Columns – A Romance Writer's World
Alissa Baxter shares her thoughts about writing romance and real-life relationships
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A Romance Writer's World
Lessons from Cinderella
People often talk about “a Cinderella story” where someone triumphs after a period of obscurity and hardship. In romances, this theme is played out when the “damsel in distress” is rescued from drudgery and oppression by the handsome hero.
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A Romance Writer's World
Fiction vs Everyday Life
Novels represent slices of life arranged in such a way that a story can be told. The great thing about stories (unless you read authors who delight in “padding” their books) is that the focus is on the interesting aspects of a character’s life. If something is dull or mundane, an author will often exclude it from her manuscript if it isn’t necessary to drive the story forward. A good story will keep you enthralled from beginning to end, and you will close the book with a sigh of satisfaction, having been kept on your toes throughout the tale.
A Romance Writer's World
Reading is like dating
When I discover a new author I really like, I tend to glom his or her books. I’ve been wondering why I do this, and I think it’s because I like the particular world that the author has created. Something about that world resonates with me on a deep level, and I want to experience more of the same, and so I delve into the author’s backlist.
A Romance Writer's World
How Brainstorming Sessions Can Help Your Writing
Is a romance writer necessarily a natural story teller? I know this may be an odd question to ask as most writers of fiction tell stories. However, not all writers are born story tellers.
A Romance Writer's World
Purple Prose
A love story comprises a number of different elements – humorous dialogue, scenes of action, moments of despair, descriptive passages, and of course the loves scenes between the hero and heroine. Now, although writing a book is never easy, I find that it’s far easier to tell the basic story of boy meets girl, than it is to express in words the love my characters feel for each other by the end of the book without sounding – well… silly.
A Romance Writer's World
Writing in the moment
Once you start writing a book, it’s easy to jump ahead of yourself into the future of the story where you imagine all the truly interesting things will be happening. I used to wish I could skip the “connective tissue” (those paragraphs that link all your scenes together, giving them context etc.) and jump ahead to a riveting dialogue scene, say, or a particularly adventurous part of the plot. How impatient I was to get to the really interesting parts of the story!
A Romance Writer's World
What is a spark?
Romantic relationships usually start off with a proverbial “spark”. What exactly is this spark? Where does it come from? And how do you describe it? Perhaps it results from feeling at ease in someone’s company coupled with a frisson of excitement.
A Romance Writer's World
Vulnerability
To create characters in a novel that readers will fall in love with, it is important that the characters have an element of vulnerability about them. This applies to both male and female characters, and especially to the hero and heroine of a romance novel.
A Romance Writer's World
Consistent Characters
I think one of the most important aspects of creating characters in fiction is to ensure that they remain consistent throughout the book. This involves having a very clear idea about a character’s personality. Once a character has been introduced into a book, he or she should remain “true to themselves”.
A Romance Writer's World
Shaking Up A Story
In a romance novel, the sparks often fly between the hero and heroine from the very first page. It’s important to realise, however, that men and women are different when it comes to romantic relationships. Women can go on a few dates, realise they like a man, start feeling deep emotions, and believe they’re in a relationship. A man can go on a few dates with a woman, think, “She’s hot! I like spending time with her.” And that’s it! He likes the woman, but his emotions are not involved yet.
