Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 50

More Updates

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride is off to my editing team

(This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.)

Click here to reserve your copy!

I finally finished up with my initial edits yesterday and emailed the editors and beta readers on my team.  I’m not sure when the new release date will be yet, but I’ll let you know when I do.  Right now we’re looking at either very late October to the first part of November.

Groom For Hire has been pushed back to February 12 for a release date

(This is Book 3 in the Pioneer Series.)

Long story short, when I started this book in July, my husband was like, “When are we going on a vacation?” I had been writing all summer long, so I thought he had a good point.  So I took most of August off to spend time with the family.

Then when school started back up, I got back to this story and realized if I wanted to get this out by December 18, I would have to make it a shorter story than I originally intended.  (And I’m pretty sure you guys would prefer the story to be longer than a novella.)

After much debate and talking to my publisher (because this one is going to be with Parchment & Plume), the date’s been pushed back to February 12.

The Bargain Mail Order Bride is still on track for January 7

(This is Book 4 in the Chance at Love Series.)

Click here to reserve your copy!

Another reason I pushed the date back on Groom For Hire is because I want to make sure I can get this book out on time.  There is no pre-order already set up for Groom For Hire, so no one has pre-ordered it.  The Bargain Mail Order Bride, however, is up on pre-order, and I want to make sure I get it out to the people who already pre-ordered it on time.

I’ll start The Rake’s Vow this week

(This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.)

Click here to reserve your copy!

In addition to getting back to Groom For Hire and The Bargain Mail Order Bride, I am going to start on this book.  This book follows The Viscount’s Runaway Bride.

I’ll be uploading this book directly to Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, so the pre-order is only available at iBooks right now.

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On a final note, I know some of you have sent me an email.  At the moment, I have about 100 emails waiting for me to answer.  Please be patient with me.  I will get to them as soon as I can.  I’m not ignoring anyone.  I took time off from emails for the last two weeks to finish up The Viscount’s Runaway Bride and then edit it.  I’ll be tackling my inbox this weekend.

Updates On What I’m Working On

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride (Marriage by Bargain: Book 1)

Click here to reserve your copy!

I’m almost done with this one.  I did have a hold up for the past two weeks because I wasn’t sure how to wrap it up.   I had to do some revising of several scenes and insert two additional chapters about 3/4 of the way into it.

Without spoiling the book, part of the goal for this series is to turn two very unlikable ladies you met in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride into heroines worth rooting for.  If you remember Miss Celia Barlow and Miss Loretta Bachman (the two who gave Iris a difficult time), then you know this isn’t going to be an easy task.  I have to introduce them in this book as spoiled, selfish, and condescending because that was how they were in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.  Part of my goal is to change them, and in order to do that, I had to bring them into this one enough so the stage can be set for their books.

Loretta will be the heroine in Book 2, and Celia will be the heroine in Book 3.

For those who have been asking for Candace (Lady Hedwrett from Her Counterfeit Husband) to get her happy ending, I’m happy to say that she’ll be the heroine in Book 4.

I would like to have this book out at the end of October, but it might not be out until the first part of November.  Being that this is a pre-order, I have to have the finished version uploaded to the retailers about two weeks in advance.  So we’ll see how things play out.

Groom For Hire (Pioneer Series: Book 3)

This is currently not on pre-order, but my goal is December 18 for a release date.  To do that, it needs to be with my publisher no later than December 1.  I think I’m around the halfway point right now in this story.  I might be more like 40% of the way in.  At any rate, I was surprised to learn the heroine had an immediate attraction to our hero Joe Otto, who was nursing a broken heart after Amanda married Richard (if you’ll recall from Wagon Trail Bride).

I decided to be a stinker and let the heroine in this story look a lot like Amanda.  I know, I know.  It was mean to do.  But it felt right for the story, so I went with it.  And yes, this makes Joe want to stay as far from her as possible because all she does is remind him of what he couldn’t have.  So the initial conflict was set up, but that could only be sustained for so long before it gets boring.

Fortunately, this week the heroine decided to take things up a notch and challenge Joe on his assumption that just because she’s a woman she can’t handle doing tasks that typically go to men (such as helping keep the lookout during the night or participating in hunting for food).  Some of the retorts she throws at him makes me chuckle.  (She might look like Amanda, but she’s nothing like her.)  At the moment, she’s annoying Joe to no end.  Good stuff!  I love to see sparks fly.

