Who is the Main Character

Figuring out who the main character is in your novel is often hard for the romance writer when both the hero and heroine are strong personalities. 

The simplest way to find out is to ask yourself who has to change the most in very important ways to reach her/his goal.  That person is the main character.

The main character should act to reach that goal and earn it, not have it happen to him/her as a matter of events. 

Why do you need to know?  If you know, you can make the novel stronger by emphasizing that character’s changes. 

And when it comes time to market that novel to a publisher or the reader, you’ll know who to emphasize when you describe your novel.

Putting Romance in a Non-romance

 Romances are allowed the leisure of the characters learning about each other, the back and forth of the relationship, and the build up of plot and emotion to the happily ever after.  That essentially is the plot.  

Non-romances often have a romance subplot, but how does a thriller or suspense writer balance their action and forward plot movement with the slow burn of a romance?

Skilled suspense and thriller writers’ romance plot tends to be what I call insta-love.  The hero and heroine meet because of what's happening, they have an instant emotional and sexual connection with each other that's off the charts, but they focus on what they need to do.  They also gain respect for each other, and the way they interact and their pasts/presents show the possibility of their successful future as a couple.  Sex happens early and as often as the plot allows.  Even thriller characters need to sleep, bandage their boo boos, do some research, and reload their weapons.

Their emotional/romantic problem tends to be very simple.  They have conflicting careers, and one needs to stay while the other needs to go.  Or it can be a bit more complex.  The woman is old money and power, and the other is from a lower middle class background who thinks he is unworthy of her.  His insecurity makes him pull away when he should be moving towards her.  The problem is resolved through talk, a like-duh moment of epiphany, or another character offering a practical solution.  None of it ruins the pace of the thriller or suspense novel.

If you’d like to see how this is done, I recommend two masters of this technique— Heather Graham and Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick.

The Big Question, Part 6

 THE INTIMATE BIG QUESTION

A more intimate version of the Big Question is usually found in romance.  The Big Question revolves around the relationship between the hero and heroine rather than being about large social or historical issues. 

The Big Question "Can illusions about your lover destroy a relationship?" is used in a number of romances including PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and my own TIME AFTER TIME.

One member of the romantic couple will be a victim to his or her illusion of the lover, and the reader and that character will have to decide if illusion is destructive in the face of reality.

In TIME AFTER TIME, my hero Justin remembers all of his past lives, and in each one, his soul mate, who is the same woman.  

In this life, he is so enamored with the different women from his past lives that he fails to see the real woman in this life, fails to see the pain he causes by not loving the present woman, and nearly destroys his chance at happiness.  

Whatever your Big Question, be sure to tie it into the romantic relationship.

ROMANCE COUPLES AND THE BIG QUESTION

I've talked about how I used the Big Question concept to shape my science fiction romance, STAR-CROSSED. In that novel, the hero and heroine are on the same side of the Big Question. Both believe that Arden's government and the harem are corrupt, and they are willing to risk anything to destroy it. 

In my romantic suspense novel, THE GAME WE PLAY, I place the hero and heroine on opposite sides of my Big Question -- After total betrayal, can a person regain their trust? (Trust versus distrust)

Here's the book's premise, courtesy of the book cover blurb:

Schoolteacher Faith Cody thinks she has the perfect summer job as nanny to Nicholas Price's two visiting children, but the children are kidnapped, and she and Nick are compelled to join forces to steal the ransom -- documents incriminating vicious criminals.

As an investigative journalist trained in the ways of the professional cat burglar, Nick has the skill to steal the hidden documents, but their dangerous owner guards the documents well since they prevent his death.

Thrown into this life and death game of betrayer and betrayed, Faith must trust Nick, but Nick is not a man to be trusted. And he seems willing to betray anyone for his children.

Here are my hero and heroine's character histories-- 

FAITH CODY's life has been shaped by betrayal and desertion. When she married Sam Cody over her father's objections, her family disowned her. His own life in crisis, her beloved, weak-willed Sam turned to alcohol and other women. Faith remained loyal until, in an alcoholic fury, he beat and raped her. She left him, and he died soon after. 

Totally alone, Faith became strong and courageous in the face of adversity. She reshaped her life, worked to free herself of the past, and learned how to protect herself so no one could ever physically hurt her like that again.

Avoiding another relationship with a man, she focused her attention on repaying Sam's debts and lavished her great love and loyalty on the children she teaches.

