The Mechanics of Writing Romance Novels

ON GRAMMAR

Grammar. An all-encompassing word that is applied to the function of language. When applied just right, it can enliven your writing, bring it to life. Sentence structure, parts of speech, active versus passive voice, punctuation, pronouns, etcetera-all are the basic tools in your Writer's Tool Box.

The arrangement of your words can either make your writing SIZZLE or fizzle. Word choice, and their arrangement is a tricky art form. Are you using the best word possible? Is it the right word in meaning, connotation and intent? Does it say what you want it to say strongly enough? And, have you showcased it in that elusive *perfect sentence*?

Helpful Hints (at least, I hope they're helpful!)

1. Vary your sentence structure (construction). Do you arrange your sentences the say way every time? Mix it up-short, long, simple, complex. Don't rely on just one structure.

2. Opt for active voice. Can't tell active from passive? Active: the subject performs the action. Passive: the subject is being acted upon. For more on active and passive voice, go to: http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000359.htm

3. Don't kill the reader with an over-abundance of adjectives and adverbs. Choose strong verbs to eliminate the need for most descriptors. SHOW the pretty meadow by the character's reaction to what she sees, what it reminds her of, how it makes her feel.

4. Watch the placement of your modifiers. Like pronouns, modifiers need a clear antecedent, and most importantly, a logical, clear antecedent.

5. Verb tense. Pick one. The usual tense of choice is the past tense. However, there are flashbacks and speculation of the future, which means you switch to past perfect or future perfect (had *past tense verb*, will have *present tense verb*). For more on the perfect tenses, go to: http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000361.htm

6. Yes, into our writing come these words, but you can avoid using them 90% of the time. These are the Verbs to Avoid whenever possible: was, were, has, had, have, is, are. Opt for verbs that pop or sizzle wherever you can.

7. A brief comment on punctuation. Exclamation points are best reserved for when you really want to catch the reader's attention! Commas-to comma or not to comma, that is the question that stymies us all. I suggest you go to this website, to have your comma questions answered:

http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000067.htm I recommend the following articles on this site: "When Not to Use Commas" "Commas for Clarity," "Commas with Certain Words Omitted," "Commas with Non-Restrictive Modifiers," "Commas After Introductory Clauses," "Commas in Compound Sentences" and "The Three Most Common Comma Rules."

Grammar can be used to your advantage to produce a piece that flows, is interesting and/or entertaining, and draws in your reader. The best *trick* I've found to checking my grammar (aside from the grammar check) is to Read It Out Loud. A good, grammatically correct sentence will flow off your tongue. An awkward, grammatically challenged sentence won't.

8. Sentence Fragments. The bane of every English teacher's existence. But when you stop to think about it, we often speak in fragments. It's true. As writers, we want our character's dialogue (spoken and internal) to sound natural and unstilted.

Whether you consider yourself good with grammar, somewhere in the middle, or an abysmal mess, the trick is not to let it scare you or kill your voice. Grammar is the technical part of writing, not the creative part. But it is just as important as the creative part, because if we don't observe the conventions, our work will be unreadable to others. Just as plot, setting, characterization and imagery are tools in your Writer's Tool Box, grammar is simply another tool. Don't sweat it...just write.

Credits:

Online sites suggested in this article came from: The Grammar Slammer at http://englishplus.com/grammar/ .

*This article is copyrighted by Laura Hamby, 2005.

Just noting down what I've learned over these years I've been writing.

1. Be teachable. There's no one magical "Right Way" to do everything, and who knows? You may find a tip or bit of advice that proves to be more valuable than you ever suspected.

2. Emotion, emotion, emotion. Learned this from Valerie Parv (http://www.valerieparv.com/) herself. When you think you've added enough emotion, ADD MORE.

3. If you can't handle your critique partner's less-than-gushing comments about your manuscript, then you're not ready to submit it to an editor. I'd rather hear from my CP that my ms is crudtastic, honestly, than to have an editor say it.

4. If more than one CP or an editor mentions something they perceive as a problem in your writing, then you likely have a problem you need to address. This also goes back to tip #1--- be teachable.

5. It's not necessary to become an ethusiastic adherent to every new (or not so new) "how to write" process that's out there. I remember when I first heard about the Snowflake method. I checked it out and decided it had merit, but wouldn't work for me.

6. It's okay if the first draft is dreadful. Really. That's why it's often called the "rough draft."

7. The best way to write is the way that works for you. Just because others use note cards or white boards doesn't necessarily mean you have to use them, too.

8. Editors really do notice if you don't follow house guidelines when you submit. I know this because I was an editor for an e-publisher for several years. You really are sabatoging yourself by not following house submission guidelines. Why? Because it tells the editor you know nothing about their house or that you simply don't care and that you don't have a professional attitude towards this. Take the time and make the effort to tailor your submission to the house guidelines.

