Formula
Beware: Kristen Contradiction
In an earlier blog, I waxed on about throwing out all the rules and writing for yourself. Now, I’m going to wax on about formula. I didn’t lie in my past blog, I do not follow any rules, I do write for myself (caveat: mostly and the mostly comes with listening to readers but that’s for another blog) but that doesn’t mean I haven’t created my own set of rules and I stick to them like crazy glue.
I used to be a reader. One thing I miss, being a writer, is that I write more than I read. The last book I read was the fabulous Dennis Lehane’s equally fabulous Shutter Island. This was nearly two years ago. This is sacrilege. I start books again and again and get sidetracked by my own work. I used to read four to six books a week, mostly romance but pretty much anything. I felt lost if I didn’t have a lineup of books waiting for me to read.
I’m gonna need to work on this.
Dedicating myself to writing I’ve lost this habit but reading so much from a very, very young age, I knew what I liked. Definitely. And this is from a woman who, from day to day doesn’t even know who she is. Am I a Harley chick? A fashionista? A domestic goddess? Bottom line, I’m all of those and every day I’ll try on a different me depending on my mood.
But my books – that’s something else. My books, I know what they are. My books, I know what their foundation will be. My books have four basics. And those I’ll share with you.
First, a hot guy. Uber hot. Off-the-scales hot. Great bodies. Tall. Deep voices. Confident. Alpha to extremes. High libidos. They know who they are. They don’t often say I’m sorry. They show little to no weakness and if they have one, it is for their woman.
This is not to say they are perfect. They aren’t.
Tate in Sweet Dreams is kind of a jerk and says things he very much should not when his short fuse catches light. In fact, I wrote Sweet Dreams because I wanted to explore the idea of a woman falling in love with a man who, on the face of it, is kind of a jerk but who, deep down, is so worth loving it isn’t funny.
Joe in At Peace has a tragic back story that forces him to protect his emotions and in doing so he deliberately hurts his heroine (and her daughters). Again, this was what I challenged myself with in At Peace . In my books, the hero usually knows what he wants and goes all out to win his girl. I wanted to explore the idea of the hero struggling to maintain distance and pulling against his feelings for his woman as well as the idea of forgiveness. I think it worked and I probably think this because Joe is my all time favorite hero of any book, mine or others. And, like I said, I’ve read a lot
And Nate, in Three Wishes is damaged and makes bad decisions both because of his inner conflict and then in an effort to protect the woman he loves. But Chapter Thirteen of Three Wishes is one of my most favorite chapters that I’ve written. To this day, I get goosebumps reading it. Ah, my sweet Nate.
But, that said, these traits only serve, in my mind, to make a hot guy even hotter and they do because I work hard to make them do so.
Second, well-rounded ancillary characters. Nothing defines a main character as much as the people that surround them or gravitate to them. I put as much thought into my secondary characters as I do into my hero and heroine. They have histories, they have personalities (very strong ones), they have opinions and they have to be someone the reader would want in their own life. I will tell you, from my Rock Chick Series I often wish Daisy, Tex, Shirleen and Duke were real, living, breathing beings because I could use having them around. And I think every girl needs a Mrs. Truman from Penmort Castle . Not to mention every girl needs a friend like Elvira from Mystery Man even if it was just to make her laugh. And it might make me a little insane, but I wish Ryker from Golden Trail was my bestest bud, no joke. The dude is scary but he’s loyal and he’s hilarious.
Third, humor and this ties with the second rule because my ancillary characters often provide light (or heavy) relief. I want my readers to smile when my words hit their eyes. And I want them to chuckle. And, if I can swing it, I want, more than once in one of my novels, for them to laugh out loud. Some of my writing is very light and meant to be a joyride, not deep, not meaningful. Other works can be more intense, even raw. But always, sometimes more often than not, I give my readers a break and a smile. Or, I hope so.
And last, the heroine has to be someone female readers can identify with. This is the most difficult part and, from feedback I’ve received, hit and miss because there are so very many nuances to women (and sometimes we don’t give each other a break) that we often cannot take ourselves out of our own experiences to understand those of others… or set aside reality and understand that the words in their hands are pure fiction. No, strike that, with my books… fantasy.
Case in point, my favorite heroine in the Rock Chick Series is Ava of Rock Chick Revenge and this could be because Ava worked hard to take off a lot of weight and I used to carry a great deal of extra weight and did the same. And every day I struggle with the image I see in the mirror as, every day, I struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle… like Ava. And yet, feedback from readers was that Ava’s issues with self-confidence were grating and some thought even stupid. They didn’t like her. I was actually shocked about this. Seeing as I rooted something deep in me in Ava, of course, I would think the entire sisterhood would get it. They did not. But, c’est la vie. There are others who did get it and were pleased as punch Ava hooked her hot guy who also happened to be the boy she loved since she was a little girl. And, gotta say, seeing as Rock Chick Revenge is my favorite Rock Chick , I agree.
Nevertheless, creating a heroine who women identify with or at the very least want to cheer on is the most difficult endeavor for me as a writer and the most important part of my formula. My girls in my books are not perfect (sometimes far from it) and that is the point. Because if you love someone, you do not do it because of their strengths and despite their weaknesses. You do it because they are everything they are.
And a beautiful fantasy is that each of us girls could find a hot guy who will love us because of everything we are.
So, to create these beautiful fantasies, I use this formula and it works for me. Every time.
