Scarlett O'Hara

I love the book Gone with the Wind (the movie too, for that matter!).  Without a doubt, Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most memorable heroines in English literature.

Why do I love Scarlett?  Well, she's beautiful, clever and sought after.  She's also flawed.  She's willful, stubborn and selfish.  But she's also determined and loyal.  Yes, loyal.  It is her unswerving loyalty and faith in her love for Ashley (even in the face of the dashing and much more suitable Rhett) that makes her wrongheaded and unrequited love tolerable, and even endearing.

Love should be courageous.  Just like Scarlett.

Writing Sexual Tension: The Devil in the Details

Sexual tension starts from the very beginning of a romance novel and builds steadily to a crescendo.  This culmination of tensions (i.e. sex) can happen near the beginning of the novel, as with erotic or steamy romances, or in the middle or end for "normal" heat levels, or not at all.

I'm not talking about the "not at all" category here.  I'm talking hot and steamy.  Sex on the page, in vivid detail or, in the case of erotic romances, sometimes graphic particulars.  The point is that we get to see the details in these types of romances.  That's what makes the ultimate sex scenes hot.  But it also adds to the build up.

Hypersensitivity

From the beginning of a good romance novel, the hero and heroine are focused on each other.  They may not like each other--in fact, they may even hate each other at their first encounter--but they are never indifferent.  This awareness appears on the page in a hypersensitivity to each other.  Tiny aspects of each others' looks or behaviours that the hero and heroine will completely ignore in the minor characters will be noted in each other and even take on an exaggerated importance.

For instance, we often read about the shifting sparks or lights in the heroine's gaze or the muscles working in the hero's jaw.  We don't notice such details in real life, not unless we are in love with someone.  And then we notice every little thing about our beloved.

So too does it have to be with the hero and heroine's attentions to each other.  They are going to fall in love at some point, whether they know it or not.  More importantly, the reader will have to fall in love with them and that's where such attention to detail pays off.

Intense responses

Just as the main characters notice every detail about each other, they are unusually affected by one another.  A slight movement of an eyebrow can send one or the other of them into paroxysms of guilt or ecstasy, just as a small accident touch can cause shivers and shudders.

The intense response is key to the characters fixating on each other.  Again, they may not know what they're feeling but the reader is going to anticipate the next step: sex.  And when it happens, because these are romance novels, we need to know that the sexual encounter didn't arise out of nowhere but was based on pre-existing and inevitable signs.

Sex on the page

When we finally get the main characters into the bedroom, the tactics used above should be employed here as well.  The characters are both overly sensitive to each other and feel intensely when touched by the other.  The key is to use these techniques without self-parody.

The characters don't just magically doff their clothes.  The faint contact of skin-on-skin while undressing is treated with fine attention to detail.  This is part of the seduction.  If a sex scene was simply about genitalia then we wouldn't be writing romances, we'd be writing pornography.

Physical intimacy is also importantly about how the characters are feeling.  Each physical action that moves the sex scene forward should be accompanied by the emotional reprecussions for the characters.  Reactions can say more than words here.  The heroine may not have declared her love for the hero as of yet but her responses to him can make her feelings clear.  By using these details, you can create a whole picture of fulfilling sexual passion.

Photo courtesy of Carlos Porto at freedigitalphotos.net

Naming your Main Characters, or Nom d’un nom d’un nom

Naming my characters is one of my favourite writing-related activities. But it’s also a chore I obsess about. Names have to be perfect. Who wants to read about a romance between Silas Twingletoe and Kezia Birtwhistle? I didn’t even make those names up. They’re from a Lucy Maud Montgomery book called Magic for Marigold. The beginning chapters of the novel focus around finding a name for a newly fatherless infant. Needless to say, it is my most read part of the book.

Main Characters

It goes without saying that the hero and heroine are the most important characters in your novel. They get to do all of the fun stuff, like argue, misunderstand each other, have sex, and fall in love (not necessarily in that order).

I spend a lot of time finding the right names for my main characters. My own peculiarity is that I prefer names that sound good as well as have an interesting meaning. For instance, I search out names that are from different cultures and see if I can produce a name that means something. For my hero, I want a name that means ‘brave’, ‘loyal’, or ‘stalwart warrior’. Or all three. I also have personal preferences.

I find that I gravitate towards names that start with A, C, and L. Don’t ask me why…there isn’t even an L in my name! I just find that names that start with those letters sound strong or forceful. Hard sounds also help. Short names that end with ‘n’ or ‘m’ sound tough and masculine (but sweet and sensitive inside, of course!).

For my heroines, I want a name that rolls lyrically off the tongue. My preference is for feminine names that start with A, L, S and V. Again, that’s just my personal tastes. However, for female names, the endings are often what give the name its ‘feminine’ character. Names that end with ‘a’, ‘l’ or ‘y’ are easier on the ear and distinguishably feminine, even when you get creative with the name itself.