The Bargain Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love Series: Book 4)

Click here to reserve your copy!

I haven’t done much in this book for the past two weeks.  I’ve been focused on getting The Viscount’s Runaway Bride worked out and forcing Joe to deal with the heroine in Groom For Hire (since he would have ignored her for the entire book if I let him).  That left me know time to work in this book.

However, that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in this book.  The truth is, I’ve been excited about this book ever since I finished The Convenient Mail Order Bride, which was released in February.  I’ve had to write the other books in the series before I could get to this one, and with that in mind, I worked on setting things up so we can transition Carl Richie from bad guy to hero.

I also had to get rid of his wife, Lydia.  Lydia was not redeemable at all.  There was too much bitterness in her.  She had been forced to marry him, and she never got the kind of life she thought she deserved.  As a result, she blamed him for everything, and over the years, it removed anything good that had once been inside of her.  I am a firm believer that tough times will either make people better or bitter, and in her case, it ultimately destroyed her.

She had managed to cause significant emotional damage to Carl, which I am excited about exploring during the course of this book.  I could only give a glimpse of how severely damaged he is in the other books.  He really feels like he has no one in his life that cares about him, and the only thing that keeps him going is the dream of getting that gold so he can get away from the town and all the bad things associated with it.  His thinking is that if he can only have money, he’ll be happy.  (This is a false belief, of course.  Money itself does not create happiness, and he’ll learn this by the end of the book.)  But it will take having someone who is willing to give him a fair chance in order to be open enough to learn this very important lesson.  This someone, of course, will be the heroine of this book.

Most interesting to me is how sexually damaged he is.  We don’t often think of men as being damaged in this way.  We typically think of women who are.  But as I writing the wedding night in this book, I realized just how broken he really is, and the process that he’ll need to go through in order to heal is particularly intriguing to me because it’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced as a writer.

Sex isn’t just sex.  At least not in my books.  I have a purpose for every single sex scene I add to the story.  There are so many layers to it.  So much is going on emotionally between the characters during the scene where they make love.  Sometimes the character learns something new about him/herself.  Sometimes the character learns something about the husband/wife.  But there is always something the character learns during the act that the character can’t learn any other way.  In this book, I actually cried when Carl forced himself to consummate the marriage.  Carl got absolutely no enjoyment from the process because Lydia had robbed that for him by the way she treated him in, and out, of the bedroom.  I would never have known just how bad off he was had it not been for that scene.

I learn things during the sex scenes I write that I didn’t know about the character before.  There’s always the “aha!” moment, and I believe it makes the story richer and deeper, and the character is more real because of it.  I understand not everyone views sex scenes the same way I do, but I don’t see a sex scene as a means to erotically entice the reader.  I see it as a way to convey something new about the character’s emotional development within him/herself or with the hero/heroine that I can’t show any other way.

***

Okay. I’ve rambled on long enough.  As you can probably tell, I’m super excited about these books.  Every time I sit down to write, I feel like a kid on Christmas day just waiting to unwrap the present to find out what’s inside the box because I never know what the characters will do until I’m writing.

Situations Where Authors Can’t Win

Today I thought I’d make a post describing certain situations where authors are stuck between a rock and a hard place.  No matter how they answer the question, they can’t win.  So what ends up happening?  They keep quiet.

Today, I’m going to address this on this blog, so hopefully, you can understand why we just can’t answer you.  We aren’t trying to be mean by not replying.  We just know that no one will be happy with how we answer it, so the safest recourse we have is to not answer.

Don’t you take the time to hire an editor/proofreader?

The answer is: yes.  Of course, we do.  We care very much about producing a high quality book.  Self-publishing isn’t what it used to be.  Sure, there are still a few badly edited books out there, but most of them will be very professional.  If they aren’t, those authors won’t be around long.  This is a business that requires authors to put out the very best they can if they want to be around for a long time.

