MUSE MONDAY
Please join me in welcoming Terri Rochenski to Muse Monday. Read to the end and enter her drawing!
The single most important thing to do when writing romance.
Be predictable.
Wait. Hear me out before you
react…your readers want the HEA.
After reading Love’s Sorrow, my
editor gave her thoughts on what she expects book #2 might hold. I was
horrified when she guessed almost exactly what takes place.
I’m that predictable?!?
I wailed while reading her email.
I want to throw wrenches in and
surprise my readers, giving them that, “Oh no you didn’t!” moments that make
putting a book down near impossible. I replied to my editor with those words,
and here’s what she had to say:
“…in a way, readers want a
sense of predictability. If you take the story in a way they hadn't predicted,
or hoped for, you risk alienating them. And...it's really about the spin (the
clothes) you put on the story structure (the body) that will make the next
instalment memorable and epic. Your first instinct is usually right.”
Honestly, I had never considered such a thing. As a lover of
romance books myself, I have to have my HEA, and I normally can figure out how
the author will take us there. This, however, was the first time I had someone
know what transpires before reading my own
work.
Will I keep my story as planned? Of course I will. In order
for Anne’s story to come full circle—to complete the character arcs within its
pages—I need those events to transpire. They are in there for a reason. Sure, I
can throw in surprises here and there, get the readers’ blood pumping, but when
it comes to the ending, predictability is key.
To change the ending would leave loose strings. Unresolved
issues.
Romance readers won’t stand for such a thing. They (I!!!)
want that HEA. We can’t deny them, now can we?
Do you think happily ever after endings are cliché? Do YOU
mind a Romeo and Juliette ending?
Love’s Sorrow (Means of Mercy #1)
Blurb:
Hired
as a nanny for her cousin’s children, Anne Tearle finds security and a loving
family. The children are a dream, but London society is a world of its
own, one where a displaced farm girl has no business
being. But, wealthy rake, Gavin MacKay, helps her to see associating with
the upper class might not be as horrid as she first assumed.
Like
all things worthwhile, love comes at a price, and the cost soon bestows more
anguish than joy. Lost, but not undone, Anne must find the courage to begin
life anew, or succumb to sorrow's unrelenting waves of grief.
Purchase
Links
Bio:
Terri started writing stories in the 8th grade,
when a little gnome whispered in her brain. Gundi’s Great Adventure never hit
the best seller list, but it started a long love affair with storytelling.
Today she enjoys an escape to
Middle Earth during the rare ‘me’ moments her three young children allow. When
not playing toys, picking them back up, or kissing boo-boos, she can be found sprawled
on the couch with a book or pencil in hand, and toothpicks propping her eyelids
open.
Ms. Rochenski’s Links:
Link for Love’s Sorrow on Goodreads:
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