It's fun to look back at old passages of my writing because even when I talk about being a better writer now and having to redo a good deal of it, there are a few times when I love what I have written and even find myself impressed with it. So not only am I happy to read a fantastic description of funny piece of dialogue, but it's also great because it means less work to edit.
I have been letting my dad read over some
of my work and I am getting a lot of good feedback. I have done some
researching on beta readers (people you have reading the book beforehand to
look out for plot holes and such). A lot of the advice on this encourages
writers not to use family members as beta readers but since I have to pretty
much force my friends to read my writing, my dad's the easiest to coerce.
At first he was only giving me positive
feedback but now that he's reaching the midway point, more issues are coming to
light. There are issues with characters becoming wimps or sections that feel
boring or repetitive. I won't say it wasn't hard to hear because my writing is
like my baby, but I can say that having talked through ways to fix it with him
makes me happier because I know my book can only get better with this feedback.
But this does make me think more about how
involved beta readers and editors can get when writing a novel. While the story
is being written by one person they are constantly getting feedback from others
on characters, plot, setting, and even prose. So how much of the work is
entirely theirs at the end of the day and how much is a collective from a small
group supporting them?
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Brace yourself because I am about to spoil you for any book that features a damaged heroine in a romance book. I used to enjoy these stories quite a bit until they all began to blend into one another due to their similar points. Therefore I want to take the time to outline exactly how these stories progress so you don't have to waste your time reading the same story dressed with different embellishments.
Each of these stories begin with a heroine who is in hiding or away from home because of the abuse they suffered back home. Most times they want to keep a low profile. They are varying degrees of scarred, ranging from hating even the smallest physical contact to avoiding social activities. But even though they refuse to share even the smallest detail about themselves, they have found a best friend who they are entirely comfortable with and brings out their "original" personality. This person has "broken the barriers" of the main character and are usually loud and rambunctious.
Cue the entry of the hero. He is charming and outgoing, but somehow this timid girl captures his attention and inspires all of his attention. All his previous habits of one night stands is washed away because suddenly all he wants is this girl and all other girls fade from view. As he starts to bring her out of her shell and fall in love with him, she struggles with telling him about her past.
Now, if her past included an abusive relationship, around this time you will have the heroine receiving text messages or other hints of this ex boyfriend having found her. She is worried but brushes it off for various reasons because she doesn't want to ruin her new romantic relationship.
Finally the new boyfriend is trying to find out more about the heroine, though she refuses to mention as much as possible about her past. This causes a rift between them and during this conflict, she finally admits to what happened even though she is certain he will leave her after she is done explaining. But then he does the unexpected and supports her. He suspected that she had these issues in her past and he loves her despite it.
But before they can have their happy ever after, the boyfriend kidnaps our heroine and threatens her. Just as he is about to hurt her the hero charges in and saves her at the last minute. Then there is a happy ending with an epilogue that shows how the heroine has moved past her ordeal and has found new happiness with the hero.
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