanting to say it’s just a phase I’m going through, which might be true, but how stupid does that sound? Just going through a phase… What is this, a pre-mid-life crisis or something?

How could I go from totally loving to read, from spending every spare moment I have reading, to barely reading at all? To not even wanting to read?

I want to know the answer to that question, but it’s not here. I don’t know.

I’m going to have to stop thinking of my books as romances and realize they’re just books. Books I want to read, after I finish writing them. I’ve strangled myself with the conventions of a genre I don’t feel like I even know any longer. I’ve let rules lead me astray.

I’ve given in to the need to write the perfect romance, when I should be concentrating on writing the best novel I can write.

I am not a romance writer. I’m a writer who writes romance novels. I have so many ideas, so many stories, and to limit myself to only one genre of fiction seems like the easy way out. Learn one thing and learn to do it well.

How boring.

Why not learn many things, and learn to do them all well?