Owning My Love of Romance Novels

I'm sitting in one of my favorite restaurants, a locally owned bistro filled with the gentle hum of conversation and the soft rhythms of a guitar from a local performer.  I'm thoroughly enjoying my book and sipping on my tea when someone I know from work walks in.

Crap.

 

Maybe if I just raise the book a little higher they won't be able to tell it's me.  But oh, nope, too late.  They've seen me.  They're walking over and I return their smile even as I try to think about the best way to position the book so they can't see the lady who's having her dress peeled off by a half-naked hunk on the cover.

We make small talk and they ask the inevitable. 

"So what are you reading?"

"Uh...it's a really good book about...spies.  Yeah, spies during the Napoleon Wars."

The co-worker's brow arches.  "Oh.  It looks like a romance novel."

"Uh, yeah.  There's a little bit of romance in it, but it has a great mystery."

Does this scenario sound familiar?  One of the reasons romance books are leading e-book sales is due in part to many fans of the genre being too embarrassed to carry romance novels around in public.  Many are concerned about the ridicule, good-natured or not, that can accompany this simple admission; “I like reading romance books.”  

Men and women alike take all kinds of sides in this argument.  Some bemoan the addiction of the modern woman to the sappy romance genre.  Others argue that they create unrealistic expectations of relationships, sexual intimacy and the idea of true love.  Some just flat out refer to it as trash and the people who read them “crazy.”  One article (http://www.livescience.com/14985-romance-novels-bad-women-health-psyche-psychologist.html) talks about how reading romance books can be bad for a woman’s health and her psyche.  The psychologist mentions how there’s even a correlation between reading romance books and negative views towards condoms (side note: safe sex is important.  But how many readers think of rolling on a condom as sexy or want to read about it when they’re simply trying to enjoy a book?  If you do, awesome, but not my preferred cup of tea). 

That’s not to say that some readers don’t take it too far.  But to assume that every reader of romance can’t function in a healthy relationship, doesn’t have a brain or can’t handle reality is eye roll-inducing at minimum.

It was all of this and more that led to my years of carefully hiding books or even refraining from reading them in public places.  It wasn’t until I committed to my writing earlier this year that I made a decision.  I liked reading romance novels.  Yes, I enjoy reading other types of books, but I was going to stop making excuses for it and at times even lying about it.  I enjoy reading romance simply because I enjoy it.  The character development, the sexual tension, the first realizations of love, and the occasional mystery all keep me reading well past my bedtime.  I love how far the genre has come in featuring heroes and heroines from different backgrounds, cultures, times and even traumatic situations.  I also enjoy the more realistic portrayal of relationships, multiple conflicts included, but I always smile and sigh when the book ends on a happily ever after note.  It’s one of the best parts of the genre.  Even though I want the characters to be flawed and have seemingly insurmountable obstacles tossed in their path, I also want the trope kiss and “I love you.”

A couple weeks ago I was getting ready to walk down to my favorite restaurant, book in hand.  One of my male co-workers asked what I was reading.  Rather than skirt the issue, I smiled big and said “A historical romance.”  He smirked and asked “Like a Fabio book?”  “Yes,” I replied, “but the hero has better hair” (sorry, Fabio, no hard feelings).

I don’t take my half-naked heroes and heroines and rub them in people’s faces.  I don’t read intimate scenes out loud just so people know that I read romance.  But I don’t shy away from the topic anymore.  When someone says, “Oh, my mom/grandma/great-aunt reads those” I now respond with a smile and a “Oh, cool!  Who’s their favorite author?” rather than a blush of shame.

Everyone has their own preferred genre.  My husband prefers the old-school style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle along with more recent sci-fi works like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  One of my co-workers (we’ll call him Dan) enjoys non-fiction books on hunting.  If I had to read one of these hunting books, I would moan, groan and probably start to pull my hair out by page ten.  But for Dan it’s a true pleasure.  And in the end isn’t that all that matters?

Your Body on Stress: Incorporating Reality Into Your Novel

This is a slightly different type of post than my previous ones.  The idea came for it when I hit a serious case of writer's block trying to describe a chase scene involving my heroine.  As I was describing the scene I realized that while the reader would get a pretty good idea of how the action was occurring they had zero idea of what the heroine was experiencing.  Was she scared?  Was she hot, cold, numb, in shock, terrified?

I tried to go back and add some detail but everything just sounded cliche:

• "Her heart raced."  
• "Her heart leapt in her throat."
• "Her blood pounded in her ears."

My amazing hubby obliged me by sitting in the living room and acting out the scene to get a better idea of how the action would progress, what my heroine would feel, etc.

