The Romance Novel as a Study in Character Development

I don’t usually read romance novels. It’s not that I don’t believe in romance and love and all the rest that go with it; it’s just I have preferred suspense and detective/mystery novels. However, as most of us know, a little romance fits in anywhere – so, I told myself, why not read it? I might find myself enjoying it.

Debbie Macomber’s novel, Twelve Days of Christmas, definitely fits into the romance genre. I do recommend the book for all readers, although I can picture several students and readers now wrinkling their nose at my suggestion. So, for all of you who feel the same way I felt about romance novels, listen up: we may all learn something new or be reminded of something we need to incorporate into our own writing.

Twelve Days of Christmas isn’t that long – 268 pages to be exact and the writing flows so there are no obvious blocks to the reading flow. Macomber, however, spends a great deal of the novel in character development. So much so that by the time the reader hits the ¾ point of the book, he or she is wondering what is to come of these characters that have fallen in love in the twelve-day-time span. (I know . . . is that even possible?!)

After the reader is finished with the novel, the way Macomber utilizes character development is obvious: the reader knows and understands both characters – the female and the male. And the reader fully comprehends why both characters have behaved the way they have throughout the entire novel. If Macomber hadn’t spent so much time developing the characters, readers wouldn’t care if they resolved their differences in the ending, and they also wouldn’t be left pondering over the lives of the characters and where they can go from this point on.

So Dear Reader, even though Twelve Day of Christmas may not incorporate the elements of a mystery novel or even have a sense of an adventure story, we as readers/writers do learn first hand the importance of character development.

A Few Words on Allowing Someone to Read What You Have Written

No one likes to be critiqued – whether the critique follows the writing of a paper for a class and comes in the form of a grade or comes as feedback after you’ve written and published a story, a poem, or a book. Critiques can be harsh. This is especially true when either family members or close friends critique you.

It is a commonality in our culture, and for some odd reason, that not too many people want to say, “Job well done” when it comes to creative writing projects; however, if it is said, you, as the writer, are often left thinking, Did they really read it and what particularly did they like about what I wrote? In other words, the feedback lacks substance. Oftentimes the reader will simply say, “It’s good” and leave it at that. There is also a strange phenomenon that seems to take place when a person seeks a complement or acceptance from someone he or she knows: it seems that by giving positive feedback on a written report, book, or story, the person giving the positive assessment seems to feel that the writer will have one step up on the friend who didn’t produce anything.

As an instructor, I spent so many years giving positive feedback on written material that it has become second nature to me. I will be the first to say, if you worked hard at whatever you composed and you honestly feel you did a good job then you deserve to be told, “Job well done.” I also like to spend moments after reading something to reflect on the piece and on analyzing what I truly enjoyed about the writing.

I am not saying that one should lie or give false hope to a writer. I am saying, though, that if a friend or family member feels unqualified to give constructive criticism then that person should tell the writer that at the onset.

After all, as writers, we are looking for readers who will appreciate and give us constructive criticism on what we have written.

Wonders In Writing: A Writer's Life

Wonders In Writing: A Writer's Life: Writing is a lonely life – or so it has been said and by many of the greats who know more about writing than the rest of us could ever po...

A Writer's Life

Writing is a lonely life – or so it has been said  -- and by many of the greats who know more about writing than the rest of us could ever possibly know.

Do I agree with this concept?  Probably not. The statement sounds so bleak, and who in his or her right mind deliberately sets him or herself up to be lonely? Not me, but I do enjoy being by myself with a pad of paper in one hand and a pen in the other. I enjoy writing in my living room or in a park where trees and lawns surround me. I appreciate the time I get to be by myself to create whatever I want. So, with this in mind, maybe the correct word is solitary. Writing is a solitary life.

After all, unless we have a writing partner, we have to do our writing alone, and to do this, we have to have our isolated place – our alone place.  It is within this isolated place where our ideas emerge and where we form opinions; it is where we allow ideas and opinions to develop and where we logically think them through to fruition.

In our alone place, we create characters. Here we give them room to grow and develop. While we’re alone with them, in our special alone place, we get to know our characters – their backgrounds, their personalities, and their thoughts. In our alone place, we supply our characters with homes, families, friends, and lovers. We set them up to let them fall – and then we pick them up again.

So I guess it is fair to say a writing life can be lonely, but we can’t forget the advantages.  First of all, it can be a place of retreat for those times when real life becomes a bit too much to handle.  As writers, we travel out into the world and experience all life has to offer – the good and the bad. Then we retreat to the alone place where we create in order to understand.

The first book by Rebecca and Tiffany Guerrero can be found at the following site:http://booklocker.com/books/8921.html

We both hope you enjoy the work as much as we did in writing it. We are busy working on book two. 

The Writer/Reader Relationship

When I tell people I am a writer, their first words are, “Really? Who is your favorite writer?”  I am not asked the questions other writers claim they are asked like “Where do you get your ideas?” or “Who is your inspiration?” or “How do you find time to write?” No, I am the fortunate one asked to share my favorite writers.

Perhaps I should take this as a complement; after all, I did spend over 20 years in the classroom, trying to help others better their writing by teaching them the basics and giving them necessary feedback. Yet, maybe in their minds I fit the stereotype of a reader rather than that of a writer; yet, perhaps I -- like my new friends -- temporarily forget how important the relationship is between the reader and the writer and the significance of each entity in the process. After all, in order to be successful, the writer cannot forget his reader, and if there is no writer then what will the reader find to do?

Nonetheless, in order to answer the question posed to me by my new friends, my brain immediately switches into analytical mode: do I like James Patterson and his style and genre more than I appreciate the style and genre of Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts or Debbie Macomber?

Then it occurs to me that I don’t necessarily have a favorite author. I know what I like and it is what I look for when I pick something to read:

I want to be told a good story. I want to be held in suspense. I want to feel the tension -- that sensation that keeps me turning the pages. I want to be in the setting. I want to feel the couch the character is sitting on; I want to taste the food he is eating and the drink he brings to his lips. I want to feel what the characters feel – their fear, their pain, their joy. I want to laugh and I want to cry with my characters. I want to study the symbolism the author uses and try to figure out what part the symbolism plays in the theme.

I want the author to remember me – his or her reader – and make the story come to life for me.

How to Bring Passion Back into Your Life