Today, Helena Fairfax is stopping by with a special guest post on writing an easy read. If you've never read any of Helena's books, you're really missing out on some truly wonderful, sweet romances. And now, here's Helena!
Why writing an “easy read” is hard to do
I’ve become used to people’s reactions these days when I say I write romance. People who have never read a romance novel either ask me if I’ve ever thought of writing a “proper book,” or else they give me a funny sort of leer, as though I’m some sort of soft-porn peddler. Romance novels are held by many to be a pretty low form of the written word. Another cliché is that they follow a “formula,” and that anyone could just scribble a romance if they put their minds to it.
Anyone who has actually put pen to paper and written an entire romance novel will know that it’s incredibly difficult to write a successful romance. There is no magic “formula” for writing a good romance, but romances do need to follow a certain structure. The hero and heroine are kept apart for the entire length of the novel because of a conflict within their own characters (Lizzie Bennett’s pride, for example, and Mr Darcy’s prejudice, in Jane Austen’s classic romance novel). There will be a series of situations that test this conflict to the limit, eventually resolving in a happy ending.
All great romances follow this structure, but they’re not easy to write. A sonnet has a structure that consists of fourteen lines, each with ten syllables, following this pattern: a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.
It sounds simple put like this, but give it a try – it’s actually very difficult to create a moving or meaningful poem that flows easily using this structure.
If I think of all the romance authors I love, like Georgette Heyer, Jennifer Crusie, Kristan Higgins, Courtney Milan, Mary Stewart, etc, they all write great stories that flow easily, and are such engrossing reads that I never consider how they’ve actually been written, or the way they fit the romance structure so perfectly. I’m too engrossed in their stories to notice how they’ve been crafted. And that’s exactly how it should be. So when people tell me that my novels are an “easy read,” I’m pleased as Punch. It means my job of writing them has been done well.
Bio:
Helena Fairfax writes engaging contemporary romances with sympathetic heroines and heroes she’s secretly in love with. Happy endings are her favourite, and when the ending of one of her novels won a reader competition for "The Most Romantic Love Scene Ever" it made her day.
Helena was born in Uganda and came to England as a child. She's grown used to the cold now, and these days she lives in an old Victorian mill town in Yorkshire. After many years working in factories and dark, satanic mills, Helena has turned to writing full-time. She walks the Yorkshire moors every day with her rescue dog, finding this romantic landscape the perfect place to dream up her heroes and her happy endings.
Her latest novel, A Way from Heart to Heart was released by Accent Press on 18th November.
Book blurb:
After the death of her husband in Afghanistan, Kate Hemingway’s world collapses around her. Her free time is spent with a charity for teenage girls in London, helping them mend their broken lives - which is ironic, since her own life is fractured beyond repair.
Reserved, public school journalist Paul Farrell is everything Kate and her teenage charges aren’t. But when Paul agrees to help Kate with her charity on a trip to the Yorkshire moors, he makes a stunning revelation that changes everything, and leaves Kate torn.
Can she risk her son’s happiness as well as her own?
You are so welcome, Helena!