The problem is that no one can catch 100% of the errors.  I do think it’s especially important that the author isn’t the only one editing and proofing their own book.  Authors are blind to their work because they will read what is supposed to be there instead of what actually is there.  That’s why we hire an editing team.  This team comprises editors, proofreaders, and beta readers.  I have all of these.  Do they catch everything?  No.  Do they come close.  Definitely.

I am very happy with the group of people I have working on my books.  I plan to keep them on my team for as long as they’re willing to be on it.  I never take it for granted that they take time out of their busy days to help me, especially since my schedule is demanding.  I am constantly bombarding them with books to go over before I publish them.

From time to time, authors will ask others for good people to work on their books, and we exchange names and email addresses.  Just like people exchange information on books they enjoy, authors do pass on information if they like a certain member of their editing team.  So we rely heavily on word of mouth.  The people we’re most likely to pass on are those who’ve been good to us.

Why do you write such sucky books?

Authors don’t write books they think will suck.  We write books we think will be entertaining.  The majority of authors I talk to are passionate about their work, and they give 110% into the story.  To them, the story doesn’t suck.

Now, it would be fair to say that the particular story the author wrote was not to a certain reader’s enjoyment.  Taste is highly subjective.  For example, some people love alpha heroes.  They want strong men who aren’t afraid to go in and get what they want.  I write beta heroes.  They are strong on the inside, but they are gentle on the outside.  This comes off as a sign of weakness.  People who like alphas will find my heroes wimpy.

Everyone comes to a book with their own preferences.  No author can please everyone.  It’s impossible.  So why do we write sucky books?  The answer is, “We wrote a book you think sucked.” It doesn’t mean the book is sucky to someone else.

I encourage you to take a look at a popular traditionally published book.  It could be anything.  Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight, Harry Potter…  Just make sure it’s a book that the majority of people know exists.  Check out the 1-star reviews.  I guarantee you that every major book has a group of people who thought it sucked.  No author is immune to this, no matter how well it does.

Why are you so greedy that you charge a price for your book?  

I only bring this up because this question seems to get asked with authors more than any other.  Forgive me for being redundant since I’ve already addressed this on this blog.  I’ll try to make it brief.

When an author writes a book, they either put it in with a publisher or publish it on their own.  I do both.  The publisher sets the price.  Publishers have costs they need to cover, and since they must stay in business, they need to make a profit.  To do that, they need money.

Now, when a book is self-published, the author bears the weight of paying for the editing team, paying for covers (unless they can make their own), and they pay taxes.  Authors will pay taxes if under publishers who don’t take the taxes out for them, too.  We need to make money to cover these expenses.  Some authors are also trying to provide for themselves or their families with the money they earn.

Authors aren’t trying to be selfish by putting a price on the book.  Like you, they need to survive, and you can’t survive without the necessities like food, water, shelter, clothes.  It’s not that money is the most important thing to us.  We write because we have a story burning inside of us to write.  But to think we can live off of praise alone just isn’t true.  People work because they want to money in order to survive.  Writing just happens to be the form of work we’ve chosen.

***

I’ll just conclude that writing is hard work.  The process of making a book isn’t easy.  So much goes into it.  From the conception of an idea to the time it’s published, there are a lot of steps most people never see.  It might take a day to read a book, but that book wasn’t written and polished in one day.

Authors have their critics, and that’s fine.  I feel that people should be free to express their opinions about the books they read.  I just wanted to time the time to explain why there are some criticisms we just can’t answer when you send a message our way.  It’s not that we don’t care.  We do.  We’d like to answer every question we receive.  We just know there are some questions that aren’t safe to answer because no matter what we say, we can’t win.  So instead of answering, we write the next book.

A Note of Thanks and A Promise to Keep Writing Historical Western Romances

I wanted to do a post that wasn’t an update on what I’m working on.  The summer has been so crazy that an update was all I could come up with.  Now that the kids are back in school, I feel like I can think about things other than, “What can I possibly make them today for lunch that they can all agree on?” or “How are we going to all survive in the house without driving each other crazy since the kids aren’t in school to help break up the day?”

The Accidental Mail Order Bride is Now Available!

It’s finally out!   And yes, I do reveal who killed Lydia in this one.

Updates

The past week was hectic, so I didn’t get a chance to make a post.  Now that I caught up on my emails, I’m ready to make a post.[image error]

The Accidental Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love Series: Book 3) will be out August 27!

