think that to be a romance writer, you need to have a fundamental optimism in your soul. And I also think that in order to have that, you have to be a genuinely happy person. I don’t mean that you have to be perky, or a Pollyanna. I do mean that you have to enjoy yourself from time to time, and take joy in life from time to time. Not always. But enough that you believe the universe contains good things for everyone, if only they would come into place.
But in order to write an interesting story, I have to write about a messier world than I’ve ever lived in. I mean, I can’t really complain about my life. There have been ups and downs–plenty of them. But in all honesty, as far as I can tell, basically my life is a series of events in which I decide I want something, I put in some effort, and I get it. I’m well aware that this puts me way ahead of the ballgame.
You have to write what you know. Of course, I’ve never lived in the Regency period. I’ve never waltzed. I’ve never even worn a corset. And while I went through a period of teenage angst, I’ve been basically happy. So I’ve been learning to write mountains out of my molehills.
It’s vastly entertaining, but in many respects, it really makes me think about a lot of things I haven’t thought of in a while.
December 10th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Heh. I’ve had similar problems. Yes, there’s been drama, stuff I may have been plenty upset about at the time, but was any of it worth writing about? Probably not.
I don’t have the same problems my characters do. Or not for long, anyway. I won’t put up with drama and will invariably seek to eliminate it from my life posthaste.
In which case, the story would be OVER on page twenty.
December 10th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Sometimes I think “write what you know” is overrated.
Alice
December 11th, 2006 at 10:23 am
I actually think the better statement of the problem is “write who you know.”
December 11th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Oh, good idea, CM. I find that’s what I’ve been doing lately. Unfortunatley (or fortunately, as this makes it easy), even in my low-drama life there’s still molehills to be explored. What you see on the surface may be a tiny bump, but there’s miles and miles of tunnel that create an interesting story of their own.
December 14th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Just digging deep and finding the story, writing about what you wished would have happened. . . it’s nice to be able to set your heroine up for a big fall and *know* that the hero is there to catch her! Doesn’t happen that way in real life!
December 14th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Like you don’t have enough to do, I’ve just tagged you. See my blog. Ha.