Which leads us to my method of choosing names for my main characters.

To find these names, I pour over baby name websites. Cheesy, I know. But where else are you going to find thousands and thousands of names, arranged by gender, first letter, meaning and language of origin? All of these aspects play a part in my ultimate choice. This blond hero needs to have a strong Teutonic name? This brunette needs a softer Arabic name? I know just where to look!

Last names work the same way, although these are often found on different websites, usually dealing with genealogy. Just Google the language/ culture you want, with “surnames” and you’ve got more choices than you can handle! To filter, try a specific country of origin.

With all of these names, I like to experiment. Adding an ‘a’ at the end of a masculine name might give me a suitable name for my heroine. Changing the first letter of a name might reward me with an appropriately tough-sounding hero.

Experiment. Try these tips and make your own tweaks to them.

Photo courtesy of Pixomar at freedigitalphotos.net

Writing about Style: Fashion Static

The heroines in my manuscripts are like me: fashion conscious (but not conscientious) and bargain hunters by necessity.  We know that Louboutin and Choos are modern classics as far as footwear is concerned.  We are aware of Daniella Issa Heyalel and Sarah Burton as solid new designers.  We know the surface, the popular names, but not the ins and outs of the everchanging fashion world.  We don't read Vogue (Italian or otherwise).

None of us can blow a thousand bucks on a designer dress for a party or five hundred on a pair of shoes.  My heroines and I shop at retail chains and stay within budget.  We work hard for our money, after all, and while we like to look good, we also like to eat and pay the phone bill.

For a romance heroine, being up-to-date on the latest fashions is not a requirement.

Most heroines we read about have a simple, classic style.  Sheath or wrap dresses are perennial favourites for what they do to flatter a woman's body.  Business suits are tailored but feminine, in muted grays or stark black, and they serve well for a tense workplace encounter.  Beneath the suit, you may want a hint of softness -- a silk blouse or lacy camisole, or perhaps a piece of signature jewellery like pearls that were a gift from her twenty-first birthday.

Jeans work well for casual encounters.  Sometimes there's nothing sexier on the hero too!  Sundresses with a light summery print are a must for beachy fun while the swimsuits underneath can be a daringly contrasting bright-coloured bikini or demure black one-piece.  See, with a minimum of description, we can create a full wardrobe!

You don't have to go into full detail over length of sleeves, ruching, and hemlines unless they play a part in the story itself.  You don't want to describe a daring strapless number and then have the hero slipping spaghetti straps off your heroine's shoulders two pages later.  That would be a fiction fashion faux pas.

Where fashion is concerned, simple is better.  Black pumps and little black cocktail dresses never go out of style.  And simple is also timeless.

I am a huge fan of vintage romance novels from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.  If you read these "contemporary" romances, you would be surprised at how little the fashion in these books have changed.  A solid pair of calf-hugging boots are still a must, as are good pumps and a pair of strappy sandals.  Great blouses are still silk.  Good jewellery is still gold.

Simple colours like blue, black and red last while hunter green may forever date your heroine in the 1990s.  Anyone remember acid wash jeans?  How many romantic heroes and heroines were sporting those in 1985?  I may have been wearing them too, but I'll tell you that none of my heroines would have been caught dead in them!

Photo courtesy of Suat Eman at freedigitalphotos.com

The End of the Affair

Over the years, I've written more than a dozen romance novels.  These manuscripts live in the bottom of my hard drive, coming out only once in a while or so to be re-read, re-loved, and wrapped up carefully again and put away.  They are, by default, for my eyes only.  Some of them I have tried to publish, been rejected, and tried again.  Each rejection leads to revisions, doubts, and self-flagellation.  But each rejection also makes me hug my creations closer.  My poor manuscripts.  If I don't love you, who ever will?  The answer is clearly no one.

Some of these manuscripts I have never submitted for publication.  These are truly creatures of my own midnight experiments, written long after the networks no longer air entertaining programs and most reasonable people are in bed.  I, too, should have been in bed on those nights where I was clattering away on my laptop and falling in love with my many characters.

Over the years, I have not only created more than a dozen loving couples (well, in the end they end up loving -- in the beginning of the book, they might fight like gladiators).  I've agonized over what they will do, what they will say, and, most importantly, how they will react to one another.  I've learned how they talk, walk, kiss, and make love.

But it's more than that.  I can obsess about my friends and family in that way (not that that would be at all healthy).  But my feelings for my characters go beyond mere interest, concern, curiousity or even love.

These are my creations.

I breathed life into each and every heroine, have molded each and every hero.  Given them names.  Given them their mannerisms, their laughs, their personal sense of style.

So how do I say good-bye to them?