While I got more ideas for action (and hid a smile at my super tall hubby pretending to get thrown off a horse), I still got very little in the way of content for describing what my heroine was going though.  My college physiological psychology professor would be so proud if he knew that my next step was to start looking at how the body physically responds to stress.

So what does happen?  We all know some of the telltale signs, racing heart and frantic breathing included.  But what are some of the other symptoms we experience, not just physically but emotionally? 

HelpGuide.org provided an excellent table that summed up a tidy list of symptoms that people can experience during stressful situations:

Stress Warning Signs and Symptoms
Cognitive Symptoms	Emotional Symptoms
Memory problems Inability to concentrate Poor judgment Seeing only the negative Anxious or racing thoughts Constant worrying	Moodiness Irritability or short temper Agitation, inability to relax Feeling overwhelmed Sense of loneliness and isolation Depression or general unhappiness
Physical Symptoms	Behavioral Symptoms
Aches and pains Diarrhea or constipation Nausea, dizziness Chest pain, rapid heartbeat Loss of sex drive Frequent colds	Eating more or less Sleeping too much or too little Isolating yourself from others Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)

While the symptoms were general they still provided an excellent starting point for me to incorporate more detail and show the event through my heroine's eyes versus simply telling the reader what was happening (one of my biggest weaknesses).

This chart is a great jumping point for those who need a quick idea or are great about adding on detail.  I still wanted to get some additional insight to make sure future scenes didn't mirror this one too closely, so I collected a few more resources that I've included below:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/body-stress-response_n_2902073.html
• http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/stress-symptoms/art-20050987
• http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-symptoms-causes-and-effects.htm
• http://www.healthline.com/health/stress/effects-on-body
• http://www.patient.co.uk/health/acute-stress-reaction-leaflet

I finally got a first draft of my chase scene down.  It will definitely undergo some changes during the rewriting and editing phases, but it was a step in the right direction.

The research also helped me realize that yes, some of my characters' responses were going to sound banal because many people experience the same symptoms when faced with stressful situations.  

I enjoy writing.  If that means that my heroine's heart "beats wildly in her chest" or "her face turned pale," so be it.

As always, thanks for reading!

-Scarlett

The Value of NaNoWriMo and Some Updates

Sadly it's been forever since I've finally written on here.  Happily, there have been several developments since my last post!

Facebook

I finally sucked it up and broke the link between my Facebook and Twitter account.  For some people linking the two works, but I knew for me it wasn't the best way to stay in touch.  I committed to posting at least three times a week, so fingers crossed that I can keep it up.

I was also blessed with a number of Facebook friend requests, starting with the wonderfully supportive Natalie Alder (nataliealder.com).  I also finally got up the courage to tell my friends and family about my goal of getting published next year and how valuable my social media platform could be.  Happy to have their support!

HeRA Pushing for Publication

I wouldn't have gotten this far in my writing or development of my online platform without these wonderful ladies (and men!).  It was announced at our last meeting that the goal of HeRA is to have 100% of their members published by this time next year.  They already have 85%, which is huge, but are wanting to help the rest of us have a shot at achieving our dreams.  Very excited, slightly terrified...but mostly excited!!!

The Value of NaNoWriMo

I decided to be one of the 700,000+ crazy people and commit to NaNoWriMo.  I quickly learned the hard way that the estimated 1,600+ words NaNoWriMo recommends to hit the 50,000 word goal was more than I had anticipated.

Part of the issue for me is that I try to hand write initial drafts of all my work.  For whatever reason I usually feel more satisfied with my writing.  Sometimes I think it's because when I hand write I take a little bit more time to think things through since I can't automatically hit the "backspace" button.  However, hand writing for NaNoWriMo quickly proved to be not the best option.

One of my amazing critique ladies, Jade Chandler (jadechandler.com) recommended that I check out @NaNoWordSprints, a Twitter profile that hosts writing "sprints" throughout the day.  The sprints can be as short as 10 minutes all the way up to a day, with the majority aiming for 1,000 words in 30 minutes.

First thought: 1,000 words in 30 minutes?  Ha!  Yeah right.

And then I did it.  I actually hit 1,047 words in 30 minutes.  I was typing like a madwoman and I almost gagged at the quality of some of my sentences.  But I did it.

I love to write; sometimes it's getting just the right sentences and dialogue down, and other times it's just feeling the pen run across the paper or hearing the clack of my keyboard.

