SWORD NEEDED

It seems to me I may have ranted about this before, but I don’t have time to flip through the list to see. I just need to let out steam so I can return to writing the book that pays the bills.

Writing romance is TOUGH. Writing contemporary romance is even tougher, provided you know what you’re doing, of course. Innocence, in this case, is definitely bliss.

I love writing. I throw myself into the process like a pig in a wallow and merrily splash around in the first draft. Later, I have to go back and tidy up and make a nice tight square of my wallow, but that first draft is pure joy. Mostly.

But that only works when the book has some sort of action happening. I can understand the predilection for romantic suspense. It’s a whole lot easier to show a couple getting to know each other and writing the dialogue when bullets are flying and cars are racing. A book like that has momentum.

In historicals, I can have sword fights and runaway carriages and sailing ships to keep that momentum.

But in contemporary romance, I have to build sexual tension and conflict while the characters are baking bread or filing a lawsuit. Wheee! It takes a whopping lot of worldbuilding and character development and sentence tightening and emotional build-up to keep baking bread interesting.

I’m just starting out on this new book, feeling my way around, and right now, it’s pure torture. I think I’ll give the hero a sword to swing.