Last call for Free Stuff and Chemistry
Just a reminder I'll be announcing the winner of the $20 Amazon gift card later today. And today's comments still count so feel free to say anything that moves you. At the end of the day (that's 5:00 pm est) I'll put all the non DWT writer comments in a hat and draw. Good luck!
Now onto my thoughts for the day. I'm reading a book now where a reviewer made the comment that she liked both of the characters but didn't necessarily buy them together. As I'm reading the book this does make sense to me. All the pieces are there but for some reason I'm just not getting that click. And I don't know why.
As a writer of romance obviously I need to make sure the click happens. Naturally I'm starting to obsess about it. I tried to break it down analytically by reading different stories where for me the chemistry just leapt off the page.
An easy example - kicking it old school - I'll use Nora Roberts. In her first "In Death" book Eve and Rourke meet and there it is. That magic moment when they are standing at the funeral and you realize he's found the button off her drab grey suit. As a reader you just know these two want each other. It's not overdone, it's not obvious. It's just there somehow on the page.
I went back and re-read the early chapters of my current WIP and yeah, I really feel this chemistry between my hero and heroine in spades. Somehow it's just there. Yeah me!
But then I went back and read some of my other stuff and … yeah not so much. Boooo… I suck.
It's not that the book sucks. The characters, their development, their growth… all that's there. And yes you get to a point where you can feel the love between them – at least I hope. But that's not the same thing as chemistry.
Chemistry is the click. It's the thing that makes you look at a person and decide you want to take your clothes off in front of him. You can write words like lust, and tension, and desire. But for whatever reason sometimes that works and sometimes it just doesn't. No click.
The editor in me – I obviously wasn't able to see this flaw. I hope by having this new couple show me the way I'll be able to recognize it going forward. But I don't know. Can we ever see the click as we're writing our own stuff?
Is it the characters? Is it the writing? Is it the way we set the couple up? Who knows! What do you all think?
Now onto my thoughts for the day. I'm reading a book now where a reviewer made the comment that she liked both of the characters but didn't necessarily buy them together. As I'm reading the book this does make sense to me. All the pieces are there but for some reason I'm just not getting that click. And I don't know why.
As a writer of romance obviously I need to make sure the click happens. Naturally I'm starting to obsess about it. I tried to break it down analytically by reading different stories where for me the chemistry just leapt off the page.
An easy example - kicking it old school - I'll use Nora Roberts. In her first "In Death" book Eve and Rourke meet and there it is. That magic moment when they are standing at the funeral and you realize he's found the button off her drab grey suit. As a reader you just know these two want each other. It's not overdone, it's not obvious. It's just there somehow on the page.
I went back and re-read the early chapters of my current WIP and yeah, I really feel this chemistry between my hero and heroine in spades. Somehow it's just there. Yeah me!
But then I went back and read some of my other stuff and … yeah not so much. Boooo… I suck.
It's not that the book sucks. The characters, their development, their growth… all that's there. And yes you get to a point where you can feel the love between them – at least I hope. But that's not the same thing as chemistry.
Chemistry is the click. It's the thing that makes you look at a person and decide you want to take your clothes off in front of him. You can write words like lust, and tension, and desire. But for whatever reason sometimes that works and sometimes it just doesn't. No click.
The editor in me – I obviously wasn't able to see this flaw. I hope by having this new couple show me the way I'll be able to recognize it going forward. But I don't know. Can we ever see the click as we're writing our own stuff?
Is it the characters? Is it the writing? Is it the way we set the couple up? Who knows! What do you all think?
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