March 6, 2007
Romance the Sequel
Been there . . . Done that . . . broke up, spent time apart, and whamo circumstances throw you back together . . .
We all have pet peeves when it comes to what we like or don’t like to read. I have a friend who hates secret baby books. Bodice rippers make some want to rip their hair out. And there are varying degrees of what we like in paranormal, vampires, no vampires, werefolks, no werefolks.
Mine has been the rekindled love. Don’t know why that bothers me exactly. But I kinda feel like it’s almost cheating. You don’t have to “build” the romance from the ground up. You start from a different point in the folks relationship. I always thought it was an easy-out when working on the “Love” part of the story–poor misguided me . . .
HOWEVER, having said that, I have really been thinking about it lately and realized it allows the author more freedom to develope the plot. You don’t have to take those extra chapters of the meet and the cultivation. You can add bits of the why in backstory.
I can see the benefits in boys meets girl, boy looses girl but meets up with girl again and the books begins . . . hmm . . . do I feel a story line coming along?
Man I tell you what, it is SOOOOOOOO Much easier writing about characters who already at least know each other. Especially if you’re writing erotica. Sometimes the hot fling works, sometimes not so much.
I call them reunion stories, and one of my various books-in-progress is such a story.
And I think you’re right about being able to fit in more plot.
Dennie, spot on.
One of the problems with writing about ‘relationships’ is that in the time span of a novel (or worse, novella), there’s really very little time to get the H/h together, have them go through their various ups and downs, and realistically expect them to wind up in a HEA (that is, without doing something intrusive, like announcing “Five Years Later’, or tacking on an epilogue where they’ve been at it like rabbits and produced 3 or 4 kids, etc.—and geez, is this one helluva run-on sentence or what?).
If they already know each other, it’s a heck of a lot easier.
Raine–I hadn’t really thought of that before. Good point!
May–I am considering trying it. My first book released was kind of like that, they knew each other, but had no exact romantic pasts
Amie–maybe that will help me start on a new WIP, have them have had (wheshew a mouthful) a previous hot fling… cause I gotta tell you, I am drawing a blank!