That puts it one week ahead of schedule.  I do reveal the person who murdered Lydia (Carl’s wife in The Mistaken Mail Order Bride).  The romance in this book was based off the Beauty and the Beast scenario, something I’ve been wanting to do for years.  Sometimes a plot sits on the back shelf until the right characters come along.  This was one of those times.

You can pre-order it on these sites today if you wish to receive it as soon as it comes out:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride (Marriage by Bargain: Book 1)

Click here to reserve your copy!

This is the start a new Regency series, but it will include the same cast of characters from the other Regency books I’ve written.  This book actually starts off on where The Earl’s Wallflower Bride ended.  Warren’s friend, Anthony (the one with the horrible sister and friend whom Iris hated) is the hero of this book.

In this book, we will get to see Iris again, and Anthony’s new wife will become Iris’ friend as the two go up against Anthony’s sister (Celia) and the his sister’s friend (Loretta).  But…before you think I don’t have plans for either Celia or Loretta, they actually get their own books later in this series.  Yes, the two are horrible in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride and The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, but they are redeemable, much like Warren was.  (I’ll discuss Loretta’s book further into this post.)

I estimate this book to be out in either October or November, though I did set the pre-order date in April.  It’s easier to bump a date up than it is to push it back.  At the moment, I am in chapter 11 of this book, so I’m halfway done.  I see no reason why I can’t have it out by November at the latest.

Groom For Hire (Pioneer Series: Book 3) is due out in December 

Specifically, I’m looking at December 18.  That’s what I told my publisher.  (It will be on pre-order soon.)

The books in this series up to now are as follows:

Wagon Trail Bride: Book 1
The Marriage Agreement: Book 2
Groom For Hire: Book 3

I did something really rotten to poor Joe.  The woman he contracted to marry looks a lot like Amanda.  They say we have a look-a-like out there somewhere, and the heroine in this book happens to be Amanda’s.  I didn’t plan it that way.  It just popped up when I was writing.

But, the heroine only looks like Amanda.  She’s nothing like her.[image error]

I’m currently on chapter five, and they just started heading to California.  So exciting stuff is coming ahead.

The Bargain Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love Series: Book 4)

Click here to reserve your copy!

This book is due out January 7.

It will complete the Chance at Love Series.  The books in this series are as follows:

The Convenient Mail Order Bride: Book 1
The Mistaken Mail Order Bride: Book 2
The Accidental Mail Order Bride: Book 3
The Bargain Mail Order Bride: Book 4

I don’t know how, but Carl and Abe (the two half-brothers) are going to end up being friends in this book.  From Book 1 when Carl and Abe were got into that physical fight on Carl’s property, I knew they were going to end up being friends.  I have no idea how this is going to happen.  I just know it is.

This is why I love writing without an outline.  Writing for a panster is like seeing only a few pieces of the puzzle.  You know certain things will happen, but until the story is being written, you have no idea how it’ll all connect.  I’ve been anxious to write this book ever since I finished The Convenient Mail Order Bride.  So I’m very excited about this one.  Carl’s character fascinates me in the same way Neil Craftsman’s did.  He’s as wounded as Neil was but the time Neil took Sarah into his home.  It’ll be fun to see how a good woman will open him up and turn him onto a hero worthy of her.

On The Immediate To Write List:

The Rake’s Vow (Marriage by Bargain: Book 2)

Remember above that I said Loretta (Anthony’s mean sister in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride) will be getting her own book?  Well, this is it.  Anthony’s sister will be in Book 3 of this series, which I have yet to title.  But I already know who his sister ends up with, and let’s just say he’s not happy about it.

I’m hoping to have this out early next year.

His Auctioned Bride (Mislead Mail Order Brides: Book 1)

Finally, Sep (from Shotgun Groom) will get his own book!  I’m hoping to have this out between March – May of next year.  I’ll start this when I finish Groom For Hire.

I know there’s been questions about Vivian and Huge (from Her Heart’s Desire), but I put Sep vs Vivian into a vote in my Facebook group, and Sep won.  So I’m doing his series first. This series will also feature Amanda and Richard’s two twins (Mark and Anthony) since they’re only two years younger than Sep.

