Technique: The Reader Knows But the MC Doesn’t

This romance writing technique is a lot of fun to read and to write. It mingles two POVs.

Generally, as a romance writer, the most frequent POV is the heroine. Some people systematically switch off between hero/heroine POV every other chapter. (I love to read those; I don’t love to write them.) I’m a flipflopper headhopper.

For this technique, you are in the main character’s POV but also you write from the standpoint of the omniscient narrator. So the reader gets a combination of the MC’s thoughts and some other information that the MC is unaware of.

The best way to do this is to describe actions going on around the MC that we the reader understand are significant and how but the MC either doesn’t notice or doesn’t grasp the significance. An aloof person does something out of character which has all the observers reeling. You describe it in narration via actions. At the same time, while inside the thoughts of the person we’re looking through whose feelings we are seeing, this character doesn’t realize the significance. So we see their feelings and we see the narration so we know how special it is but the character POV doesn’t know. That contrast is a really enjoyable contrast for the reader.

My favorite personal use of this technique is The Unaware Walkaway While Everyone Gapes. I used this technique when Kieran meets Daphne in Heart of Steel and shocks everyone that such a busy important person spends so much time talking to a nobody. And in Best Served Cold when Mac defends Jenna to everyone’s shock and consternation. The MC behaves in a way that is extremely out of character to the people around them. The omniscient narrator describes the onlookers’ shock. We the reader enjoy the onlookers’ shock as it helps us realize how unusual this behavior is (and therefore, how romantic!). But the characters themselves are unaware of how deliciously out of character the behavior was.

This has some relation to the Romantic Misunderstanding where the reader knows more than the characters.

In the next post I’ll describe how Mary Calmes does this with Milo.

The Romance Arc in a Standalone vs. in a Series

I’m reading a series now by Mary Calmes (Marshalls). The thing about a romance series is that you need a new conflict for every book.

When I write romance, I have a basic arc:
In the first half they are getting together.
And then the 2nd half is a minor conflict they have to resolve to finalize it up. Or
The 2nd half is a major fundamental conflict where one or both need character growth in order to be together.
(The 2nd type is stronger but I admit I often rely on the 1st type.)

With a series, you have to keep inventing a new fundamental conflict each book. Book 1: Will they get together. Book 2: How will they handle deployment. Book 3: One wants to get married and one doesn’t. Book 4: What happens if they no longer work together.

I did notice a technique that Calmes uses which is a great romance writing technique and makes it great fun for the reader. I’ll expand on that in the next post.

What makes a declaration scene great?

I hit 50,000 words!

But I’m not finished.

Looks like this one is going to be longer. And I had hopes of actually submitting this one to Harlequin. But not if it doesn’t fit the standard mold.

I think I have under 5k words left to write. I’m trying to think of a good declaration scene. Which one should declare first? I thought the hero. But does that make him too vulnerable?

Patterning after the declaration scene in Emma by Jane Austen, a great declaration scene has one (preferably both) of the characters uncertain about the state of the relationship (PS kind of the opposite of what you hope for in real life if you’re popping the question). That agony of unsureness makes the reader’s heart beat faster. Even though we know it’s a happy ending, we love to ride that roller coaster as the characters aren’t sure… Even better if they despair…

But you can’t have a guy so unsure that it’s unmanly. (Romance novels being cliches of masculinity and femininity.) It’s a delicate balance.

What I Learned About Romance Writing from Kdramas

Kdramas have mastered the art of nuance in the drama of getting Main Characters together romantically. They take small details and focus on them, on the rich emotional pathos in minor events.

I wrote a detail where my hero is a little bit hurt. I was about to skip over the aftermath and go on to the next point in my plot when I envisioned how a Kdrama would handle this.

There would be no sliding over the event and letting the audience derive and deduce the main character’s feelings. Not at all. There would be another small event that drove it home. And another small event. And we would get caught up in the ballet, in the dance between the hero and the heroine, their looks, their gestures, the significance of all these very minor things.

Kdrama takes very small events and actions and imbues them with romance.

So I won’t move on to the next planned scene just yet. I’ll make a small scene with a very small event with sweeping emotional significance.

When My Own Blogging Improves My Writing

Those who are kind, benefit themselves
–Proverbs 11:17

Every since I clarified the concept of the Romantic Misunderstanding, it’s been much easier to play with it and use it in my writing. It was something that I sensed as a reader; but it was only through blogging about it, and spending the time putting my finger on analyzing what makes it so delicious that enabled me to now embrace it and deliberately use it as a technique.