By the time THE GAME WE PLAY begins, she's almost healed from the betrayals of the past, and like a butterfly she's ready to emerge from her cocoon, her heart able to love again. 

NICHOLAS PRICE has also been shaped by betrayal and desertion, but his reaction has been very different from Faith's.   Several years before THE GAME WE PLAY begins, Nick is a respected investigative reporter for a major newspaper. He begins to exhibit erratic and violent behavior so his wife and his lawyer put him in a prestigious sanitarium which was more concerned about protecting the reputations of the families of the mentally ill than in helping their patients.

By the time he emerged eight months later, his wife had married the lawyer who'd put him into the sanitarium, he'd lost custody of his two children to that man, and his job was gone.

Only Nick and a few close friends know Nick's erratic behavior had been deliberately caused by chocolates spiked by hallucinogens. Nick is certain his good friend and lawyer Adam did it to steal his wife, children, and his life.

Formerly a warm, loving, and deeply empathetic man, Nick has emerged from this experience a cynic no longer certain of anyone. He expects the worst of others to save himself the hurt of disillusionment, and he avoids emotional relationships. 

You can see how I've placed my two major characters on opposite sides of my Big Question about trust.

When his children are kidnapped, the ransom is documents on criminal activities.  Nick and Faith must work together to steal those documents.

I also twist the knife on Nick's trust issues by making the man he must steal the documents from his best friend and those documents in the wrong hands will get that best friend killed. In effect, Nick must be the betrayer to save his children's lives. 

I twist the knife on Faith's trust by having their victim be a much nicer and more trustworthy man than Nick is. She must trust the least trustworthy and betray the better man.

In essence, to survive and save the children each must follow a path that is opposite to their experiences, and they learn to understand that other side. 

Do you want your couple on the same side or opposite sides of a Big Question? 

Part of this decision depends on story requirements, but the type of Big Question also helps determine this.

The more personal the Big Question, the more likely the characters will be on opposite sides. The more social or society-oriented the issue, the more likely the characters will be on the same side of the Big Question. This is especially true for issues where many people favor one side. 

In STAR-CROSSED, for example, if I had put the heroine on the side of the government and made her pro sexual slavery, most readers wouldn't have liked her, and the hero certainly wouldn't have fallen in love with her.

She could have changed her view, though, which would have been acceptable, but that wasn't the book I wanted to write. 

Romance and fiction are about conflict so having the hero and heroine on different sides of a complex Big Question will help keep the novel interesting for the reader.

Reality vs. Fiction

"The way things happen in romance novels don't truly reflect the way things happen in our subjectively real universe." -- Someone's comment during blog discussion on romance.

The truth of the matter is nothing reflects the "real world" of experience. Not fiction, not nonfiction, not news reports, not even media like film and TV. Reality is simply too complex.

A writer uses her own vision of the universe to create her fiction. That vision is ordered so that the complex chaos of reality makes sense and has a pattern. 

If readers find her vision of reality to be truthful for them, (they buy into her vision and understand it), the writer has been successful. Part of that buying in while reading romance is seeing the complexity of the human personality and the male/female romantic relationship reflected in that writing.

Since so many women read romance, romance must reflect emotional, if not physical, reality for women.

In the same sense, most of us don't believe in vampires, but that doesn't prevent us from enjoying a good vampire romance. Those of us who analyze our responses to books see that the vampire romance reflects certain emotional needs and power issues for us so it is emotionally real although not "reality" real.

How to Write a Book Blurb

NOTE: This technique is also a good descriptive tool for queries to publishers and agents.

A blurb is the book description you find on the back of a book or online to describe a book's contents.  Most run several paragraphs, but some publishers want them shorter or in a special format so be sure to check with your publisher's guidelines before you begin work.   

Blurbs are the second most important selling tool you have for your book so you want it to grab the reader's attention.  (The first is the cover.)

Your novel is hundreds of pages long, but you'll need to describe it in a few short paragraphs. How can you condense all that important information?

Here's how I do it for romance, romantic suspense, mystery, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy.  

ROMANCE

For short novels, I usually use two paragraphs to describe the book, longer or more complex books three to four paragraphs. If some important point fits one paragraph better than another, don't feel as if you must follow my structure. Put it where it fits.  Interior and exterior conflict, especially, can be switched.  

