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hrjI've achieved a set of major milestones in the first draft of The Mystic Marriage. To wit:
* According to my working chapter-outline, I have gotten halfway through the story (Chapter 16 out of 33).
* One of my romantic protagonists has just realized that what she thought was an idle teasing flirtation got a lot more serious (on her part) while she wasn't paying attention.
* My other romantic protagonist hasn't had a scrap of attention to pay to interpersonal relationships. She has just hit complete bottom in terms of her physical and psychological well-being, has had her hopes of any personal or professional success crushed, was significantly at fault in a death and a severe wounding of two people close to her, and was just barely forcibly restrained from doing away with herself. On the positive side, there's nowhere for her to go but up at this point.
But this got me to thinking. Is it reasonable to think of a story as being first and foremost a romance if neither of the relevant characters is self-consciously aware of the attraction until halfway through the book? In chapter 15 Jeanne realizes she's fallen hard. In chapter 21 Antuniet makes a similar discovery. They then spend four more chapters working past the problem that neither thinks the other is particularly serious (in different ways) before coming to an understanding. (After which, of course, there's at least one major conflict/misunderstanding before they come to a better understanding by the end of the story.)
When I starting writing Daughter of Mystery, of course, I wasn't really planning structure in any conscious way. But then, that was part of the idea for DoM: just writing story until it was enough. Now that I'm vaguely plotting out a series of at least four books in total, I'm making some mental notes about what I consider essential in terms of content. There has to be a central new romance, i.e., some new long-term couple is formed during the course of the story. There has to be at least one major adventure/quest type story arc. Someone has to strive to achieve something that takes an extended effort and involves some significant amount of physical or social peril. Ideally, there should be two or more arcs of this type operating in parallel. There has to be change and intrigue in the underlying socio-political structure that is not directly relevant to my primary characters. And any previous primary characters should continue to play a significant part in the story that is in some way braided into the lives of the "new" characters. (I use scare-quotes because the romantic couple in Book 2 were minor characters in Book 1 and I suspect this is going to be a continuing pattern.)
Layering in lots of non-romantic action, adventure, and intrigue is -- in my opinion -- a big part of why this style is working for me. But it does raise the question of where the genre dividing line is. I couldn't imagine taking out either the romance or the adventure and having a story left worth the telling. So is the hypothetical middle of the book too late for overt evidence for the romance? (Not that the reader won't see it coming long before, mind you!) In Daughter of Mystery both romantic protagonists had their inklings a lot earlier (Chapter 14 out of 61) although it takes a similar proportion of the book for them to consummate the relationship (about 5/6 of the way through the story). On the other hand, the couple in DoM have much stronger internal barriers to overcome.
I'm not in any way suggesting that I think this timing issue indicates that Mystic Marriage has structural flaws, but it did rather surprise me when I realized how long it had taken for the romance to manifest. And then, it may well be that the point at which it happens will slip a bit earlier proportionately because I have a sneaking suspicion I may need to work another cycle of chapters into the outline at some point. Or maybe not. Based on the current draft word count, I seem to be looking at a finished length more in the ca. 100K range for this one (compared to ca. 140K for DoM). It could stand a bit more length than that, but on the other hand I'm piggy-backing on a lot of basic background from Book 1, so it isn't at all surprising that the same amount of story can be told in fewer words this time.
Or maybe I'm overthinking things a bit.
* According to my working chapter-outline, I have gotten halfway through the story (Chapter 16 out of 33).
* One of my romantic protagonists has just realized that what she thought was an idle teasing flirtation got a lot more serious (on her part) while she wasn't paying attention.
* My other romantic protagonist hasn't had a scrap of attention to pay to interpersonal relationships. She has just hit complete bottom in terms of her physical and psychological well-being, has had her hopes of any personal or professional success crushed, was significantly at fault in a death and a severe wounding of two people close to her, and was just barely forcibly restrained from doing away with herself. On the positive side, there's nowhere for her to go but up at this point.
But this got me to thinking. Is it reasonable to think of a story as being first and foremost a romance if neither of the relevant characters is self-consciously aware of the attraction until halfway through the book? In chapter 15 Jeanne realizes she's fallen hard. In chapter 21 Antuniet makes a similar discovery. They then spend four more chapters working past the problem that neither thinks the other is particularly serious (in different ways) before coming to an understanding. (After which, of course, there's at least one major conflict/misunderstanding before they come to a better understanding by the end of the story.)
When I starting writing Daughter of Mystery, of course, I wasn't really planning structure in any conscious way. But then, that was part of the idea for DoM: just writing story until it was enough. Now that I'm vaguely plotting out a series of at least four books in total, I'm making some mental notes about what I consider essential in terms of content. There has to be a central new romance, i.e., some new long-term couple is formed during the course of the story. There has to be at least one major adventure/quest type story arc. Someone has to strive to achieve something that takes an extended effort and involves some significant amount of physical or social peril. Ideally, there should be two or more arcs of this type operating in parallel. There has to be change and intrigue in the underlying socio-political structure that is not directly relevant to my primary characters. And any previous primary characters should continue to play a significant part in the story that is in some way braided into the lives of the "new" characters. (I use scare-quotes because the romantic couple in Book 2 were minor characters in Book 1 and I suspect this is going to be a continuing pattern.)
Layering in lots of non-romantic action, adventure, and intrigue is -- in my opinion -- a big part of why this style is working for me. But it does raise the question of where the genre dividing line is. I couldn't imagine taking out either the romance or the adventure and having a story left worth the telling. So is the hypothetical middle of the book too late for overt evidence for the romance? (Not that the reader won't see it coming long before, mind you!) In Daughter of Mystery both romantic protagonists had their inklings a lot earlier (Chapter 14 out of 61) although it takes a similar proportion of the book for them to consummate the relationship (about 5/6 of the way through the story). On the other hand, the couple in DoM have much stronger internal barriers to overcome.
I'm not in any way suggesting that I think this timing issue indicates that Mystic Marriage has structural flaws, but it did rather surprise me when I realized how long it had taken for the romance to manifest. And then, it may well be that the point at which it happens will slip a bit earlier proportionately because I have a sneaking suspicion I may need to work another cycle of chapters into the outline at some point. Or maybe not. Based on the current draft word count, I seem to be looking at a finished length more in the ca. 100K range for this one (compared to ca. 140K for DoM). It could stand a bit more length than that, but on the other hand I'm piggy-backing on a lot of basic background from Book 1, so it isn't at all surprising that the same amount of story can be told in fewer words this time.
Or maybe I'm overthinking things a bit.
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 07:09 am (UTC)No, there's lots of precedent for writing love stories like this, especially when, as in your books, there's a major adventure story alongside the romance. And double plus especially when the romance that is developing is one of the rarer kinds.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 01:48 pm (UTC)Sure. Half the trashy romances I read fall into this category. I don't think personal oblivion is limited to heterosexuals :)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 04:14 pm (UTC)I want to say, "It worked for Jane Austen"
Date: 2013-01-29 10:13 pm (UTC)I like the idea of people taking their time. I find it annoying when books jump from meeting to romance at light speed and ignore the build up, which is often the sexiest part. Not that you're going for sexy, necessarily, but there it is. Sometimes, a long, slow simmer makes the tastiest dish.
(We met at West War, last summer, and went on a shopping expedition. I'm truly not anonymous!)
Re: I want to say, "It worked for Jane Austen"
Date: 2013-01-31 03:31 am (UTC)