Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

While I cheer hardest for science fiction and fantasy novels, and have a deep affection for a good horror or mystery, I have to say that dark romance is the hardest to write well. Before anyone has me drawn and quartered, let me explain.

You see, I’ve written everything now but mystery. In the other genres, you have to create an entire world from scratch, it’s true, and those worlds need to at least appear to operate on either scientific principles or to conform to their own set of rules. Other than that, you have a lot of freedom. You can kill characters if you feel like it, and the relationships you forge can be of any nature. It’s perfectly acceptable for your characters to be siblings, or bound together only by a shared secret, or to hate each other’s guts but have a need to work together.

And then there is the word count issue. Your average science fiction or fantasy novel fits into the 110,000 to 130,000 word window, while a romance only gets 80,000 to 85,000. Believe me, that extra 30 to 50 thousand words lets you tell a lot deeper story.

Dark romance usually tries to blend either a horror or a fantasy tale with a romance, and the requirements are daunting. To write a good one, you have to create an entire world from scratch, complete with rules, characters and sub characters, and some kind of life and death situation that your characters are in. You must have an irresistible alpha male character, and a likeable female character that will inevitably end up together. You aren’t allowed to kill characters that your readers love. Trust me on this, the kid and the dog both have to live. You have to create a fast-paced world where they are at odds with each other, in considerable danger, but where they still have time to fall head over heels in love.

That is why good dark romance is so hard to write. Lust is not at all the same thing as love. Conveying to your readers that these two people find each other to be the hottest thing this side of Mercury is fairly easy. Showing that they are capable of genuine love, the kind that endures, is a whole lot harder.

I’ve been married, quite happily, for 25 years, and I would love for other people to experience that kind of love. You see, love is a verb, it is what you do for another person, not just how that person makes you feel. Showing that a couple of damaged people that probably just met and are fighting for their lives have both the heat and excitement of first love, and the kind of deep mutual care required for the long haul is tricky. Many times these novels devolve into erotica, they put the woman in a relationship that is inherently unhealthy and call it love, they commit the cardinal sin of getting boring, or they start sounding like a sappy greeting card.

So no, romance novels aren’t the best things out there. They’re formulaic, too often predictable, and have a tendency to get unrealistic. If you find a good one, though, then I maintain that that is an author that can really write.

Cheers,

Michelle