Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Let's Talk Writing Today
It's Wednesday and a good day to talk writing. What makes the Everlasting Love series books different from other series books? We who write them know it's that the love between the hero and heroine spans a longer time period than in other series romance books. Many of these books go back a lifetime. Some of the stories begin when the couple met and life got in the way so they didn't get married. Other of the main characters rediscover their first love after a long separation. Sometimes it requires a flashback into the early lives of the hero or heroine, or both. We as writers have always heard that flashbacks are jarring. That they upset the smooth flow of a story. Yet more and more mainstream books work with the lives of more than the two main characters. So the question I have---do readers like to see the story start, then have it revert back to the time the couple met, or is it preferable to readers to see character A's life to the start of the story, then see how character B reaches the same point, and so forth through all of the major story characters. Or does it matter if a reader gets invested in the first focal character? I don't mind flashbacks. I like to find out what has gone on in the hero and heroines' lives that kept them apart. But, I'd like to know what other people think about the subject.
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9 comments:
Roz, great discussion. You're right, I think flashbacks are generally more common in general fiction than the romance genre. I love flashbacks as long as they're done well -- as long as I can stay oriented. I don't like flashbacks where I have to stop and study to figure out where I'm at. Does that make sense? I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of your book, Roz! It should get here within the next couple days....
Roz, I have always loved flashbacks. Once the character's present-day situation/crisis has been established, I'm interested in knowing what events, tragedies, etc., brought them to the current moment and what issues have affected the person they have become and will become. I agree with Carrie, though, that flashbacks need to be carefully constructed so that the reader moves seamlessly back and forth between the past and present.
I've changed in my reading preferences. I used to think of flashbacks as intrusive to the story and would actually groan if the author threw one at me. But now I appreciate that they add a richness to characters and their situations, more plausibility to what the character does. I think flashbacks often reveal motivation more clearly. So when I'm back in the present of the story, I'm in deeper.
Thanks for the good discussion, Roz. You always have one up your sleeve!
LindaB.
Roz, I am so pleased to see your comments about flashbacks. I was reading Donald Maass earlier in the summer, and he talks about flashback and when to use this very important writing tool.
I've come across part of the reason why it is so important. Flashback not only fills in what happened to the characters in their earlier years, but it also serves another purpose.
Flashback can be used to expand on a underlying theme shared by the hero and heroine, or enlighten the reader about a basic truth that has impacted the relationship over the years.
In addition, the flashback scenes can shed light on the unique language or way of communicating shared by two people, a language that grows out of years of shared experience and the intimacy of a relationship.
Or the flashback can show the history, or a compelling attachment to a look, a gesture, a shared joke, or a moment that changed both characters, all experiences that made their early years so full of meaning for them.
Memories (flashbacks in this case) as used in this type of writing are shared experiences that must have meaning for the larger story of why the love has lasted over time.
I have tried to pay careful attention to the use of flashback in my latest Everlasting Love, Love Always, where flashback helps to underscore certain important moments in the relationship between the hero and heroine.
Thanks for bringing this topic up.
Roz, good question. I agree with what everyone else has said, that flashbacks are very useful and can really round out a story. I think editors have frowned on them in the past because they can be confusing if not handled properly. It's like changing Point of View. Head hopping can drive you crazy, but the judicious use of shifting POV, even within the same scene, can make a scene very forceful and immediate. It all depends on how it's done.
One of the things I especially like about the Everlasting Love series is that we can bring in pertinent events of the past and show how they impact the present. Life's lessons aren't always sequential.
I won't go into youth being waste don the young.
Ken
Hi Roz,
I just finished my May Everlasting, Always A Mother, and I worried about too many flashbacks. Were they going to be jarring to the reader? I've always heard flashback were bad and readers didn't like them.
But I believe our Everlasting stories are different. We have to go back to tell the story. And I'm trying to weave the flashbacks in so they're not jarring but flow smoothly and are an integral part of the story.
Or at least I'm trying my best.
Good discussion. I've always liked flashbacks that show us more story and let us in on why a character behaves a certain way or lives in a certain place or is with a certain person. For me, flashbacks are part of life. Last week, for example, I was sitting in a pizza shop in a college town with my son, his girlfriend, three of his cousins, and one of their girlfriends. The location was the place where my then-fiance and I shared many a date. Guess what? We went to a flashback. They asked questions, I told about our life there, what college was like for us (they were getting ready for a new school year). We relived part of my life and they learned some new things about me.
And I learned about the six young people, from the questions they asked. That's why I love reading and writing Everlasting Love stories. I can explore the lives of the hero and heroine from the past to the present and see why their love survived or was rejuvenated.
Tessa
Hi, Roz,
I'm popping in way late, but wanted to say that I love your topic. And I love flashbacks.
Dialogue is supposed to bring the characters to life -- and it does. But to me, a flashback is so much more immediate than just hearing about the events in retrospect, even if they ARE presented in lively words on the page.
Definitely agree with those who said the flashback and flashforward have to be well-done. If either one is jarring or makes me have to refocus to find where I'm at, it takes me right out of the story.
Best,
Barbara
www.barbarawhitedaille.com
I loved A Secret to Tell You. I love flashbacks. Quite frankly, one of the things I really enjoy te most about Everlasting Love reads is the variety in form. I enjoyed Family Stories because it gave a picture of an entire family. I liked The Scrapbook because the items in the scrapbook set a tone (safety/non-safety)and and image which the narrative story either confirmed or gave a different picture. I like the more straight forms. In general I love flashbacks. I also liked
Upstairs at Miss Hattie's where the hero and heroine told their story to 2 different people and the h/H stories went side by side.
I don't know if what I have to say is a formula for success because I only started reading romance late in life about a year ago though studied literature in school...but what I really love about EL is that, as a reader, I feel I am discovering it along with the authors. I think the line allows for a lot of variety in form and I love that! It keeps the line feeling new and innovative and yet all those I have read so far touch that tender place in the heart. My hope for EL in the future is that it will keep this innovative feel in terms of form and the authors will continue to expand the boundaries of the romance genre in the ways I have seen so far and maybe add more too. It's a wonderful mixture of stories, often set in the more recent past than historicals and romances with this tender romance tone but romances that have a truly innovative feel. I hope that makes sense.
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