9. Rejection isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you've received a rejection letter in which the editor has taken the time to tell you what he/she sees wrong with your writing. Turn rejection into a positive thing by viewing it as a learning opportunity.

10. Have fun while you write. It's important that you, as the author, connect with your characters and story---it will shine through in your writing.

Point of View...POV

Very simply, POV allows the reader to experience the events of the story through the eyes of the main characters of the story. In romance novels, this is typically the heroine. The hero's POV can also be used.

The most basic rule for POV is: if the POV character can see, hear, touch/feel, smell, taste or think it, you can describe it.

What is headhopping? Headhopping is when you switch the POV back and forth between characters. It's rather like a tennis match, with the POV being the ball being bounced between the players (characters). It is acceptable to change from one POV character to another, but not with every new sentence or paragraph.

What does "omniscient POV" mean? This means you're telling the story so that you can report on everyone's thoughts, feelings, and so forth, but it doesn't allow you to delve very deeply into your main characters-the hero and heroine, which in turn, makes it difficult for your readers to get to know and love your characters. Omniscient POV works in many genres-and for those authors who've mastered the technique.

The following scene is an example of POV gone mad. (This very dreadful paragraph is copyrighted by Laura Hamby, 2008.)

THE HEADHOPPING SCENE

The sultry sun shone upon the earth, sending death rays of heat to torment Earth's beleaguered inhabitants. Foliage drooped, thirsty for respite from the unrelenting rays that the sun shone on purpose through the darkness of space to cause misery and suffering to everything they touched.

Meanwhile, back on the farm in Oklahoma, Frederick Farmer nudged the hat that sat grudgingly on his head glaring at the cloudless sky that refused to rain on purpose. His thoughts centered not at the work at hand, but on the Love of His Life.

Fiona Ficklestein.

She ruled his thoughts with an iron grip that made his brain hurt with a vengeance that surprised her. Oh, how she dearly loved Frederick who loved her back dearly, too.

"Yoo-hoo!" Fiona's dulcet tones set the cows' nerves on edge, and they mooed in protest, thinking her sweetly uttered call was music to Frederick's ears. "Frederick!"

His heart leapt in his chest, beating to burst out and embrace her like she'd never been hugged before. Gone completely now were any lingering thoughts he'd harbored about tilling the parched land that wished for nothing more than a long drink of water. No, he had eyes only for Fiona that looked at her with such fierce enchantment he thought he might be able actually ask her to marry him.

"Fiona! You came! I feared the weather would keep you home. Not much is stirring in this heat wave."

"I had to see you. Half a day is too long to be away from you and your manly aroma. I love a man who isn't afraid to sweat, even though that sweat might rabidly turn on him and cause a real stink."

"I'm your guy, then." The wet patches under his arms added their voice to his heart-felt vow.

Does your head hurt from reading that? Did your eyes cross as you tried to make sense of what was written and follow along? Let's take a look at it, paragraph by painful paragraph.

THE HEADHOPPING SCENE DISSECTED

The sultry sun shone upon the earth, sending death rays of heat to torment Earth's beleaguered inhabitants. Foliage drooped, thirsty for respite from the unrelenting rays that the sun shone on purpose through the darkness of space to cause misery and suffering to everything they touched.
>>Oh dear. Where to start. The first sentence implies the sun is capable of sending "death rays." This is more of a subjective description and could work if a human is thinking that way about the sun's rays. In the second sentence, the sun is shining ON PURPOSE. With intent. The sun is, as far as we know, an inanimate object-incapable of thought or intent.

Meanwhile, back on the farm in Oklahoma, Frederick Farmer nudged the hat that sat grudgingly on his head glaring at the cloudless sky that refused to rain on purpose. His thoughts centered not at the work at hand, but on the Love of His Life.
"Fredrick Farmer nudged the hat that sat grudgingly on his head glaring at the cloudless sky that refused to rain on purpose."
>>In this sentence, we are in the point of view of the HAT that Frederick is wearing. "...glaring at the cloudless sky..." is a misplaced modifier, because CLEARLY the hat can't glare at the sky, but Frederick CAN. In this very same sentence, at the end, the POV switched to the sky. The sky is refusing to rain on purpose. Again, this implies intent on behalf of the sky. With the final sentence, "His thoughts centered not at the work at hand, but on the Love of His Life." In a two sentence paragraph, there are 3 different POV's.

Fiona Ficklestein.
>>Oh, thank you for the POV headhopping break.

