I’m totally in love with this Wannabe Writers meme. It’s fantastic and forces you to be honest with fellow writers and yourself, while giving you the opportunity to discuss problems, dreams, and solutions to said problems. If you’re feeling the itch to join and want a bit more info, head over to this post at Sarah’s Confessions of the Un-Published.
Where I am in the Writing Process: Well, as far as statistics go, I’m at 56,798 words. I’m also finished with Plot Point #2, leaving me with the Narrative and Dramatic Climaxs and the Denoument to go, all of which are pretty short. I haven’t met my 3,000 a day for ten days goal, but I’m not feeling too guilty. I was about to die. Either way, I should be finished with the first draft of That Boy in the Shed by April12th. I’m both nervous and excited. I can feel that I’m nearing the wrapping up stage. The combination of the Narrative Climax, the Dramatic Climax, and the Denouement make the conclusion.
My Current Problems: I’m still struggling with staying focused, but I have a feeling that I’ll always have that problem. My brain’s always teeming with ideas that are eager for attention. I’ll just have to work around them. As far as writing goes, I’m doing just as well as usual. Overall, there’s nothing much to report.
The Question this Week: Writing Romance? How to develop a relationship out of thin air and make it believable? (And not just lust.)
That’s key. Lust is boring. It’s animal instinct, not personal or even very emotional. It’s stellar if the boy or girl is attractive. When someone kisses the MC, it’s just fine if they want another one. It’s fine if their heart starts beating until they feel like it might bust.
Yet that’s not enough to make a real, intriguing relationship. There’s nothing really substantial to make all the emotional turmoil (which must be in the book, otherwise you’re missing plot) worthwhile. What qualities attract the MC – and the reader?
I think the most important key to writing a decent, not-too-corny romance is creating believable, dynamic characters. Both “lovers” must be equally human and interesting. Far too often, one (often the main) character is totally boring in comparison to the potential lover. In my opinion, this distracts the reader with thoughts about how totally sub-par that character is.
Also, I think that tension or emotional turmoil (as I put it before) is crucial to the plot and to interesting the reader. A romance, or any plot or subplot, that runs along without a hitch is usually boring. It won’t make for a page-turner.
I think that J. Kaye (over at 365 Days of Novel Writing) also had a good piece of advice: “My advice has been and always will be to study what has already been done. Find authors you like and study how they do it. That’s exactly what I do. And if I run across one I don’t like, I ask myself what is it I don’t like.”
Good stuff. If you want to see the rest of that post, or any other Wannabe Writers posts from this week, click.
Hope you all can smooth out your writing troubles and enjoy trudging along this week!
