Thursday, October 28, 2010

Starting Something New

I've recently decided to try my hand at the romance genre. Honestly, I'm terrified. Plain and simple, I do not read that much romance, and the one's I do read, the romance part isn't the main genre. Usually its paranormal romance, so I feel like I'm a little out of my league. So, why do I do it? I feel like writing this story will help me grow as a writer overall. I feel like I can do the fantasy/scifi/paranormal stuff no problem, but romance? That's hard!

As, I intend to do this story for NaNoWriMo this year, mostly I'm just jotting down tidbits of things I want to remember as well as research and developing my settings and characters. In fact, I just printed off my very detailed, 7-page Chapter Synopsis. Basically, as long as I don't kill off a main character, I can't mess this up. I know the romance recipe: Man meets Woman, they fight, they argue, they fall in love; something happens in their relationship that splits them up and then something else happens that makes them realize they can't live without each other. Tada! Romance novel. Sadly, for me, this could still end terribly, terribly bad. Don't believe me? *sigh*

So, here's the dilema I'm already facing. My Female Main Character has been great. She has been wonderfully cooperative, giving me everything I need, even already interested in my Male Main Character. But (oh yes, there is a but) he is not. So, I need to vent a little bit. I have decided to write him a letter, because that's what I've been doing lately. I've been writing to get into the habit of writing. Here it is.

Dear Jeremy (that's his name),

Sir, why are you being so difficult? I understand its in your personality to be the observant one, but you need to open up to me a little, or I'm going to have to cut you from the story. I'm sure there will be someone else for Amelia. Perhaps Josh.

If you don't like hearing that, then you need to help me out a little. I need you to share some of that wit and humor with me! We already made this deal once. I'm not backing out of it. I know the next month is going to be rocky and emotional, but you have to trust me. Didn't I tell you everything would work out in the end? Didn't I promise you closure and happiness and whatnot? Why are you doing this to me?! You're driving me crazy!

That is all.
-Haley Jo

2 comments:

  1. ooo Good luck! I've read like, umm, 1 romance novel (harlequin style). It was weird too. But the year I won nanowrimo, 2008, I wrote a romance/erotica. And I don't read erotica either. But I still was able to write it, so if I can I'm sure you can write the romance. *cheers for you*

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  2. I'm sure you'll do great Haley. I love the letter to Jeremy. I do that quite often with my male characters - they are always the most difficult to work with.

    I used to read romance novels all the time as my Grandma used to send them to me and my Dad by the box load! But when I started writing my own full length novels, I quit reading them and tried to read in the genre I was writing in.

    So, I would say read a few romance novels - at the very least for research purposes. You don't have to enjoy them, but it'll at least give you an idea of what other people have done so you can make a unique story.

    Good luck!

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