Well, first of all, I've left my characters in a good place.  If I've done my job as a writer, all doubts and misunderstandings have been explained and swept aside.  All loose ends are tied in a tight little bow.  So, the plot is resolved.

Secondly, the characters have grown.  My plot has put them through a lot.  Their love has been tested, but even more so has their character.  The woman who never felt that she belong can find belonging in the dawning of her new life.  The man who was left bitter by betrayal can trust again.  And so on.  So the characters too have progressed to a place where they can be set free.

Lastly, and most importantly for me, the emotional rollercoaster I've put both characters and reader (singular, since it's often just me at this point) has come to an end and the paying ticketholders can exit the ride.  After running through the gamut of emotions, I can let everyone off of the hook, satisfied and cathartically released.  Because, really, isn't that what we all need -- to feel vividly alive as we read, yet knowing that we can put the book down at the end of the day and head back into our real real lives?

Now, of course, we have to put the book down and I have to press Save and store my completed file away.

Saying good-bye is like closing the book.  I suppose, literally, it is...The End.

Photo courtesy of nattavut at freedigitalphotos.net

Six Foot Four and Violet Eyes



Why do we read romance novels?  For entertainment?  For an escape from reality?

Whatever makes us to it, to bottom line is that romance novels give us pleasure.  The men in the books we read (and write) do and say those strong-willed and strong-hearted acts and words that we often don't see on the bus, sitting in traffic, in our office buildings or outside in the backyard (no offense to our dear spouses and partners!).

The books we read give us men who are men, to use a tired old cliche, and women who are free and independent, spirited and adventurous -- women we want to be, let's face it, and often can't.  Sure, I can work up the courage to ask for a raise next time I feel I deserve it, and after researching the how-tos and what-fors endlessly on the internet.  Maybe I'll even get the raise (fingers crossed!).  But I don't know if I could everything I know for the love of a man.  I don't know if I could venture into an uncharted land in search of intrigue and end up in a stranger's bed.  I don't really think I want to find out.  But the books we read let us do that.

We can see the exception to our workaday rules in the romance novels we love, where every man:

• is at least six feet tall (and often taller);
• is handsome (runners up: craggy, "vital" or rugged);
• has muscles; and
• carries about him an "air of" sophistication, power or raw sexual energy.

The women we imagine ourselves to be are just as fantastic.  These heroines are:

• young;
• beautiful;
• plucky;
• violet-eyed (runners up: turquoise, azure, emerald etc.); and, invariably
• trim, slender, or voluptuous (but never as a euphemism for chubby).

We get older.  Our violet eyes fade.  But our heroines are eternally young and lovely.  Entertainment?  Escapism?  How about just pure pleasure?

Photo courtesy of Jomphong at freedigitalphotos.net



What Does a Good Romance Heroine Look Like?

Let's start with the looks.  Come on, let's be fair, it's often where the men start, isn't it?

But, truthfully, there is little room in traditional romance novels for the plain Janes (unless she transforms into a swan somewhere along the way, often with the hero's help), for the bookish types, the nerds, the geeks.  I'm all four of those (and all for them, of course).  So little wonder that I write romance novels, rather than star in them.

Beauty

So, first point, a heroine must be beautiful.

Figure:
She must be slender or average-sized with curves.  She can be a little chubby if it comes with extra curves.  She cannot be overweight.

Yeah, I know.

Their rules, not mine.

Hair:
She can be blonde or brunette or redheaded.  There are a lot of redheads running around the pages of romance novels, statistically many more than exist in nature.  So what?  Romance novels are for dreamers so if your feisty heroine acts like a grown up version of Anne of Green Gables, why not make her hair auburn or Titian?

Eyes:
Now, a decent heroine must have eyes of azure, emerald, silver, or (more rarely) deepest sloe.  Common enough hues such as medium-brown or bluish-gray are out.  Colours must be singular.  The eyes themselves may be rounded or slanted or almond but they are usually quite large.  No one wants to read about a heroine with a squint.

Features:
Facial features should be clear and regular.  Very important: neither nose nor chin nor aforementioned eyes must protrude.

Height:
Likewise, with height, she can also be any of: tall and slender, short but determined, or average.  When in doubt, always stick with average.  It varies from country to country but you can be safe in most Western countries using 5'2" to 5'4".

Remember: your heroine's description shouldn't read like a police report.  No scars, no piercings, no tattoos.  No distinguishing marks of any kind.  A proper heroine should be recognizable by her violet eyes alone.

Okay, so we started with the looks.  Shall we end with them too?

No?

Okay, a solid romance heroine must also be spirited, smart (but not too smart), sassy (or secretly yearning to be so), courageous and virginal.

Virginal?  Really, still?  Yes.

Really?

Yes.  Just deal with it.

Photo courtesy of m_bartosch at freeditigalphotos.net