First and second paragraph: Introduce hero and heroine and give simple plot set up.  What is the interior conflict of the novel? (What tears the hero and heroine apart emotionally?)  Examples are from my unpublished novel, THE LORD OF THUNDER.

KATE GRAEME, a professional landscape painter, has been hurt by a man who used her love to manipulate her, but she still retains her romantic ideals about love and marriage.  MORGAN DESART, however, has turned his own emotional hurts into a coldly cynical attitude.

Enthralled with each other, Kate Graeme and Morgan Desart want a permanent relationship but can't agree on the ground rules.  Kate seeks a loving romantic marriage, but Morgan demands a marriage of convenience with a prenuptial agreement.  Neither will bend emotionally.

Third and Fourth paragraphs: What is the exterior conflict of the novel?  What must both must achieve or defeat and what do they have to lose? This can include plot set up, place set up, the important secondary characters, and the villain. 

When they become trapped alone together on Morgan's island estate for a week, open conflict erupts as they seek to convert each other to their own viewpoint.  Morgan tries to entice her into a loveless marriage with his sexual mastery, but Kate resists this ploy and tempts him with romance and samples of a life together rich with love. 

In this war of sexual desire versus emotional need, both know one of them will have to give in before the week is out because the magic between them is impossible to withstand.

Here are some other examples:

TIME AFTER TIME

ALEXA WEST thinks she's found a man who loves her, but another man, JUSTIN LORD, woos her with an outlandish tale-- they have loved and married for their last twelve reincarnations, and he will allow no other man to marry her in their thirteenth. Is Justin's story lunacy, a line, or a love that spans the ages?

Determined to win her by making her remember, dynamic Justin romances Alexa by restaging and retelling their past lives and their loves. But he doesn't tell her she has rivals for his love, and she is all twelve.

STAR-CROSSED

Trapped on Arden, Earthman Tristan Mallory discovers that men are sex slaves forced into harems.  He has no intention of belonging to anyone, not even beautiful fellow scientist Mara d'Jorel.

Mara despises the harem system and has refused to participate, but her heart won't allow anyone else to own Tristan, and owning him will turn his growing love into hate.  To give Tristan the freedom her world denies, she must risk everything--her reputation, her home, and even her freedom and life.  But her greatest risk is losing Tristan's love to another woman.

Tristan's friend Kellen Votrain is acquired as a bed slave by vicious Cadaran d'Hasta, head of Arden's Internal Security, who has used the lives and deaths of thousands of men to gain her power.  Intelligent and amoral, she'll do anything to destroy him and Tristan and any woman weak enough to love them.

With the help of a local intelligent alien who resembles an Earth cat and Dorian Dalia--Tristan's longtime romantic interest, Tristan, Mara, and Kellen escape the planet.  Through the vast emptiness of space and the most primitive of human colonies, they seek freedom, but Cadaran is always one step behind them.

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

If some important point fits one paragraph better than another, don't feel as if you must follow my structure. Put it where it fits. 

First paragraph: Simple plot set up, and main character's emotional involvement with it. What is the exterior conflict of the novel? (What are the hero and heroine fighting against and why?) The examples are from my THE GAME WE PLAY.

Schoolteacher Faith Cody thinks she has the perfect summer job as nanny to Nicholas Price's two visiting children, but the children are kidnapped, and she and Nick are compelled to join forces to steal the ransom -- documents incriminating vicious criminals.

Second paragraph: More simple plot set up and hero's or second lead's emotional involvement with it.

An investigative journalist trained in the ways of the professional cat burglar, Nick has the skill to steal the hidden documents, but their dangerous owner guards the documents well since they prevent his death. 

Third and Fourth paragraphs: What is the interior conflict of the novel? (What tears the hero and heroine apart emotionally?) What must both must achieve or defeat and what do they have to lose? This can include plot set up, place set up, the important secondary characters, and the villain. 

At the secluded estate of their intended victim, on the catwalks above a Las Vegas stage, and in a back alley at the mercy of killers, Faith and Nick face danger with a witty quip and a willingness to risk anything and anyone, even each other, for the sake of two children they both love.

In this game of betrayer and betrayed, the kidnappers seem determined to destroy Nick's sanity as well as his life, and Faith's life and love may be their ultimate weapon against him. 

Here's a different blurb which focuses on my hero.  It's more suspense than romantic suspense.  

