Breaking the Rules

[Kristin Lawrence]

On the surface, I appear to be a law-abiding, sensible person, willing to listen to reason and unwilling to rock boats. Stability and comfort – that’s my creed.

But underneath my mild-mannered exterior lurks the heart of a rebel. Tell me a rule of writing and I immediately want to break it, particularly the “rules” of writing romance. Obviously, everyone’s opinion varies, but here are some of the rules I’ve heard with some thoughts on each.

The hero and heroine have to meet in the first chapter.
Who says? Think Gone with the Wind, think Pride and Prejudice, think most Jennifer Crusie novels. Some of the best romances ever written don’t follow this one. If you need a visual example of delayed gratification in the hero-heroine hook-up, go watch Sleepless in Seattle – Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan never talk until the last scene (or does she say “hi” when he says “hello”? I can’t remember.) It depends on the trajectory of your story when they should meet.

You can’t have an unlikable hero or heroine.
One of my favorite romance novels is Ain’t She Sweet? by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. And, by the way, the answer to that question is: no, she ain’t sweet. But SEP does a fantastic job of making the unlikable characters – there turn out to be several of them – completely understandable. In the process, she illuminates a human truth too often left out of romances – we are all flawed and unlikable at times. We can still be, to paraphrase Dickens, the heroes of our own stories.

Multiple points of view are bad, bad, bad.
I’ve never heard a pure reader of romance who’s had a problem with POV per se. The only people I’ve ever heard complain about multiple POVs in any form are other writers. Some have said it’s pure laziness to not limit your viewpoint. My theory is this: POV can come in just about any form. You can write badly in third person limited or first person or omniscient. You can write beautifully in each of those also. How well you write will tell if you can pull it off or not.

In the end, for me, the key is to write well and write for your reader. If you can create an engaging, gripping, absorbing, and entertaining novel using pig latin, then more power to you. There are no rules, except this: write for your reader.

[Kristin Lawrence]

Hey Z!

I think you hit it when you mentioned upping the drama. Sometimes seeing the story from multiple points of view, the build-up to the hero/heroine meeting, trying to figure out how this totally unlikable person is ever going to find their right someone - that's drama. There are more ways to build drama than just a few - if we all follow the same rules, who's going to write an original story?

If that makes sense...

K

[Kristin Lawrence]

Hey Sandy - There's a rebel in you too!

Kristin

[Kristin Lawrence]

Yes, three cheers for breaking the rules - thanks, Viviane!

[Viviane Brentanos]

three cheers for rule breaking.

[Kristin Lawrence]

Chiron - SEP writes great stuff, doesn't she? Kristin

[Kristin Lawrence]

Thanks T.J, I knew an omniscient writer like you would understand!

Kristin

[Chiron O'Keefe]

Write ON, Kristen! I couldn't agree more.

And I loved Ain't She Sweet...

--Chiron

[Kristin Lawrence]

Linda,

You know me - I like writing in the omniscient. The perspective of others' reactions is priceless sometimes. I like to think of myself as the director in my novel - I'm deciding what the camera is going to focus on. Some of the best movies view events from multiple characters' POV - within the same scene.

Hope you're doing well!
Kristin

[Kristin Lawrence]

Jennifer,

It's amazing how a talented writer like SEP can take someone so unpleasant and make her/him a character you're sorry to say goodbye to in the end.

Rule breaking is good for the soul. I actually need to do more of it - shake the cobwebs off!

Thanks for commenting!
Kristin

[Jennifer Shirk]

Ha! You rebel, you!!
I love it!
And yes, a little rule breaking every now and then is good for the soul--and makes reading and/or writing less dull. *wink*

And I totally agree with you on SEP, too. I always want to throw her books away about 1/3 into them because I hate one or both characters, but then she manages to suck you in and you end up rooting for them in the end. It's true magic. :)