Unfortunately, I am not in a position to write full-time.  Three months out of my year are my "hell season" at work.  I can be on the go from six in the morning until ten, eleven-thirty at night with maybe twenty minutes for dinner.  The rest of the year is much more flexible, but with my word count remaining flat for nearly a month I knew that giving NaNoWriMo a shot was worth it for me.

The quality of those 1,000 words was pretty bad.  I nearly had a heart attack over one sentence that even my nephew, who is still working on his alphabet, would have laughed at me for it's truly heinous wording.  But I got it down.  And once I went back and edited it before presenting the pages to my critique group, I actually received the best praise since starting to attend back in September.

Now NaNoWriMo is not for everyone.  It is highly doubtful that I will hit the 50,000 words.  But my word count has gone up.  I've met a number of new people, writers, readers and bloggers alike, because of it.  I'll go back and fix the horrifying sentences during my editing period.  So even though it's only November 16 and I'm only 10,000 words up versus 25,000 to 40,000, I've decided that NaNoWriMo is a success.

Best of luck to all my fellow-NaNoWriMo and non-NaNoWriMo writers with their projects.

National Novel Writing Month Challenge=I'm Probably Crazy

My current full-time job is a good job.  I've mastered a lot of the skills and information I didn't have my first year, I have a supportive boss I can talk with and I love my co-workers.  I can't picture myself doing it for the next 20 years, but for where I'm at in my life it's a good job and one I'm content with.
The only downside?  The past two months have been a crazy whirlwind due to some staff losses and difficulty in hiring.  I realized last night that while I've built up my author social media presence and done much better interacting on Twitter, Facebook, etc., I've failed to do the one thing I should be focusing on as an author seeking publication: WRITE!
Crazy, right?  But this is a problem I hear about from many other authors balancing full-time jobs, part-time jobs, volunteer and charity activities, family obligations and a myriad of other things.  With so much going on how can any of us expect to find time to take a deep breath, much less write bestselling material without falling into the passive voice/cliche hero/purple prose traps?
That being said, the more I read and the more I work with other writers in my critique group, the more I want to go for my passion, my dream of becoming a published romance author.
So I decided to make a commitment.  I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org).  I didn't even realize the website existed until I did a search on how to finish a book in a month.  The site provides a variety of resources, including tools to help you plan out writing your book, online forums that help you connect with other writers and even information on local critique groups.
As I started to fill out the sign-up sheet, I panicked.  What if I don't finish?  There were over 700,000 people who did this last year.  How can I ever expect mine to get picked for publication?  Is there a point to finishing this?  My writing probably sucks.  
And then I had another thought.  Who cares?  I enjoy writing.  I love seeing something random in my daily life and spinning it into a tale of fiction.  I love creating sentences, some beautiful and some downright ugly.  I love to read, I love to write, and while getting published is the ultimate goal, I need to be able to take some joy from the simple act of putting my ideas onto paper.
So I finished the sign-up.  I may finish my novel in a month or I may not.  My whole plan of submitting my first round of queries by May could be a feasible goal or could be completely ludicrous with my current schedule.
But I'm trying.  And for right now, I'm content with that.

Hello, My Name is Scarlett

Hello.  My name is Scarlett Clarke and I am a historical romance author.  I once used to describe myself as an "aspiring romance author," the amazing women (and man) of my RWA chapter quickly corrected me.
"You are a romance author," they told me.  "You just haven't been published yet."
Have I mentioned how much I love these people?
I am not by nature a blogger.  I attempted a few blogs in high school, and one in my early years at college.  But they were more for the thrill of saying "Yes, I have a blog" and joining the 21st century.  They were never about anything I truly enjoyed.  I'm hoping that since this blog will be focused on two of my biggest passions, reading and writing, that I'll be able to keep up.
This first post will be short.  As I'm writing I'm thinking about the finishing touches I have to put on my author website, how I'm going to increase the sexual tension between my hero and heroine in scene three of my Regency-era romance novel and how my husband and I are going to finish renovating the walls of our house before the cold of winter moves in.
So, a couple things about me:

• I write romance novels, most of them set in Regency-era England.
• I am unpublished (so far).  
• I joined Romance Writers of America this year as well as my local RWA chapter, Heartland Romance Authors.  This group, along with the incredible support I have received from family and friends, has helped me recommit to pursuing a career in romance writing.
• When I'm not writing or reading I can be found renovating my house, gardening, going to my adult gymnastics class or trying a crazy activity with friends (paintballing was the latest).

I hope to use this blog to share my adventures with writing and the path to publication with other authors.  I'm also hoping to share some of my favorite stories, writing tips, interviews and more.  The sky's the limit!