The prize:  His two kidnapped children

The rules:  Trust no one, betray anyone, win at whatever the cost

His pawns: His lover and his best friend

His opponent:  The most dangerous catburglar in history

The game: A game of betrayal, THE GAME WE PLAY

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

If some important point fits one paragraph better than another, don't feel as if you must follow my structure. Put it where it fits.  

First paragraph and second paragraph: In sf and fantasy, the setting itself usually needs to be set up even before the main character.  In THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN, I start with my alien threat and setting--

Immortals are a race so illusive most believe them a fairy tale of space.  Many tales differ, but all declare them the most deadly race in the universe with a technology beyond imagining and physical abilities beyond belief.  With powers so vast, they have paid little attention to humanity.  Until now.

Xenda, a human colony of royalty, castles, and courtly lifestyle, was a quiet pastoral world until the arrival of two Immortal women who vied for the love of the planet's king.   

Third and Fourth paragraphs: Simple plot set up, and the main character's emotional involvement with it. What is the exterior conflict of the novel? (What is the hero fighting against and why?)  What must the main character achieve or defeat and what does he have to lose?  This can include plot set up, place set up, the important secondary characters, and the villain. 

But before they left, he was dead, and the planet and its people were ravaged by invaders.  Peace came with the defeat of evil Fionna by Dia, but now Fionna is back, and Dia is dead.

With only the dubious help of Xendan Patrick Blood-- a charming buffoon who imagines himself a swashbuckling hero, Col. Valerian Grant and his crew of scientists must stop Fionna from destroying the human colony.  

Remember that novels are about people so don't emphasize the science or worldbuilding over the people unless the novel is about the science or the world.  

I would have preferred less emphasis on the worldbuilding in my THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN blurb, and it would have been a stronger selling tool to concentrate on Val Grant, but the Val and his ship come into the situation as outsiders, and the real conflict is between Xenda and Fionna so I couldn't figure out a way around that problem.

MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE

I've listed the paragraphs in order, but arrange the paragraphs to best suit the information you are trying to give.  Sometimes, the setting or the victim needs more emphasis. 

First paragraph: Simple plot set up, and main character's emotional involvement with it. What is the exterior conflict of the novel? (What is the main character's goal and why?) The examples are from my THE GAME WE PLAY.

Schoolteacher Faith Cody thinks she has the perfect summer job as nanny to Nicholas Price's two visiting children, but the children are kidnapped, and she and Nick are compelled to join forces to steal the ransom -- documents incriminating vicious criminals.

Second paragraph: More simple plot set up and the main character's or second lead's emotional involvement with it.  OR Information on the victim.

An investigative journalist trained in the ways of the professional cat burglar, Nick has the skill to steal the hidden documents, but their dangerous owner guards the documents well since they prevent his death. 

Third and Fourth paragraphs: What is the interior conflict of the novel?  What must the main character achieve or defeat and what does he have to lose? This can include plot set up, place set up, the important secondary characters, and the villain. 

At the secluded estate of their intended victim, on the catwalks above a Las Vegas stage, and in a back alley at the mercy of killers, Faith and Nick face danger with a witty quip and a willingness to risk anything and anyone, even each other, for the sake of two children they both love.

In this game of betrayer and betrayed, the kidnappers seem determined to destroy Nick's sanity as well as his life, and Faith's life and love may be their ultimate weapon against him. 

Here's a different blurb which focuses on my male lead.  It's more suspense oriented since it doesn't play up the relationship between Faith and Nick.  

The prize:  His two kidnapped children

The rules:  Trust no one, betray anyone, win at whatever the cost

His pawns: His lover and his best friend

His opponent:  The most dangerous catburglar in history

The game: A game of betrayal, THE GAME WE PLAY

HOW TO CONDENSE THIS INTO AN EVEN SHORTER FORM

You've boiled down the essence of your story into a few paragraphs, but your publisher or a promotion website wants what you have cut down even further.  How do you shorten what has already been trimmed and trimmed and trimmed?  

First, you must determine the market for your story.  Are you selling to a romance reader, a mystery reader, or science fiction reader?  The answer to that question helps determine what is the most important information to keep in your book blurb.  You don't emphasize the hero's romantic life if you are selling a thriller, and you don't ignore it if your reader wants a romance.  

Your book is foremost about one person so that person must be part of the book description.  If you are writing a romance, it's best to pick either the hero or heroine for emphasis, and the one you pick is the one who has the most at stake in your book description.

