When you find a writing style that works for you, it's very tempting to stick with it. That's fair enough. Developing a distinctive voice is part of maturing as a writer. And perhaps one day your book will be published and you start to think about what comes next. The question then is whether you've got more than one book in you. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't. But what if your readers just want the same book over and over again?
At the moment I am trying to read my way through my bookcase overflow pile, mainly for health and safety reasons as it's taller than I am. I'm being very strict. Once I've read a book it goes to charity, unless I have a compelling reason to keep it (i.e. it's written by Adam Hall, my hero - and yes, I'm aware that he might not be the obvious inspiration to a romance writer, but nevertheless, he was the guv'nor). The last book but three was a Georgette Heyer. I've read a fair few of her books over the years and time and again the same characters crop up: the sensible heroine, usually grey-eyed and on the verge of being left on the shelf; the semi-rakish hero, rich, titled and needing to be taken down a peg or two; the daffy ingenue; the young rascal; the bitchy socialite; the scheming in-law. I need to be more scientific and read them in publication order, because I can't yet tell if she was writing to a formula or if she just got trapped by her own popularity.
I'm not necessarily complaining that the books sometimes seem a little formulaic. The best ones are very good indeed and had me willing the hero and heroine to get together (I loved Sylvester). They're well-written and entertaining, with an extensive lexicon of Regency slang (ever been "bosky as a wheelbarrow"?), and sometimes it's nice to know what you're getting. But it's interesting all the same. A little further down the now-teetering overflow pile is one of Heyer's crime novels. I'm looking forward to seeing how she tackled that genre.
I have a bet with myself that the heroine will have grey eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment