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Fantasy Romance

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Writing Process: To Love a Prince

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I am a panster.

 

For those that haven’t heard this term before, it means I write books “by the seat of my pants” rather than plotting out my novels.

CharactersPlot
This can be a real issue for a pantser

My prep work involves knowing who the characters are, a little bit about them, and the high-level issues they’re facing. Combined with a huge dose of “I really want to write about them”.

There’s a lot of debate about pantsing versus plotting. Plotting is where you spend a lot more time outlining what’s going to happen and when.

I’ve tried plotting.

Many times.

And I have 4 novels with 10k-20k words in them that I’ll probably never complete. I’m not sure why plotting doesn’t work for me.

Maybe I feel like the story has already been told when I plot. Maybe I get bored writing it. Maybe I rush forward to write all the plot points and ignore the characters.

I’m not sure, but I do know it doesn’t work. For me.

Writing To Love a Prince really taught me this. I started this story three times. I have one 60k work that is not salvageable where Prince Eli was supposed to be the hero. Yeah. 60k. But it was awful.

And it wasn’t Eli.

I couldn’t make him weak. I couldn’t make him indecisive.  He needed to be in control, and if he wasn’t, he was going to fight like an injured bear to get back into control.

He also didn’t care much what society said about him. He was a Prince. Let them fear him. Despise him. But they would respect him or face his wrath.

ToLoveAPrinceSmall
The end result of listening.

Yeah. The first story I wrote with him being injured and nursed back to health failed spectacularly. The second story where he was stymied by social pressure made him raise a brow. He almost rolled his eyes at me, but he’s too dignified for that.

Sure, the stories were plotted, but they weren’t his story. So I let him tell his. I was very hesitant at how the story progressed, especially as it involved a slave and royal succession.

I also worried Auburn’s kindness would be perceived as weakness. I tried changing her, but it just didn’t work. She had to be who she was because Eli fell in love with her for that. In a world as conniving as the court he’d grown up in, Auburn was his beacon of light.

I tried plotting once or twice more after To Love a Prince, but those failed, too.

So now I write by the seat of my pants. Yes, it means a lot more revisions. But I love writing that first draft! Seeing the characters revealed, their love grow, and see them overcome whatever I throw at them..

That is why I write.

Progress!

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I have finished my current edit on Seducing the Ice Queen.

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*happy dance*

I am taking a short break from the story before starting my final line edit that focuses on things like comma usage, word variation, and not ending sentences with prepositions.

On day two of this break, a whole new idea smacked me. I started writing it, and after two days, I’m over 4,000 words into it and still going strong! If not for this pesky thing called a day job, I’d be much farther along.

The characters are really coming alive, and that’s the best part about writing for me.

Yes it’s a first draft, and I both love and fear this draft. I love it because anything is possible. Because as I write it, I get to know the characters. Their foibles, fallacies, and strengths. I am a pantser, so this first draft is where I learn what happens to the characters and how they get their happily-ever-after.

*squee*

However, I also fear it because I’m staring at a blank sheet. There is nothing there to rearrange, fix or correct. It’s empty, waiting for those first words that will spur the next eleven revisions. There is no wordsmithed beauty to it. It’s raw and dirty, this first draft.

And that’s okay.

I just have to get it on the page.

After the blow my writing took back in July, I am ecstatic that my muse came back to sit on my shoulder again.

Magic

I’ve missed her, and I’ve missed the joy of creating new worlds and the people in them.

It’s My Story. Thanks Anyway.

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I am not very good at listening.

So, as I told you here, my paid editor didn’t like the villain in my current romance novel. She thought the bad guy needed more than just a sense of greed and entitlement.

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Because no one, especially a great author, has ever used greed as motivator.

So, I added another character that was supposed to be the star-crossed villain, doing evil things out of love. I revamped the original villain to be more sympathetic. I did everything the editor said I should.

And it didn’t work.

Why?

Because now I like the characters, and the new “villain” developed their own character in the process. Becoming a person that wouldn’t actually commit murder.

*throws hands up*

I know. I hate it when characters stop listening to their author-god and go do their own thing.

But see, here’s the thing. People do bad stuff all the time. People are motivated by greed, and fear, and lust. Not everyone is altruistic.

I’m not even sure everyone is a hero in their own story.

Yeah, I know us writers are fed this a great deal. But I’m not sure it’s true.

Not everyone thinks they’re blameless. Some people know what they’re doing is wrong and do it anyway.

I want this thing, so I’m going to take it. Yeah, it’s wrong. So what? Yeah, it may hurt someone, but I’m going to take what I want.

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Don’t believe me?

How many con artists are scamming people out of their money and justifying it to themselves on some higher moral ground? Because there’s totally heroic reasons to call a grandmother pretending to be her granddaughter in a horrible car accident and beg for money in the form of non-traceable gift cards so the hospital will admit her. *that was sarcasm*

Or calling parents and telling them their child was kidnapped and demanding ransom money or they’re be killed.

So, maybe the villain in this story really is just in it for money. Maybe they’re willing to steal an old man’s retirement savings by pretending to be the love his life. Or maybe they’re willing to kill a scrupulous duke to keep gold flowing.

It’s my story. And while this villain may have had a traumatic childhood on the streets of Aerius, that’s not the story.

I don’t care why he values money over someone’s life. He does. And a flip through the news will show he’s not alone.

My Little Secret

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Okay, maybe not so secret. I’ve been struggling with this latest rewrite on my novel.

When I received my beta readers’ comments, I read through them, nodded vigorously, and spent the next ten days revising my WIP with these comments in mind. I think they added a lot to the story.

BetaReader

Then I received the comments from my paid editor.

I read through them twice. I pondered them. I told myself over and over again that editors are usually correct and these are changes I need to make.

But actually making them?

That hasn’t really happened easily. After more than a month, I have completed less than 1/3 of what I did in ten days for beta reader comments.

But then I’m not terribly surprised.

I read the comments again, and one recommended that there was so little going on in the story that I should consider chopping it down to a novella. That surprised me as one of my beta readers liked how plot driven this novel was.

But then who wants to be told about a character’s emotional state more than once in a romance novel? Yes, that was sarcasm. Sorry.

Interestingly, one of my beta readers wanted more description of character emotion.

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Getting here is the story.

Another comment recommended using flashbacks to tell the back story rather than have so much of it come through dialogue. After all, who is Auburn and Eli? That told me the editor hadn’t done any research on me, or read the part where I told her this was the second book of a series. It also told me she didn’t read much in the romance genre as I can’t remember once, in over thirty years of reading romance novels, where an author used a flashback. I’ve also read a lot of writing advice about not using them as it rips the reader out of your world.

I’m not certain the editor was revising a romance novel with a mystery supporting it. I think she was revising a mystery with a romance in it. But that’s not what I wrote. Or what I wanted to write.

I’m now more than a month away from when I received the editor’s advice. I will take some of it. For example, I will try to give you more insight into the villain and why he was doing what he was doing. Make him appear less one-dimensional and motivated by more than greed and jealousy. I can do that. I can also try to throw in a few more red herrings.

editing

But honestly, I am starting to see how bad advice can be worse than no advice at all. Worse yet is bad advice mixed with a bit of good. Trying to sort through it and pick out the parts that work, without swallowing the bad parts, is tricky.

It’s extremely hard to put so much of yourself into something like a book, then hand it out to a stranger. A professional, but still a stranger, and pay for their help to make it better.

It’s harder still when you’re not sure they’re right.

Happily Ever After

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There are lots of tropes in romance. One that I love, that lured me into the genre, is the promise of the happily-ever-after. That no matter what the author does, how twisted the plot becomes, I am going to get a happily-ever-after.

Yes, I know the real world doesn’t work this way. All I have to do is turn on the news to see that.

But reading is an escape for me. A chance to see bad people get their comeuppance. A chance to see characters learn and grow, rather than make the same mistake eighteen times and wonder why it’s still a mistake. Not that I know anyone like that…

Romance novels give this to me. It’s also why I choose to read them and to write them.

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Okay, no one has ever mistaken Game of Thrones for a romance novel.

Lately, I have read a couple of books that were marketed as romance, but they lacked a true happily-ever-after. Seriously, if the heroine dies in the end, even to save her family, her lover, and the world, this is not romance. Perhaps it’s fantasy. Maybe it’s women’s fiction.

But it is NOT romance.

I have added the author that did this to my “never read again” list. Yes, harsh, but if I want a nebulous ending, I am completely capable of choosing another genre to read. Those genres may or may not give me a happy ending, and I know that walking into them.

Books like Uprooted are hard core fantasy, and while there is sadness and loss in it, we still get a satisfying ending. An ending that doesn’t kill off the heroine.

Certain tropes in romance will never appeal to me. I want my heroines to have agency, and rape is abhorrent. I will stop reading at this point.

This is part of the reason why I choose to write fantasy romance. I can create worlds where women can have power, own land, and fight wars. In addition to wielding magic, riding dragons, and having tea with elves.

Still, the happily-ever-after ending is more than a trope. It’s a keystone of the genre.

Weddinghearthands
Happily-ever-after is not optional.

If a novel doesn’t have it, you don’t have a romance novel, no matter what an author tells themselves or their reader.

And frankly, I don’t need any more sadness. I want the happy ending.

My promise to you is that my romance novels will always have a happy ending.

Update: September is Still On!

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A quick progress update on the status of my in-progress romance novels as we all sleep off the holiday either at home, because we’re lucky, or back in the office if you’re like me and have to work today.

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  1.  The first draft of Gabriel’s novel is complete!

Okay, yes, it’s a first draft. And yes, it’s very rough. Most of my first drafts are. But it’s done, and it’s a lot longer than most of my first drafts. We’ll see how that goes later when I start revision.

 

2.  I received and read through the feedback on Seducing the Ice Queen.

My Beta reader was fabulous, as always.  She helped me identify a weakness that, when I’m done fixing, will make the hero more fleshed out and the story stronger. Helped identify a few other areas that need to be cleaned up, too, but I’m starting to feel a lot better about this WIP.

BetaReader

3.  I am making the changes to Ice Queen now, and I hope to have them done before July 21st.

They are good suggestions, but not easy ones. Still, they’ll make the story better.

 

4.  I’m thinking about cover design for Seducing the Ice Queen.

If you’ve seen any covers you think would be inspirational, please send them my way!

 

5.  I’ve been toying with the blurb for Seducing the Ice Queen.

I worked with a professional to write the blurb for To Love a Prince, and she gave me some tips on how to build one. I’m planning to map out her advice, have a cocktail (her recommendation), then tackle it on my own. I still think I’ll hire her again to help me with this one. I really liked working with her. Yes, she wrote the blurb, but she taught me a lot, and I figure it’s an investment in both the book and my own skills

Things on my “To Do” List

  1. I’m waiting to hear back from my editor.

    It’s my first time using this editor, and I’m both nervous and excited to work with her. Once I get her comments, I will start working on another edit. Depending on the extent of her comments, I think I will still be track for a September launch date.

  2. Alexander and Katherine

    These are two new characters floating around my thoughts. I hadn’t planned on writing this story next, but they are rather insistent. Their story is already taking shape, and I’m not sure it will be ignored.

    AlexKath
    Maybe. If he’s lucky…