I do want to get to Shane’s Deal sometime in 2017, so I’m going to have to do that before I tackle Vivian and Hugh.

The Reclusive Earl (Marriage by Fate: Book 1)

COVER COMING SOON

Remember Opal from The Earl’s Wallflower Bride?  She was Warren’s sister.  Well, I’m going to be writing her book, and I’ll start it with a new Regency series.  I’ll be starting this series when I finish with The Bargain Mail Order Bride.

I want this out by April of next year.  We’ll see how things go.

The Marriage Agreement is Now Available!

This is Book 2 in the Pioneer Series.

For those who read Wagon Trail Bride, this is Jesse and Laura’s story.  Jesse was the man who lost his wife in childbirth, and Laura is Amanda’s friend.

Here’s the description:

Jesse Palmer headed to Omaha with his expectant wife and his mother-in-law. When his wife dies in childbirth, his mother-in-law blames him. And worse, she plans to take his son away from him. In order to keep his son, he needs to marry someone. And who better than the one who makes the offer?

Laura Rufus volunteers to marry Jesse so he can keep his son, knowing full well he’s still mourning the loss of his first wife. The last thing she plans on is falling in love with him, but day by day, his tenderness toward his son makes her wish she hadn’t been so quick to propose a marriage of convenience. Will there ever be something more between them, or will she be stuck with the marriage agreement they made?

You can find it at these retailers:

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

Smashwords

For a quick reference, here are all of the books in this series:

      

Groom For Hire is Joe Otto’s story, and it’ll be out in December!

*****

I have a special treat for everyone.  During the course of the edits and beta reading, someone mentioned how much she wanted to see Laura’s mother get her happily ever after.  I wrote a flash fiction story and just published it today so you can read it if you’re interested.  It’s only 1,200 words, so it’s free.

This contains spoilers!

 I recommend reading this after you finish The Marriage Agreement.

Right now it’s only on Smashwords because I just published it.

I expect it to be up on iBooks before the day is over.  It’ll take another day or two to get up on Kobo and Barnes & Noble.  I’m not sure Amazon would set this story to free, so I decided not to publish it there.  I can’t see charging $0.99 for something this short.

My Email List, My Facebook Group, and Upcoming Series

My Email List: Once You Unsubscribe, I Can’t Put You Back On It

Recently, I noticed that a couple of people have been signing up for my email list after they unsubscribed to it.  I don’t know if any of you who unsubscribed are reading this or not, but once someone unsubscribes to my email list, MailChimp won’t let me put you back on the list.  They have a no tolerance policy for spam.  (I hate spam, so I’m glad they don’t tolerate it.  I don’t want to keep receiving emails when I unsubscribed from someone’s list.)

It’s possible that people hit unsubscribe by accident and then want back on the list.  If that’s the case here, then I’m sorry but I can’t add you back on the list.  Once you unsubscribe, you’re unsubscribed for good.  I apologize for this, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

What Do You Do If You Accidentally Unsubscribed?

You can join my private Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/83005....  Then, if you let me know you had accidentally unsubscribed from my email list on MailChimp, I’ll know to post the additional scene I send out to people on that list.

Upcoming Series

Marriage by Bargain Series

Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride

This one will continue where Marriage by Arrangement left off, meaning we will see Warren and Iris a lot in the first book, The Viscount’s Runaway Bride.  The first book is already up on pre-order.  Though I put April 2017 as the release date, I expect to have it out before the end of the year.

(This book featured Lord Worsley who was Warren’s friend in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.)

You can pre-order it by going to this link.

Books 2 and 3

I already have Book 2 and Book 3 in this series planned, but I don’t have it on pre-order yet.  Both books 2 and 3 will feature the two ladies Iris hated most: Miss Loretta Bachman and Miss Celia Barlow.  Now, some of you will be asking, “Weren’t those two ladies awful?” The answer is yes.  But despite their flaws, they are redeemable, given the right gentlemen.

Will there be a fourth book?  I don’t know yet.

Marriage by Fate Series

Due to the fact that Regencies are my best selling books, I’m going to work on two Regency Series and only one historical western series at the beginning of 2017.  As much as I’d like to say the amount I make off each particular book doesn’t matter, the truth is, it matters a lot.  I write what sells.  (Which is why I haven’t touched contemporary in a long time.)

