On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [27]
Was she raised in an orphanage? Or did she grow up with a stern and critical father? Or was she the much-pampered only girl in a family of five boys? Those three women will have entirely different feelings about families.
The heroine's past experiences affect everything she does and every decision she makes. But it isn't necessary for readers to know all of that history right away. In fact, one of the bigger mistakes made by most new romance writers is to pour all the information about the heroine's past into the first chapter. It's much better to wait until later in the book to share that information, when readers must know about the heroine's past in order to understand her.
Modern-Day Heroines
The heroine of today's contemporary romance novels (category and single title) is independent, self-supporting, and mature. She's often a career woman, though her job might be anything from nanny or waitress to president of a major corporation. If she's on the lower end of the economic spectrum, however, she doesn't intend to stay there and she has a plan for improving her job prospects.
She has problems—including some of her own making—but she is competent at running her life. She may have had a bad relationship, even a bad marriage, but she's grown from the experience and readers are confident the heroine won't repeat her mistake.
The chick-lit heroine is often a bit less mature and competent, more likely to hold an entry-level job, and more apt to have mucked up her life and created the problems she's facing. But even she is generally independent, not relying on others to rescue her or pay for her mistakes.
The heroine of contemporary romance may be looking for a love interest, but she doesn't need one. She can take care of herself, but finding the right man would be a bonus.
In her short contemporary Dad by Choice, Marie Ferrarella shows her very competent, very professional, very busy heroine not only as a good doctor, but also as a good daughter:
Dr. Abby Maitland was doing her best not to look as impatient as she felt.
Just down the hall in Maitland Maternity Clinic, patients sat in her waiting room on tasteful, blue-cushioned chairs, chosen to afford optimum comfort to women who were for the most part in an uncomfortable condition. She was booked solid without so much as a ten-minute window of breathing space. She'd come into the clinic running slightly behind and praying that no one would see fit to go into labor this morning.
That was when her mother had waylaid her.
Abby had always had difficulty saying no to her mother, not out of a sense of obligation but one of pure affection. It was hard to say no to a woman who had gone out of her way all her life to make sure that her children were happy and well cared for. Today was no different.
By showing Abby in both her roles, Ferrarella shows us a woman we immediately like. She's smart, busy, thoughtful, loving, but not perfect—she's running late and having just a little trouble holding on to her self-control.
Historical Heroines
The heroines of today's historical romance novels aren't all that much different from the heroines of books set in the present day. The historical heroine may battle additional constraints—fewer opportunities for women, tighter rules for acceptable behavior, less independence in decision-making—but she often sets out to get around those limits, and she generally succeeds.
In an era in which women did not have careers, the historical heroine nevertheless will find a way to make her mark on the world. She may run her father's estate, raise and study plants, or teach the servants to read, but she won't just sit on a sofa; she'll do something worthwhile with her time. The heroine may have few options to earn a living wage, but she'll be as self-supporting and independent as she possibly can. She may be younger than the average contemporary heroine, but she'll be mature for her age—looking beyond