My AWESOME Guest . . . Shelly Brown

Shelly Brown is in love and is happy that way. She likes it when others can feel of that euphoria for themselves and writes happily-ever-after endings for that reason. She spends way too much time on her silly blog Writing with Shelly and chatting with cool people online, just like Kip. Visit her on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

**Note from Christine: I asked Shelly for a "headshot" and she sent me the picture at the left. It's of her and her husband. Well, the lower part of them, anyway. LOL

 

Four Hot Tips for Sweet Romance

(even if it’s just a subplot)

At the LDStorymakers Conference in May 2011 Sarah Eden (Courting Miss Lancanster) presented on romance in novels. A lot of what I am going to share with you today came from her. If you ever get the chance to take a class from her (like say next years LDStorymaker’s Conference), DO! She’s hilarious and comes highly recommended.

Romance: The Basics:

Girl meets Boy. Eventually they fall in love and have a happy ending. (At least modern readers insist upon a happy ending. Perhaps there are too many unhappy endings in our own lives right now that we don’t want to read about them in our spare time.)

The Story Question: Will they end up together?

Story Answer: Yes! Always, yes.

This is what stretches the romance writer’s imagination: figuring out how to make your love story original when it has the same story question and answer as everyone else’s.

If this is not your STORY question, but one of the elements to your book, then you would not fall under the genre of romance, but that’s cool. All the info below is just as relevant to romantic subplots.

The Four Tips

#1 He’s so hot- I’m so hot- What could be more perfect?

There is not much depth to this connection…probably because there’s not much depth to these characters (honestly, when was the last time you ran into someone who thought that they were ‘so hot’ and found them ‘deep’?)

Even if they are rocket scientists, there is not enough conflict in their relationship if the connection is based purely on looks. Where is the growth? Where is the challenge? Where is the emotional connection?

Confession: I do admit that I still watched Saved by the Bell, when Zach and Kelly were nothing more than what I am describing. But their relationship was shallow and we all knew it. (That is until the episode where she broke up with him and I cried)

#2 Weak source of conflict

You’ve all see that sit-com--the one where the hero saw the heroine hugging her ex-boyfriend and the whole episode is based on him being furious with her and her confused. Then at the end she tells him that her ex-boyfriends father died and she went over with flowers to tell him that she was sorry about his father. A half of an hour you’ll never get back, all because those people wouldn’t talk to each other.

Or worse yet, the 1½ hour film, based on her reading a note that the hero wrote to his secretary. She thought it was sexy, but it was really just a to-do list. At the end she FINALLY says something and the whole thing is cleared up. You, on the other hand, have been yelling at your television for an hour, “JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER!”

Can you imagine spending HOURS on a book with this transparent a conflict?

If your fight can be solved in one page of dialogue, it’s too weak. If it is the kind of problem that is purely based on a misunderstanding, you might want to consider creating a deeper conflict.

#3 Kaboom- We’re in love!

We love to be strung along. Relationships that happen too fast at the beginning of a novel have few places to go. What are we still reading for? The story question is answered.

Relationships that wrap up smack in the middle are easy to put down.

Relationships that are slowly built up through the whole book, with ups and downs, are beautiful things. When we get to the end and it worked out just as we hoped (the hero and heroine are together) then it is emotionally satisfying. And isn’t that why we’re reading romance?

Confession time: I enjoy watching television shows with some good romantic tension (romance is always a subplot to the shows I watch- no soap operas for me) but I’ve stopped watching more than one show a few episodes after the couple got together. The other parts of the plot weren’t strong enough to keep me as a viewer. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

How many readers do you think Suzanne Collins would have lost in The Hunger Games books if Katniss had gotten together with (put your least favorite suitor here) in the middle of Catching Fire? Was the romance the main plot? No. Would a lot of people have quit reading in protest? You better believe it!

#4 It is all about how much they LOVE each other and nothing else

This is what I call ‘estrogen soaked’ romance, and it makes me vomit in my mouth. Very few people can handle glaze-eyed, sighing lovers all the time. Not in real life. Not in novels.

This ties into the above point about stringing us along. There is a popular book series that I stopped reading because the couple got together. I don’t want to read a WHOLE book about her feeding him popcorn and him sweeping the hair out her eyes. GAG! Especially in first person. DOUBLE GAG!

So what can be done?

Conflict! Put something in between them. People, beliefs, disease, culture, habits, friends, fears, miles, etc. Even better put more than one something between them.

Humor! Is anything more awkward than falling in love? You are so stupidly vulnerable. Set your characters up as people with quirks. I have never met anyone who did not have a quirk or two. Throw in a fish out of water, a cheesy pick-up line, a situation that they can’t get out of without looking stupid, and then just run with it! Learn to love the awkwardness of love. Laugh at it, laugh with it. Otherwise you run the risk of having a damsel tied to the train tracks with a mustache-twisting villain. Yes, I’m talking about melodrama. –duh, duh, dun!-

Love is a fun part of this world we live in and can be a fun part of the story you’re writing. Best of luck to all of you and thanks for hosting me, Christine.

**Another note from Christine:  Thanks for being my guest, Shelly. 

I LOVE romance and this was a great reminder on how to write it.