She ruled his thoughts with an iron grip that made his brain hurt with a vengeance that surprised her. Oh, how she dearly loved Frederick who loved her back dearly, too.
>>Where to begin? In the very first sentence, the POV starts in Frederick's POV, then switches to Fiona's. Ouch. The second sentence starts in Fiona's POV and ends in Frederick's. Confusing, isn't it?

"Yoo-hoo!" Fiona's dulcet tones set the cows' nerves on edge, and they mooed in protest, thinking her sweetly uttered call was music to Frederick's ears. "Frederick!"
>>How many POV's in this paragraph? TWO: Fiona's and the COWS'. Again, this is due to a misplaced modifier: "thinking her sweetly uttered call was music to Frederick's ears..." in its current position after the cows mooing in protest gives the cows the POV in this paragraph.

His heart leapt in his chest, beating to burst out and embrace her like she'd never been hugged before. Gone completely now were any lingering thoughts he'd harbored about tilling the parched land that wished for nothing more than a long drink of water. No, he had eyes only for Fiona that looked at her with such fierce enchantment he thought he might be able actually ask her to marry him.
>>Okay... his HEART is going to embrace her? Ew. In the second sentence, the POV switches from Frederick to the parched land. Why? Because the parched land is wishing for a long drink of water. In the next sentence, we are back into Frederick's POV, the POV of his eyes, and back to Frederick's.

"Fiona! You came! I feared the weather would keep you home. Not much is stirring in this heat wave."

"I had to see you. Half a day is too long to be away from you and your manly aroma. I love a man who isn't afraid to sweat, even though that sweat might rabidly turn on him and cause a real stink."
>>These two dialogue paragraphs are fine, other than being dreadful examples of speech.

"I'm your guy, then." The wet patches under his arms added their voice to his heart-felt vow.
>>EEEEWWWWWW! The SWEAT in his ARMPITS have a VOICE! EEEEWWWWW!

See how all the headhopping, not to mention giving inanimate objects a point of view, makes that one very confusing, headache-inducing paragraph? A couple of the headhops can be cleared up by moving a phrase-the misplaced modifier. The rest can be cleared up with a rewrite.

Deep POV. This allows the author to delve deeply into the heroine's or hero's minds-to show what they are thinking and feeling-in order to better explain their goals, their motivations, and their conflicts. (GMC. We'll be dealing with that further into this list). This allows the author to get into emotions that the reader might otherwise not pick up. The use of deep POV shows the reader WHY the characters do what they do; what they are really thinking when they flash that patently phony smile at another character. It shows what the character really wants, what the character is really thinking and fleshes out the character(s)_to make them seem more real.

(c) 2008 by Laura Hamby

Continuity, Pacing, Setting, Hooks, Voice, Layering ,
The Black Moment

Continuity. Means just what it says. It's simply moving from A to B to C to D, closing any doors or windows you might open (tying up all loose ends). It's making sure if you have your hero/heroine sit down that the character stands up before he/she sits again or walks across the room. It's making sure that the story moves forward in a logical, reasonable manner. It's making sure that if your character arrives at a party wearing a coat due to the snowy night, that the next scene doesn't involve the hero and heroine-at the same party-enjoying the warm summer air on the balcony, where they've snuck off to engage in some light hanky panky.

A brief word about flow (because it goes hand-in-hand with continuity): As you read your work, pay attention for eye stoppers. If your eye stops at a certain spot, so will the reader's. Does the scene read the way you want it to? Are your sentences easily understandable, or is the reader going to need a nifty decoder ring?

Pacing ties into continuity in using the plot points to drive the story forward, towards the black moment. The story needs to begin with a pace that pulls the reader in, hooks them, and keeps them reading. You don't want to start a story at a pace that puts the reader to sleep, or worse, gives them a reason to put the book down. You want to keep up a pace that keeps the reader engaged with the story, but doesn't wear the reader out or bore them-both will result in, yep, the book being put down. Within the overall pacing of the novel as a whole, there's more pacing to consider: What kind of scene are you writing? What sense do you want to invoke in your reader? Danger? Suspense? Love? Think about how you personally react to danger, for example. There's a heightened sense of awareness, deliberate movements, heart-pounding, dry-mouth and doesn't it seem like everything is happening at warp speed?

Pacing is how we use our tools-exposition, narrative elements...how we move the overall plot along.

"Pacing is that delicate balance between action scenes that make the reader's heart pound, thoughtful scenes that evoke tenderness and character insight, and everything in between that makes it difficult for the reader to put the book down. As authors, our goal should be "right" pacing that fits the mood of the scene and impacts the reader's emotions so they feel what your characters are feeling. Unfortunately, most pacing problems involve "slow" pacing, where poor plotting, scene choices, or over-writing bog down the story." (http://www.kristenkyle.com/sagpace.html)

Setting. Where is the action taking place? Town, state, country, country meadow, alpine forest, in an office building, on an escalator... where are we? What time of day is it? Time of year? Season? Setting is more than a minor detail, in many cases, the setting is a secondary character. A sense of place and time gives your story a necessary anchor.