So after I finish Groom For Hire, I’m going to work on this Regency series.

Book 1 will be The Reclusive Earl

This is going to be Opal’s book.  Opal is Warren (aka. Lord Steinbeck)’s sister in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.  I’m pairing her up with Lord Farewell, who was briefly mentioned at the end of The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.  He was the one that a couple of gentlemen were making fun of.

I don’t have a cover for this book yet, but I do have it on pre-order at a couple of sites: Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords.  At this time, it’s not on Barnes & Noble or Amazon.  Also, I don’t have a Book Launch page for it yet.

I haven’t planned out any of the other books in the series yet.

Till Death Do Us Part Series

This is the historical western one.  I plan to work on this when done with the Chance at Love Series.

Book 1 will feature Sep (Joel Larson’s brother in-law).  It’ll be called His Auctioned Bride.  I don’t know the details yet, but I do know Sep bids on a woman in order to rescue her.

Book 2 will feature Mark Larson (who is Amanda and Richard’s son).  Book 3 will feature Anthony Larson (also Amanda and Richard’s son).  I haven’t come up with a plot yet.

******

So that’s what’s planned in the near future for early 2017-summer 2017.

 

The Earl’s Wallflower Bride is Now Available!

I sent out the email via MailChimp yesterday.  If you signed up for my email list but did not get that email, please let me know with this form below.  I try to keep everyone’s information private so I prefer you to fill out this form instead of leaving your email address in the comments.

[contact-form]

That aside, here’s the information for The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.  

(My thanks to my awesome editing and beta reader team!  You’re all wonderful to work with!)

This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Agreement Series.

Helena, Melissa, and Chloe are arranging marriages, but not all will go smoothly on the way to a happily ever after…

Warren Beaufort, the Earl of Steinbeck, prides himself on having the best of the best. From his furnishings in his townhouse to his clothes, he chooses everything with the intention of impressing others. And more than that, he has amassed a fortune that is the envy of many in London. One thing he lacks, however, is an heir. In order to get the heir, he’ll need a wife.

Lady Iris, the Duke of Hartwell’s daughter, has money, but she lacks both grace and looks. One thing she does have, however, is the good sense to know a gentleman like Warren is all wrong for her, which is why she’s horrified to learn she’s been matched with him for marriage. But the Duchess of Ashbourne and her friends assure her that she and Warren have so much in common they are an ideal match.

Having no way out of the marriage her father has arranged for her, she has no choice but to marry Warren. While she might have to give him the heir, she will never, under any circumstance, give him something far more precious…her heart.

You can find it at these sites:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

Smashwords

For easy reference, here are the other books in this series:

His Wicked Lady (Marriage by Arrangement: Book 1)

In this book, I introduce Lord Steinbeck and Lady Iris (the hero and heroine in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride).

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords

Her Devilish Marquess (Marriage by Agreement: Book 2)

In this book, I go more into Mr. Malcolm Jasper’s friendship with Lord Steinbeck and show a more “irritating” side to Steinbeck. I say “irritating” because Steinbeck doesn’t officially become a hero until The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords

Character Tropes

ID 37179690 © Rolffimages | Dreamstime.com

What is a character trope?

As I was researching the subject of character tropes, I narrowed down the definition of a trop to be as follows: a trope is something done so much that it becomes common.  It’s something that is easily identified by the average person.  In a nutshell, it’s a stereotype.

For example, if I tell you I’m writing a Regency about a rake, those of you familiar with Regencies will probably come up with an image of a hero with low moral standing.  He probably sleeps around with multiple women, gambles, drinks, and “lives it up” on a nightly basis.

Another example, if I tell you that a hero in my contemporary romance is a geek, you probably have an image of someone who loves the pursuit of knowledge, is a virgin (and probably hasn’t dated much, if at all), is socially awkward, and most likely wears glasses.  The trope not only conjures up personality traits but physical ones as well.

So when I talk about a character trope, I’m talking about using stereotypes to your advantage.

 

Why do we have character tropes?

