On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [84]
Bernard doesn't just add birth control because of some sort of author's checklist; instead, she uses this intimate moment to develop character, showing the unique way this heroine has prepared herself for her first lovemaking experience.
VIOLENCE
A trouble spot both in terms of political correctness and reader reaction is violence. Many historical periods were very violent, and the historical romance often reflects that. Contemporary romantic suspense plots also frequently involve violence.
How the violence is handled is important. Detailed descriptions that dwell on torture and pain are not appropriate in the romance novel. Violence is more likely to happen offstage than in a fully described scene, and it often happens before the story actually begins.
Violence within the story is more easily accepted by the readers if the characters (especially the heroine) are portrayed as resourceful rather than helpless when faced with a threat.
In her historical single title The Warrior, Claire Delacroix shows the villain attempting to rape the heroine:
He roared and leapt upon her, seizing her hair in his fist before he kissed her brutally. He was heavier than she had anticipated. ... She rolled him toward Nissa's hiding
place with an effort, fighting against her revulsion. ... He was harsh enough to ensure that she felt a welt rise upon her lip.
When he lifted his head and fingered the swelling with satisfaction, he had only long enough to smile before Aileen spied Nissa. The maid lifted the brass candlestick high. Aileen kept her expression demure so that her assailant would not be warned, then Nissa brought it down upon his head with a loud crack.
Though the heroine is threatened and even injured by the assault, she's still in control of herself and the situation. She doesn't fight the villain; she even plays along so she can get him into position to be taken out by the candlestick-wielding maid.
In her category romantic suspense High-Heeled Alibi, Sydney Ryan shows a contemporary heroine defending herself against a couple of very bad guys:
Holding her bound wrists, the gorilla nudged her forward. ... The creep behind her was so close, she could feel his erection pressing into her. Her wrists were bound behind her back, but her feet were free.
The thug gripping her arms released one to open the car door. As he pushed her in, she aimed her spiked heels at his groin and got off a couple good shots to his shins. ...
"You wanna play rough?" He came at her, his shaved head ducking her flailing feet. His hand came up, struck her hard once, twice. Her head whipped right and left. Her brain rattled.
"Cut out the social niceties," the other man growled as he slid into the driver's seat. "There'll be plenty of time for that later."...
She gingerly prodded with her tongue several teeth loosened by the blows. ...
She squirmed against the tight muscles in her upper back, and there, on her right hip she felt it—the barest weight of thin metal. The scalpel still in her lab jacket pocket. ... Carefully, staring straight ahead, her clasped hands began pulling the right side of her jacket behind her, quarter inch by quarter inch, until she felt the scalpel beneath her fingers like a magic wand.
"What do you want with me?" She twisted in her seat and stared boldly at the mound of a man next to her. But all her focus was concentrated on the small of her back, where her wrists met and rubbed, soundless millimeter by millimeter, against the blade of the scalpel. ...
The scalpel sliced through the last filament of wire. Her wrists were free.
Ryan's heroine is a very cool customer, and the villains aren't quite real-life thugs; when it comes right down to it, they're more talk than action. Still, showing the heroine freeing herself helps offset the high level of violence in this scene.
Violence occurring between the hero and heroine is a particularly difficult issue for the modern romance writer. As society becomes more aware of the dangers of domestic violence, some of the action that was