Growing a Book - 1

If I had a pound for every person who asks me if I’m still ‘churning out’ books, I might not be in tax exile, but I’d be able to buy myself a very nice present. The other way this question can be phrased is that my romances are just ‘dashed off’. Hah!

I wish.

I have studied literature for years, have two degrees, a qualification as a professional librarian and I ran a children’s library for four years – all of which were easier that writing a successful short novel – and then repeating the success of the first one again and again and again. Each time with a set of the same basics – hero and heroine, reasons for conflict. Working through the conflict, character development, resolution, - a believable resolution – and Happy Ever After ending. These are the demands of the romance genre – the expectations a reader has when she comes to the shop to buy a Harlequin Mills & Boon romance – and they all have to be wrapped up in no more than 55,000 words.

And each book has to be different. I know it’s popular to believe that romances are all the same – that they are written to a formula or even, as someone once told me in all seriousness, ‘churned out’ by a computer that is programmed with names, ages, nationalities, occupations of hero and heroine, a formulaic ‘plot’ – and a set number of scenes.

If only it were that easy!

I don’t make claims for my books being great literature, but I do know from the letters and emails I get from women of all ages, all over the world that many many people think them a great read. And romance readers aren’t fools. They know if you’re ‘churning them out’ – not bothering with character development, not troubling to think of any new variation on a plot –

Here's how some critics think it works : -
Take one basic plot:
He’s a rich, powerful, successful man – she’s a poor, weak, virginal doormat of a Cinderella – beautiful but sad, no job, no friends, no life. He believes she’s nothing but a gold-digger and so treats her appallingly – but is proven wrong when he sees the true beauty of her soul - so he begs forgiveness for his wicked ways, tells her he loves her – and they all live happily ever after.
Change the names and nationalities and repeat as required . . .

Hmm – now why would any woman – let alone millions and millions of them, the world over, be happy to read something like that again and again and again?

And why would a woman with an MA enjoy writing that again and again and again?

I met a journalist in New Zealand once – he came to the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference there – who was convinced that I – and my fellow authors – were working a cynical trick. That we had no belief at all in what we were doing but that we were cold-bloodedly manipulating our audience of ‘sad, sad women’ – his words not mine! - by feeding them total pap – and getting rich as a result, so taking the money and running.

I was quite intrigued by this image of myself as an evil-minded, manipulating Svengali figure – a very new side to myself! – But I was furious at his portrayal of the millions of women who are romance readers as ‘sad’ and needing to be spoon fed pap to distract them from the realities of everyday life. This same journalist also refused to believe that I found any challenge, any interest – and least of all any enjoyment in what I write.

More fool him.

Every day I sit down at my computer to write, I face a new challenge. I have to create a vivid, interesting, sympathetic pair of characters who are born to be together and to love each other, put them through the emotional wringer as I keep them apart for as long as I can, then give them believable reasons – reasons that fit those characters and are not just the hand of God coming down from the clouds to sort things out - for resolving all those difficulties, recognising their love for each other and starting out on the road to happiness together.

Because that’s another point - the point in the book where I write ‘The End’ isn’t actually and end at all – it’s the beginning of that couple’s joint live – the point at which they actually become a couple and head out into the future together. So really it’s not The End . It’s The Beginning.

Liz Fielding, the brilliant, multi-award winning writer for Tender Romance sums up perfectly what it is about romances that keeps the reader coming back again and again:

People are complex creatures, bundles of neurosis and emotional angst. They can
be damaged by past affairs, may have lost the ability to believe in their own
happy ever after, may not believe they deserve to be happy. They do things for
the wrong reason, make mistakes, act stupidly often for the best of reasons.
Their story is not that they fall in love, but how they get to the point where
they can acknowledge their feelings, embrace them, risk their heart; it is that
emotional journey which rewards the romance reader and brings her back time
after time.

(Read the rest of this great discussion on Liz’s blog on eHarlequin this month – and while you’re there, congratulate her on being short listed again for this year’s RITA awards)

So if I don’t just sit down and ‘churn out’ a book – how do I go about it?

Well, Usually I start from a very tiny seed – of which more tomorrow when I’ll tell you the tiny seed that my newest book - my April release , The Italian’s Forced Bride – started from.