For my romantic suspense novel, GUARDIAN ANGEL, I wrote this long blurb:

For a large fee, ex-FBI agent Gabriel "Gard" Gardner agrees to protect defense lawyer Lauton O'Brien's daughter from an unnamed, dangerous criminal client.  Desta proves to be everything Gard wants in a woman, but he can't ignore the barriers between them -- her father whom he despises, and her wealthy, high society background which he can never achieve.

Fleeing from violent kidnapping and murder attempts, Gard and Desta pursue their own fleeing quarry, Lauton, who holds the clues to the identity of their mysterious enemy.  No one, not even Gard's former partner, can be trusted, and someone is giving away their locations to their enemy as they travel from the North Carolina coast to the mountains, then back to Gard's home on Lake Norman.

Along the way, they find unlikely allies in Bubba the Swedish chef, a doctor who handles a pistol with the same ease as a scalpel, and a puppy named Barkley.  

When I shortened it, I wanted to let readers know it was a romance, but it was also a suspense novel.  I also wanted to give them a feel for the novel.  Here's what I wrote:  

Marked for death, Desta finds a guardian angel in Gard Gardner, who may save her life but seems determined to break her heart as well.   

No one can be trusted as they flee murder attempts, and someone is betraying their locations to the hired killers after them. 

Notice how I included the romantic relationship as well as using buzz words like "death," "murder," "killers," and "betray" to show the suspense element.

For my science fiction adventure novel, THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN, I wrote this long blurb:

Immortals are a race so illusive most believe them a fairy tale of space.  Many tales differ, but all declare them the most deadly race in the universe with a technology beyond imagining and physical abilities beyond belief.  With powers so vast, they have paid little attention to humanity.  Until now.

Xenda, a human colony of royalty, castles, and courtly lifestyle, was a quiet pastoral world until the arrival of two Immortal women who vied for the love of the planet's king.  

But before they left, he was dead, and the planet and its people were ravaged by invaders.  Peace came with the defeat of evil Fionna by Dia, but now Fionna is back, and Dia is dead.

With only the dubious help of Xendan Patrick Blood-- a charming buffoon who imagines himself a swashbuckling hero, Col. Valerian Grant and his crew of scientists must stop Fionna from destroying the human colony.  

My shorter version--

Swashbuckling Science Fiction Adventure!

To save a human colony of royalty, castles, and courtly lifestyle, Col. Val Grant and his Confederation crew face an alien enemy who cannot be beaten.

I cheated a bit with the first line, but it's an attention getter.  The second line has such sf buzz words as "human colony," "alien," and "crew."  

Other examples--

TIME AFTER TIME

Twelve Past Lives, One Love?

Justin Lord woos Alexa West with an outlandish  tale--they have  loved and  married for their  last  twelve  reincarnations.  Is Justin's story lunacy, a line, or a love that spans the ages?

STAR-CROSSED

Trapped on Arden, Tristan Mallory discovers that men are sex slaves.  He has no intention of belonging to anyone, not even beautiful Mara.  To give Tristan freedom, Mara must risk everything-- her family, her freedom, and her life.  But her most terrible risk is losing Tristan to another woman.

HINTS FOR ALL KINDS OF BOOKS

Know what YOUR readers want to know about your book.  Go to your bookshelf and pull out books in the same genre as yours and read the back cover copy.  What made you want to read this book?  What clues and buzz words did the copy use to tell you what kind of book it is?  

Did the language and voice used in the blurb tell you about the tone of the book?  If the book is comic, was this obvious in the way the blurb was done?  If the book was dark, could you tell?   Could using the distinctive voice of the narrator have improved the blurb? 

For an excellent example of a book's comic tone caught in the blurb, read the blurbs of Jeff Strand's novels at Amazon.

Remember that your book is about people, not setting, historical location, or scientific facts.  Don't emphasize any of them over your characters.

What is Romance's Appeal?

Some time back, a reporter asked a number of romance writers this question-- "Can you give me the deep reason for the romance novel's appeal to women? I can't ask my mother -- that would be too weird."

Here's my answer--

There is no one deep reason, but I can offer you one of them. 

I've never had the time to learn about football. To me, it's just a bunch of big guys chasing each other and a ball on the field. But I'm told that a football fan understands the subtle tactics, the skills, and the rules of the game. 