In an earlier blog, I waxed on about throwing out all the rules and writing for yourself. Now, I’m going to wax on about formula. I didn’t lie in my past blog, I do not follow any rules, I do write for myself (caveat: mostly and the mostly comes with listening to readers but that’s for another blog) but that doesn’t mean I haven’t created my own set of rules and I stick to them like crazy glue.
I used to be a reader. One thing I miss, being a writer, is that I write more than I read. The last book I read was the fabulous Dennis Lehane’s equally fabulous Shutter Island. This was nearly two years ago. This is sacrilege. I start books again and again and get sidetracked by my own work. I used to read four to six books a week, mostly romance but pretty much anything. I felt lost if I didn’t have a lineup of books waiting for me to read.
I’m gonna need to work on this.
Dedicating myself to writing I’ve lost this habit but reading so much from a very, very young age, I knew what I liked. Definitely. And this is from a woman who, from day to day doesn’t even know who she is. Am I a Harley chick? A fashionista? A domestic goddess? Bottom line, I’m all of those and every day I’ll try on a different me depending on my mood.
But my books – that’s something else. My books, I know what they are. My books, I know what their foundation will be. My books have four basics. And those I’ll share with you.
First, a hot guy. Uber hot. Off-the-scales hot. Great bodies. Tall. Deep voices. Confident. Alpha to extremes. High libidos. They know who they are. They don’t often say I’m sorry. They show little to no weakness and if they have one, it is for their woman.
This is not to say they are perfect. They aren’t.
Tate in Sweet Dreams is kind of a jerk and says things he very much should not when his short fuse catches light. In fact, I wrote Sweet Dreams because I wanted to explore the idea of a woman falling in love with a man who, on the face of it, is kind of a jerk but who, deep down, is so worth loving it isn’t funny.
Joe in At Peace has a tragic back story that forces him to protect his emotions and in doing so he deliberately hurts his heroine (and her daughters). Again, this was what I challenged myself with in At Peace . In my books, the hero usually knows what he wants and goes all out to win his girl. I wanted to explore the idea of the hero struggling to maintain distance and pulling against his feelings for his woman as well as the idea of forgiveness. I think it worked and I probably think this because Joe is my all time favorite hero of any book, mine or others. And, like I said, I’ve read a lot
And Nate, in Three Wishes is damaged and makes bad decisions both because of his inner conflict and then in an effort to protect the woman he loves. But Chapter Thirteen of Three Wishes is one of my most favorite chapters that I’ve written. To this day, I get goosebumps reading it. Ah, my sweet Nate.
But, that said, these traits only serve, in my mind, to make a hot guy even hotter and they do because I work hard to make them do so.
Second, well-rounded ancillary characters. Nothing defines a main character as much as the people that surround them or gravitate to them. I put as much thought into my secondary characters as I do into my hero and heroine. They have histories, they have personalities (very strong ones), they have opinions and they have to be someone the reader would want in their own life. I will tell you, from my Rock Chick Series I often wish Daisy, Tex, Shirleen and Duke were real, living, breathing beings because I could use having them around. And I think every girl needs a Mrs. Truman from Penmort Castle . Not to mention every girl needs a friend like Elvira from Mystery Man even if it was just to make her laugh. And it might make me a little insane, but I wish Ryker from Golden Trail was my bestest bud, no joke. The dude is scary but he’s loyal and he’s hilarious.
Third, humor and this ties with the second rule because my ancillary characters often provide light (or heavy) relief. I want my readers to smile when my words hit their eyes. And I want them to chuckle. And, if I can swing it, I want, more than once in one of my novels, for them to laugh out loud. Some of my writing is very light and meant to be a joyride, not deep, not meaningful. Other works can be more intense, even raw. But always, sometimes more often than not, I give my readers a break and a smile. Or, I hope so.
And last, the heroine has to be someone female readers can identify with. This is the most difficult part and, from feedback I’ve received, hit and miss because there are so very many nuances to women (and sometimes we don’t give each other a break) that we often cannot take ourselves out of our own experiences to understand those of others… or set aside reality and understand that the words in their hands are pure fiction. No, strike that, with my books… fantasy.
Case in point, my favorite heroine in the Rock Chick Series is Ava of Rock Chick Revenge and this could be because Ava worked hard to take off a lot of weight and I used to carry a great deal of extra weight and did the same. And every day I struggle with the image I see in the mirror as, every day, I struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle… like Ava. And yet, feedback from readers was that Ava’s issues with self-confidence were grating and some thought even stupid. They didn’t like her. I was actually shocked about this. Seeing as I rooted something deep in me in Ava, of course, I would think the entire sisterhood would get it. They did not. But, c’est la vie. There are others who did get it and were pleased as punch Ava hooked her hot guy who also happened to be the boy she loved since she was a little girl. And, gotta say, seeing as Rock Chick Revenge is my favorite Rock Chick , I agree.
Nevertheless, creating a heroine who women identify with or at the very least want to cheer on is the most difficult endeavor for me as a writer and the most important part of my formula. My girls in my books are not perfect (sometimes far from it) and that is the point. Because if you love someone, you do not do it because of their strengths and despite their weaknesses. You do it because they are everything they are.
And a beautiful fantasy is that each of us girls could find a hot guy who will love us because of everything we are.
So, to create these beautiful fantasies, I use this formula and it works for me. Every time.
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