It’s a series of three blog posts based on Middlemarch that helped me unravel how to build up the tension when both characters have something holding them back and both characters have reasons to (mistakenly) think that the other one is holding back.

Ever since I wrote it, I’ve been able to see it more clearly and I’ve been able to incorporate it consciously into my plotting. It is so much fun!

Beloved Thesaurus

I’m writing about an impatient, annoying character. He’s only going to be around for about 1000 words. And yet there are so many ways to describe his tone of voice. The riches! I cannot choose.

petulant peevish strident irascible querulous

Technique: Romantic Misconceptions

I’m reading The Quarterback by Mackenzie Blair.  It’s one of my favorites and I re-read it frequently.

Usually I have a hard time reading to study technique while I’m reading to enjoy.  I get lost in reading and forget to analyze what’s working and why.

This time I noticed that I shivered with delight at least three times and I noticed that the technique was always the same.

It’s similar to the Romantic Misunderstanding I wrote about previously.  It’s the same technique that makes the Marriage Proposal in Jane Austen’s Emma just about the best marriage proposal ever.  It’s because one character thinks the other character is about to reject them.

But then, turnabout, the other character was hesitating, not because they were going to reject, but because of their own insecurity.

Matt calls Trevor his boyfriend.  Trevor is dazed and amazed that Matt thinks of him that way, and thinks about the many types of relationships he’s had, none of them as a boyfriend before.
Matt, not knowing what’s going on in Trevor’s mind, backpedals and says, “It’s ok if you don’t want to be boyfriends.”  Actually, Trevor is thrilled.

Trevor thinks Matt doesn’t want to sleep over because he’s not out and he figures Matt doesn’t care enough to take the risk.
But No! Matt is actually insecure and cannot believe that Trevor actually wants him to sleep over!

So we have a moment of despair, quickly followed by a moment of elation.  Just the type of roller coaster readers love!

Chapter Ending Woes

I reached 50k words!  Congratulations to me!

Unfortunately, the book isn’t finished.  I have a few more thousands of words of plot left.  Ironic, since I spend every book counting down that magical 50k number.

But since I’m self-publishing, I can be flexible.  I’m in the last chapter plus I want to write a small epilogue.

Also, the characters ended the last chapter before I was ready.  I had planned a high point and a low point to converge together at the end of the chapter, leaving the reader both excited and upset.

But the characters had such a poignant moment that the end of the chapter wrote itself.

Now how am I supposed to place a high point and a low type (still needed for the plot) in the middle of a chapter?  I can do it, but it lacks punch to have it happen in the middle instead of at the end.

They’ve got me in a muddle.

Is it working or not working? That is the question

Part of what makes a romance wonderful is the push and pull tension, the back and forth of will it happen or will it not happen, will it work out or not work out.  Is he into her or not.  Is she into him or not.  So close–almost–nope, not yet.

But sometimes it can be annoying.  Instead of the delicious tension slowly ratcheting up, getting more and more exciting and bringing our hopes up and dashing them harder each time…

It can be monotonous.  Wearying.  The same old thing over and over.  Just get them together already.  Stop beating the reader over the head with the same whiny conflict.

I can’t tell which camp my current story is in.  Are they slowly making progress, circling ever closer to each other, only to emotionally, wonderfully, disappointingly shy away because of the conflict?

Or are they monotonously and annoyingly dancing the same stupid dance over and over?

The fact that I am even asking the question makes me suspect the latter.

This is definitely something I will keep an eye out about during the final big editing read, when I read the story from start to finish.

The Bechdel Test in Romance Novels

I try to be mindful about this and make sure to have scenes where my female characters talk about something other than men and relationships.

It happens to be such a very convenient technique to have two characters discussing the relationship and getting an outside perspective that helps the main character move towards the emotional growth necessary for the development of the relationship.

I wondered if it’s lazy, but upon reflection, I just think it’s a very effective storytelling technique, especially in the romance genre.

(It’s flexible and works to have any gender talk about the relationship with their friend/mentor to gain insight and help break through resistance.)

My characters ended the chapter when I wasn’t ready again, so now I’m left picking up the pieces and trying to figure out how to make what was going to be about 1000 words into something that is long enough to be a stand-alone chapter.  Does it throw you off to have very differently lengthed chapters?  Last chapter was 7K and if I can get this one to 2500 I’ll be happy.  I am deeply uncomfortable with such disparate chapter lengths, though.  (And yes, I tried breaking up the 7K chapter, too.  My characters are insistent.)