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So why romance?

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22nd October 2015   
     I have spent the last few weeks stressing over a query letter, and a synopsis and a series outline and it has just about done me in.  If you read Kay’s blog about these things you would know how confusing it all is.  I mean it has to be concise and follow guidelines and I agree that is fair enough but in cutting it down I feel like I’ve lost my personality.  Keep the sentences short, don’t add this, and don’t add that; in other words it has to be down to the bone.  And again I say it feels like I have lost my personality.  I mean it doesn’t make sense that the very thing I am sending to a publisher which is  something I wrote has to resemble a robotic creation and not show any of my style or what makes me distinct from another writer.  Hence the reason why I am done in, seriously who wouldn’t be?

      My head understands perfectly that the publisher sees so many manuscripts that their heads must be done in too.  Short and sweet, and to the point is a fair way to narrow down their workload so why am I so bothered?  Well, no prizes for guessing the answer. Fear, pure and simple and deadly fear! Those three things that form a vital part of my submission will make or break me before they (the editors/publishers) even see the novel.  And, what is worse I will still not know if my writing is any good enough because those things that I have sent off are not really a representative of my real writing.  See how flustered I am?  I write romance and a short sharp summary although needed is not indicative of what goes on in my books.  What to do? Well, I decided to relax for a little while and go explore what drew me to writing in the first place.

     I then remembered a conversation I had with Alison and Kay about doing a blog about what drew us to our genre, and not just writing itself.   We are all so different;  Alison with paranormal and fantasy, and  Kay with what we could call science fiction but is also so much more as her work does cross some interesting borders.   You see even though I also cross a few boundaries myself everything I do has the element of love interwoven throughout the various manuscripts I am working with or on.  I have a poetry anthology written and ready to go, a science fiction and a psychological thriller outlined as well as this contemporary romance that I am so close to sending off to the publisher.   Yet the glue is love in all of them, different types of love at times but all my characters draw strength in love, seek love as a counterpart to understanding, want love so life is shared, demonstrate feelings physically often choosing ways and means that may not suit others.  Why have I chosen this theme?  I’m not exactly an expert in that department and it clouds my text type stripping it back to the romance all the time.

     By now you would have worked out that exploring what drew me to writing will have to wait for another blog.  Right now the pull is towards discussing why I have chosen this genre and I have to go with it because it is connected to why I am having this crisis about something that is part of the process.  That was a long sentence! Bear with me and I may figure it out before the end of this.  So let me remind you of where we were (truth is I need reminding as well).  Of course, it’s all about the reason I write romance.
       
     Is it possibly because I believe that love is the most important thing for a human to have to survive in this turmoilic world?  Did you like that last word?  It’s mine, I made it up and I am keeping it.  However I honestly feel this way and do believe it is the inability of some to understand love and display it that does so much harm on a local, regional, national and then global level.  I don’t just mean romantic love but parental, friendships, collegial, or for the four footed friends that grace our lives.

     Some of my characters are not so nice with this word and define it to suit their needs but some like Lia just let it happen. This contrast brings out emotions in us.  Nico for instance fights calling it anything, is afraid of what it may mean to his life but when he embraces it his life changes in ways he had no idea existed.  He has someone with whom he can be exactly who he is, and it adds a dimension to the physical without relying on frills, yes frills and not thrills.  See  call me simplistic, but I like that reading can give you that glow, can get you all hot and bothered, can make you angry, sad or joyful  and can make you just forget the world for that small space of time. 

     The truth is though, that every genre can do this for the reader but romance, well romance is the very essence of our lives and it does it in a way that keeps us dreaming.   It is about the escapism the words on the page provide in keeping hopes alive.  I have to abide by short and sweet rules or I may never get the chance to get my words out there (yes, I can self-publish but that is another discussion).  So I guess it is back to the drawing board so I can finish my submission and see if I can do my small part in providing the pleasure I have derived over the years.

Barb

P.S.  Ironically it is the paranormal genre that brought me to the world of seriously writing, I am talking sitting at the desk hard at work writing.  I should be more specific and say it was the vampires.  How?  Well I have three vampire stories to tell you about first and it is the last one that will make it clear about the writing and the genre I have chosen.  Please join me again and until then,

Ciao 

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