{"id":611,"date":"2010-02-11T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2010\/02\/11\/but-nora-does-it-why-cant-i\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:42:36","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:42:36","slug":"but-nora-does-it-why-cant-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/but-nora-does-it-why-cant-i\/","title":{"rendered":"But Nora Does It, Why Can&#8217;t I?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There seems to be a new trend\u2014OK, it\u2019s always been there\u2014towards untested authors (mostly, unpublished, but some newly published) trying to break the \u201crules\u201d of writing romance, and when he or she is called on it, the pat answer goes something like: \u201cbut Nora [Roberts] does it,\u201d or \u201cbut Stephen [King] does it.\u201d Well, folks, that may be true, but unless you are Nora or Stephen\u2026or one fantastic phenom\u2026don\u2019t do it. <\/p>\n<p>Experienced, multi-published authors often tell a newer authors, \u201cYou have to know the rules before you can break them.\u201d This is great advice, but oft times, not well-received advice, and I think I know why. Aspiring authors are told to study the authors they like\u2014successful authors who have a quality the new author would like to develop. So Ms. Aspiring Author reads, reads, reads. She\u2019s been told that secondary characters shouldn\u2019t have a point of view. She&#8217;s been told that it\u2019s customary in a romance for the hero and heroine to meet as early in the story as possible.  etc. And then she reads her favourite author whose current hero isn\u2019t introduced until page twenty-six. Now Ms A.Author thinks, \u201cWell, I guess that\u2019s a rule that&#8217;s OK to break.\u201d BUT, Ms. Aspiring is focusing on the wrong point. She\u2019s looking at the mechanics\u2014the what\u2014but she\u2019s missing the why. <\/p>\n<p>When learning to hone your craft, don\u2019t just look at what is happening on the page, study why it\u2019s happening. Don\u2019t just see that a rule is being broken, discover why the break wasn\u2019t obtrusive. I recently began to read a romance that was so engaging in its opening scene and pages\u2014the prose, the plot progression, the introduction of the heroine&#8217;s inner conflict\u2014that I didn\u2019t even realize until I was introduced to the hero (some sixteen pages in) that that was the first hint of hero or romance. This author broke a rule, but it was done with such style, and for good reason (The set-up was a necessary foundation) that it wasn\u2019t obtrusive in the least.  <\/p>\n<p>So, as you are analyzing your plot, here are some things to think about:     <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First: K<i style=\"\">now<\/i> the rules. Seriously. Know them. No Joke.<\/li>\n<li>Second: If you are going to break the rules, know why you are breaking them.<\/li>\n<li>Third: Once you\u2019ve broken them, honestly ask yourself if it was necessary. If there is a viable way  <i style=\"\">not<\/i> to break the rules, don\u2019t break them.  And this is a place where you really have to be honest with yourself. Don\u2019t break the rules simply because you can or because you want to. Those aren\u2019t good enough reasons. Your plot, your hero, your heroine must demand those rule breaks.<\/li>\n<li>Fourth: Break them well. Seek objective feedback. (Objective feedback does not come from your friends or family unless you know they will tell you the absolute truth if something you\u2019ve written is terrible.) If you get negative feedback from your rule breaks, they didn\u2019t work. Period. Don\u2019t try to justify your reasons. When the rules are broken with finesse, it doesn\u2019t bug a reader\u2014OK, it may bug a small majority, but not most. Your reasons may be solid, but your execution may still need work. Go back to the drawing board, hone your craft, and try again. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There seems to be a new trend\u2014OK, it\u2019s always been there\u2014towards untested authors (mostly, unpublished, but some newly published) trying to break the \u201crules\u201d of writing romance, and when he or she is called on it, the pat answer goes something like: \u201cbut Nora [Roberts] does it,\u201d or \u201cbut Stephen [King] does it.\u201d Well, folks, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}