The purpose of a character trope is to give your prospective readers an idea of whether or not your story is a good fit for them.  Not everyone wants to read about a certain character.  I know women who love the bad boy trope in romances.  Me?  I hate them.  Give me the good guy over the bad boy any day.  So if I see a romance with a bad boy trope, I won’t pick it up.  Does this mean the bad boy trope is bad?  No.  It just means it’s not interesting to me.  Just as some women don’t care for the good guy because the good guy is often portrayed as boring and predictable.  The bad boy is exciting and sexy.

The character tropes in fiction can be used to your advantage.  It will help narrow things down.  Your job isn’t to attract every single reader on this planet.  Your job is to find the readers interested in the kind of characters you like to write about.  (This goes along for the plot points and genre, but for this post, we’re dealing with characters.)

So when picking the character types you’re using, think of your author brand.  What kind of writer do you want to be known as?  If you’re a romance writer, do you want to be known for writing about the bad boys, or do you prefer to write about the good guys?

I’m not saying you need to pick the same character trope for every book, but there should be a consistency somewhere in the kind of stories you write.  For example, an author known for writing about good guy heroes will shock her readers if she suddenly chooses the bad boy hero.  Why?  Because the readers will expect a certain type of story when they get used to the author’s work.

The same works for genre.  If you’re known for writing romance, you’re going to have a hard time selling horror.  And the same also works for how explicit your books are.  If you’re known for writing clean romances, you’re going to piss off a lot of readers if you suddenly add sex scenes.

My advice: pick the thing you enjoy most and stick with it.  You have some leeway in what you can do, but you have to know your target audience’s expectations enough so you don’t upset your core readers.  If in doubt, ask them what they like and don’t like.  I do this in beta reads and in Facebook.  The best way to find out what works and what doesn’t is by going directly to your readers.

Do character tropes have to be stagnant?

When you use a certain trope, does that character have to be that way through the entire book?  For example: once a bad boy, always a bad boy?

The answer, I’m happy to say, is nope!  Characters should be 3-dimensional.  They should be as varied and complex as real people.  People change over the course of a lifetime, so characters can change over the course of the book.  Not all characters have to change, but you can definitely use change for some of them.  For example, your bad boy can become a good guy by the end of the book.  This is often why rakes are popular in Regencies.  The hero doesn’t stay a rake for the whole book.  In the end, he becomes a good guy because the heroine often changes him for the better.

The character doesn’t always have to change for the better.  Depending on your genre, you can have good guy who, for one reason or another, decides to turn dark.  If you end the book with the hero turning into a villain, then what you have is a sad ending.  (Note: this will not be a romance.  In romance, a villain can become a hero, but a hero must never become a villain.  The readers will not be pleased.)  So if you choose to let your character change, then be aware of the genre you’re writing in and the expectations of that genre.

Keep in mind the culture where your character comes from.

This is very relevant because we’re moving into a global market with ebooks.  So when you’re writing, you may want to keep in mind that your culture’s definition of a certain character trope is different from another’s. For example, the roles of men and women are different in different cultures, so what a character can get away with in one country might not work in another.

Should this stop you from writing the story that you want to tell?  Of course not.  But if you are going to write a story about a character in another culture, then it would be a good idea to research how that culture views the kind of character you’re writing.  What does a geek look like in another country?  If you’re writing about a character in India, how will the geek be similar or different from one in the United States?

This applies to historical times as well as contemporary times.  For example, when I wrote a series on a Native American tribe (the Mandans), I learned the bride’s family owned the lodges, the husband was to move in with her (and oftentimes would marry her sisters), and the wife/wives could throw out the husband for any reason they wanted.  The husband only owned his horse, clothes, and his hunting gear.  That is a different culture from the white people who inhabited the United States at that time.  So to pretend the white culture and the Mandan culture were the same would have been a disservice to both sides.

I’d like to ask you about tropes in your own genre.  

Browse through the genre you write in and check the description of the bestselling books that pop up in your search.  Do you see certain character “types” emerging?  Readers of genres tend to prefer certain kinds of characters more than others.  I’d love to hear what you discover as you do your search.  Do any images come to mind when you think of those tropes?  Do you like them?  Hate them?  Do you plan to use them?  And if so, how?