When you write a romance novel, the attraction between the
hero and heroine needs to crackle off the pages. It’s this romantic tension
between the two main characters which drives the story forward and makes you
want to continue reading.
An important aspect of attraction is mystery… the
hero and the heroine need to spend time wondering about each other. A good way
to create mystery in a novel is to have short, sparkling scenes of dialogue
between the hero and heroine, interspersed with scenes where the main
characters reflect about their interactions with the other person. The more
they wonder about each other and try and figure each other out, the more they
will become attracted to each other.
Another important aspect of attraction is desire… in
order to keep the desire building between the hero and heroine, you should
create obstacles between them that need to be overcome. This applies
particularly to the hero of a novel, because the more he has to work for the
heroine, the more he will appreciate her. Heroes in romance novels tend to be
Alpha Males, who have the world (and most women) at their feet. That’s why it’s
so important for men of this ilk to work hard for the heroine, because heroes
who have it all need to be shaken out of their complacency if they’re ever to
fall properly in love.
The third important aspect of attraction is confidence…
even if you’ve created a shy, retiring female character she needs to have some
element of confidence in herself, if she is ever to be a believable romantic
heroine. If a heroine has no self-belief, it will be hard for the reader to
believe in her and her love for the hero – it’ll appear to be a wishy-washy
kind of thing without form or substance. The hero also needs to portray confidence
in a romantic relationship so that the heroine (and the reader!) will fall in
love with him. Just as a man leads a woman when they are dancing, in the same
way a man’s confidence will either sweep a woman off her feet if it is present,
or cause her (and the romance) to stumble if it is not.
In my next post, I will elaborate on other important
elements of attraction, which are vital for a romance to be believable.
Writing modern day fiction vs. writing historical fiction…
which is easier? I’ve been pondering this question recently, especially as I
have published two Regency novels as well as a modern/chick lit novel. Writing
historical novels is far less hazardous than writing modern stories, I believe.
Hazardous might be an odd choice of word, but for me writing a modern day story
is a dangerous enterprise. You see - I cannot resist putting real people into
my stories. When I write an historical novel, it’s easy to for me to disguise my
characters. Great Aunt Sue is far less likely to recognise herself if she is
dressed in a dramatic floor length gown with her hair swept off her face in my
historical novel than if she is dressed in a skirt and blouse, and her rather
scuffed brown shoes in my chick lit novel.
It’s not that I consciously look for real people to base my
characters on - it’s just that when I’m writing a book, more often than not,
someone I know - usually someone with an idiosyncrasy of some kind or other
pops in to my head, and I think, “Oh - she’ll be PERFECT for the role of Jane
or Sarah or Angela” and I promptly put them into my story. Usually a character
who has been inspired by a real life person will take on a life of his or her
own, once they’re within the pages of one of my novels, and often they change
in quite noticeable ways, sometimes beyond recognition. But the fact remains
that when you base a character on one of your friends or acquaintances, there’s
always the chance that the person you’ve based the character on will find you
out…
However, I’ve noticed that some people are quite pleased at
the idea of being a character in a book - particularly if that character is the
hero or heroine. It’s the secondary characters that I worry about more i.e. the
best friend of the heroine, who wears too much makeup, for instance, and is
always in trouble with men, or the heroine’s goofy male friend who complains to
her about his lack-lustre love life, or alternatively, the charming bad boy who
breaks hearts wherever he goes, or the bossy colleague who’s always telling
everyone what to do. We all recognise these people, and it’s the most natural
thing in the world that they should flavour the pages of a modern day story.
And so I walk through a minefield when I write my chick lit stories, hoping
that my characters (based on real people) are not too recognisable.
When I spoke to my editor about this, she set my mind at
rest. In my chick lit novel, Send and Receive, I have based a number of the characters on people I
know. When my editor commented that a certain character in the book reminded
her of an acquaintance of hers, I explained to her that the character she was
referring to was actually based on someone I know (I even wondered if my editor
and I might have a friend in common). And when she commented on how another
character bore a striking resemblance to one of her friends, I explained that
that character was based on a friend of mine.
Finally my editor said to me, “Alissa - the characters in
your books are people we all know,” and that is when I realised that my guilty
secret wasn’t so bad after all. All fiction writing should try and capture the
universal in the particular to some extent, and if you succeed in doing that,
then it’s possible to reach a point where you realise that writing about
individuals isn’t so individual after all. The common thread of humanity that
binds us to together is universal in its reach, and the girl who lives next
door to you might very well resemble the girl who lives next door to someone
who lives thousands of miles away.