In the same way, many women understand the subtle tactics, the skills, and the rules of the game of love. The romance novel offers them a front row seat at the most fascinating and important game of all -- love and marriage. 

Many who don't read romance say all these books are the same, but they are no more the same than every football game is the same. 

Romances offer a more important payback than football because they are teaching women more about the emotional dynamics of men and women so they can play the game and win for themselves and society by creating a monogamous, stable relationship for themselves and for the successful rearing of children which takes two committed parents. 

And, yes, there is usually sex in these novels, but romances aren't about sex. If they were, they'd have more than the ten to twenty pages of love scenes in the average 400 page novel. The love scenes are there because they are another part of the emotional dynamics, and how the man acts afterward usually defines the problems and the possibilities of the relationship.

Why Don't You Write a Real Book?

For some unknown reason, people like to denigrate fiction writers and what we write. Any science fiction or mystery writer will tell you about the comments they've received from jerks of various sorts.

But the most insulted of all writers is the romance writer.

Over time, I've heard from a number of my friends in the field who have asked for advice on how to reply to comments. 

Here are my suggestions. Many will work just as well with whatever fiction you write.

Most will work for readers as well.

The first comment is usually, "Why don't you write a real book?"

Rude reply: Why haven't you gotten a cure for foot-in-mouth disease?

Quotation reply: "Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none." Jules Renard. 

Considered reply: First, ask them to define "a real book." 

If they reply "non-fiction because it's useful and the truth. Fiction is a lie."

Fiction is the truth in parable form. In the BIBLE, Jesus and the Old Testament prophets explained eternal verities by the use of stories. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a perfect example. Is its message any less valuable because the Samaritan was a fictional character created by Jesus?

Fiction writers are telling the truth through their fiction. They create the world as they see it and offer their own beliefs. That belief may be as simple as "everyone has a true love and with courage and compromise can win that love." 

Is a novel any less valuable than the true-life story found in "Reader's Digest" which illustrates the same point? I don't think so. The only difference is the medium used to express that belief.

"But fiction isn't useful like non-fiction."

Yes, it is. Fiction is like that perfect school teacher who makes learning interesting. It gives information in small, easy to swallow doses. Historical novels give you history, science fiction science and the future of technology, mysteries and thrillers insight into the human mind and modern criminology techniques. 

Of course, some fiction offers little factual data and appears to only entertain. But that's all right too. Few people protest because most television shows and movies aren't useful, yet many feel the written word requires some justification. It doesn't. The written word has as much right to merely entertain as any other medium. 

There's no shame in just entertaining.

"But a real book is longer."

The average length of "literary novels" is the same as a Silhouette Presents or a Harlequin Romance. Usually, they're skinnier. Critics praise this shortness for its intensity. 

"But these are only women's novels."

Women aren't second-class citizens, and they aren't second-class readers either. You never hear anyone say Tom Clancy is only a men's novelist because many of his readers are male. Women writers and readers deserve the same respect. 

A hundred years or so ago, some male critic made a snippy remark about "those damn women scribblers" and their terrible books. He included Jane Austen and the Brontes in the comment. We should all wish to be in such company as "only" women writers.

"A real book is literary. It is the kind of book the New York Times reviews and college professors teach. It is great literature. It isn't popular fiction."

Almost every major noncontemporary fiction writer now taught in universities was a popular writer. The Neil Simon of his time, Shakespeare wrote bawdy jokes in his plays for the commoners.

Hawthorne was the Stephen King of his period. So was Poe. Mark Twain amassed a fortune through writing bestsellers.

Dickens' novels created a furor unequalled in modern times until the Harry Potter novels. For example, THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP was published in installments in a British magazine. As the ship carrying the last chapters docked in New York, a mob of fans waited for it. Men ran down the docks and screamed to the passengers, "Is Little Nell dead?" 

Only recently has the strange idea that popularity is a failure of literary standards materialized. I'm not certain where this idea comes from, but it smacks of the elitist mentality which believes the masses are incapable of appreciating art. 

Some authors whom literary critics have praised have become massive bestsellers. The same critics promptly change their opinion of the writer "who has sold out to popular acclaim."

"But today's popular novels aren't great literature."

No contemporary critic can truly define a current work as "great literature." Time is the only true test of that term. Books and authors praised a hundred years ago have disappeared except as footnotes in esoteric articles. 

