Addison Fox's Blog - Posts Tagged "romance"
Writing Long, Writing Short...What's the Difference
I'm giving a workshop to my local RWA chapter on Saturday and will be talking about plot. Specifically, what types of plots work for different lengths of books.
As a reader, it's not something I ever consciously thought of, but as a writer it's something I must think about - all the time.
How will a plot idea in my head translate into the book I'm writing?
Ever notice how a lot of novellas are reunion stories? While I don't want to say it's completely deliberate, it does give the writer - and the reader - a shorthand to accept how quickly the hero and heroine get together on the page.
Alternatively, in a longer book we often get a much larger sense of the hero and/or the heroine before the two of them meet. What's brought them to this point in their lives? What are they emotionally searching for? And what predicament are they in that's going to carry them through the next 350 pages.
Prepping for this workshop, I've had a lot of fun going back to favorite reads - novellas, category-length books, longer single titles - and thinking about how the plots of each dictated the type of story being told.
It made me look more closely at my own writing and - even when ideas are cooking subconsciously - how I'm still categorizing them in my head.
I LOVE to read - and I'm a romance reader across the spectrum of romance publishing. From all the sub-genres, to really juicy novellas to a stack of category novels on my bookshelf that are definite keepers, I read them all.
It's been extremely rewarding to translate that love of the romance genre to what I'm writing. It makes my book-loving, romance-writing heart very, very happy! :-)
Addison
As a reader, it's not something I ever consciously thought of, but as a writer it's something I must think about - all the time.
How will a plot idea in my head translate into the book I'm writing?
Ever notice how a lot of novellas are reunion stories? While I don't want to say it's completely deliberate, it does give the writer - and the reader - a shorthand to accept how quickly the hero and heroine get together on the page.
Alternatively, in a longer book we often get a much larger sense of the hero and/or the heroine before the two of them meet. What's brought them to this point in their lives? What are they emotionally searching for? And what predicament are they in that's going to carry them through the next 350 pages.
Prepping for this workshop, I've had a lot of fun going back to favorite reads - novellas, category-length books, longer single titles - and thinking about how the plots of each dictated the type of story being told.
It made me look more closely at my own writing and - even when ideas are cooking subconsciously - how I'm still categorizing them in my head.
I LOVE to read - and I'm a romance reader across the spectrum of romance publishing. From all the sub-genres, to really juicy novellas to a stack of category novels on my bookshelf that are definite keepers, I read them all.
It's been extremely rewarding to translate that love of the romance genre to what I'm writing. It makes my book-loving, romance-writing heart very, very happy! :-)
Addison