Hooks. First, there are the hooks that apply to the entire story-the premise on which the story is based. Some examples include coming of age, regaining one's faith, second chances. Those types of hooks initially "hook" the reader into picking up your novel to read. Other hooks come at the end of scenes, chapter beginnings and ends-all to keep the novel progressing, and to keep the reader, well, hooked-these help keep the reader engaged with the story and keeps them reading.

Voice. Voice is unique to each and every individual-as unique as our speaking voices or fingerprints. An author's voice permeates the entire novel, but should not be intrusive. How can this be accomplished? Voice is word choice, the way you put your sentences together, the way you tell your story. It is how you layer in the details. Do not confuse the mechanics of writing for "voice." Poor grammar, improper punctuation, repetitiveness, for example, are not voice.

Ah, layering. Picture a small child dressed to go play outside in the snow: long johns (the basic foundation of the story); heavy socks, warm pants and shirt (the characters, plot, GMC, details); snow pants, coat, scarf, gloves, and hat (emotion, growth, Black Moment, Climax and HEA).

The revision stage-the stage that comes after you've written the first or rough draft-is when the author goes back over the story, mending the long johns/foundation where needed to ensure it will support the full weight and intent of the story; padding the socks, warm pants and shirt/characters, plot, GMC, details to be sure they are strong, vibrant, 3-dimensional, believable, realistically presented-in short, adding detail to the details.

Layering. Adding to the story, satisfying details that will draw in the reader, keep them reading. Romance relies heavily on emotion-when in doubt, add more emotion, then add more! As it suits your story, make the dark darker, the light lighter, the drama more dramatic. Have you taken advantage of every opportunity you've given yourself to delve deep into each character? Have you included the important details of setting?

Make sure you've written the best, most satisfying novel you can. Pay attention to the small details. Don't forget to give the reader visual cues about what the characters are doing. There are five senses. Use them all to your advantage. Use all of them. The scents, sights, textures (touch), sounds, and taste (food, drinks, or that aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking permeating the air so completely you can almost taste it, for example) add detail and depth to your story. EMOTION! When you think you've added enough, add more. You want the reader to connect with the characters and the story. Emotion, emotion, emotion!

Then there's that last layer: emotion, growth, the Black Moment/Climax and HEA. Growth: the characters are making progress at an appropriate rate (part of pacing). The black moment-this is what each event hitherto is pointing to, leading towards. It's the moment where everything is (or could be) lost. This is a major turning point of the story. From this point, all the action points towards the resolution from the fallout of the black moment, which in turn leads to the Happily Ever After and the conclusion of the novel.

*Copyright 2008 by Laura Hamby

Balance

You want to be sure to have a balance between exposition/narrative, dialogue, description, emotional depth and action. Avoid "Talking Head Syndrome." Show us what the characters are doing as they're talking. Where are they? What's the setting?

Exposition: The best, most concise, easy to understand definition I've come across for this term is from http://www.rachelsimon.com/wg_exposition.htm. (This site may or may not be available any more).

Exposition: "the background material a reader needs to know for the story to move forward."

Summarized from the above reference:

Exposition can be direct or indirect. Direct: stated out right. Indirect, embedded in the context. It does not need to be all up front. The key is in delivery and timing. The better your delivery, the easier it is for the reader to believe and your story will be stronger. Please see the link above to check this topic out for a more thorough overview.

Narrative Elements
From Theresa Stevens' workshop

Narrative is the specific way of telling a story. The presentation.
Story elements include: character, setting, conflict, and are the specific form the words take.

NARRATIVE ELEMENT:
1. Dialogue
2. Description (and, point of view)
3. Action
4. Interior monologue
5. Exposition
a. narrative summary (compressing the story)
b. backstory (outside the strict chronology of the story)

The below is from http://www.ccsn.nevada.edu/english/pentad.htm

Narrative elements include

1. Setting (place and time)
2. Character
3. Point of View
4. Plot (more on plot in its own section)
5. Theme-the dominant idea of your story. For example:
redemption, self-reliance, and so on.

Narratives must have purpose-reason and motive for the action taking place. Action is what happens, and must have a setting and a background (scene).

Here are several questions I thought were useful for constructing narrative, taken directly from the above mentioned link.

What is the person doing?
How did he/she get involved?
What is the person trying to accomplish?
How will the person accomplish these goals?
What obstacles does the person face?
What action is the person trying to take?
What other actions are possible?
How does the setting, the time of the and others involved in it affect the person's actions?

*Copyright 2008 by Laura Hamby

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