Books which were damned as junk are taught in college. Read the scathing reviews of Melville's MOBY DICK if you want to see the perfect example of this. Melville's praised travel books are forgotten, but MOBY DICK is immortal. 

"Certainly you aren't comparing any romance to MOBY DICK or Shakespeare?"

Not really. I'm under no illusion that most romances are more than entertainment. But there's nothing wrong with entertainment. Is a chef condemned because he makes pastries instead of main dishes? Of course not. Is he any less a chef because he creates calories with little food value? No. 

To carry this analogy a little further, the pastry chef and the romance writer have a great deal in common. Any cook will tell you that creating an original cake recipe is much harder than making a casserole recipe. The ingredients and spices in a casserole can be varied with little problem. Variation in a cake, especially the important ingredients like baking powder and flour, can create disaster.

The romance is like that cake--airy, delicate, and delicious. But fail as a writer with one important element like character or plot, and the whole novel is rock hard and impossible to enjoy.

Other types of books, even the so-called literary books, are casserole books. The writer's touch need not be so delicate, and mistakes are much easier to be forgiven.

Lee Smith, a major Southern literary novelist, told me that she tried to write a Silhouette Presents when the market was wide open. The book was a failure, and her agent couldn't sell it. Lee confessed that she never intended to write another because they were too darn hard to write. 

The romance novel form is capable of generating great literature. Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters are perfect examples of this. 

Currently, some romance novelists are showing promise of creating the emotional and literary resonance necessary for great literature. Some of us are pushing the parameters of romance toward more literary acceptability. Only time will tell if great literature comes.

If nothing else, we're entertaining people and giving them love. We're taking them away from their troubles and pain. And what's more real than that?

Reality versus Fiction

"The way things happen in romance novels don't truly reflect the way things happen in our subjectively real universe. " -- Comment from reader

The truth of the matter is nothing reflects the "real world" of experience. Not fiction, not nonfiction, not bland news reports, not even media like film and TV. Reality is simply too complex.

A writer uses her own vision of the universe to create her fiction. That vision is ordered so that the complex chaos of reality makes sense and has a pattern.

If readers find her vision of reality to be truthful for them, (they buy into her vision and understand it), the writer has been successful. Part of that "buying in" is seeing the complexity of human personality and the male/female romantic relationship reflected in that writing.

Since so many women read romance, romance must reflect emotional, if not physical, reality for women.

In the same sense, most of us don't believe in vampires, but that doesn't prevent us from enjoying a good vampire romance. Those of us who analyze our responses to books see that the vampire romance reflects certain emotional needs and power issues for us so it is emotionally real although not "reality" real.

Why Historical Romances Have Clinch Covers

The historical romance cover -- a beautiful woman with her large breasts falling out of an half-opened gown, a handsome man holding her in his seductive embrace.

Almost everyone claims to hate these clinch covers, non-readers make fun of them, and readers hide them with plain book protectors or read ebooks in public to avoid showing them.

Why, then, has this type of cover persisted for so many years?

Here's the answer.

In the early Eighties when historical romances began to explode into the marketplace, publishers realized that guys ordered the books for their distribution companies and bookstores and guys usually put them on the shelves of bookstores and supermarkets.

How could the publisher make romances more attractive to these men so they'd distribute them and not hide them behind the racy covers of pulp mystery and science fiction? The big-breasted, half-naked babe was their answer, and it proved successful.

The female readers continued to buy these books, despite the cover, for what was inside -- a great read with well-developed characters which proved that love was the most powerful emotion in the world.

The grip of men on the distribution process finally eased, and a period of flowery covers and landscapes began, but readers had a harder time recognizing books as romances with such generic covers so the clinch cover returned in all its annoying glory.

These covers have become so dang iconic of the romance that they won't go away. We are as stuck with them as sf readers are with guys and skimpily clad babes with ray guns and spaceships.

So now you know.

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Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing the First Chapter, January 3-31, 2011.

Drawing a reader into the first chapter of your novel is more than an exciting beginning, more than a “cute meet,” more than a sexy hero and a feisty heroine. Step by step, I'll show you the craft needed to draw the reader into your novel and make her eager to keep reading. I'll also show you how to set up the goals for the main characters and for the novel.

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Writing in the Moment, April 11-May 8, 2011

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive. Lots of worksheets.

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The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel. Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.

Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel. The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.