Entry tags:

industry, linkage, romance, writing

Linkage
helenkay has some interesting observations from RWA.

Sarah at smartbitches asks readers what method of backstory development they prefer.

Do you like the flashback? The dropped comment and the tearful, wrenching confession of what those dropped comments really meant? The prologue that tries to tie up the whole mess? What’s your favorite method of greeting the past when looking at the present and the future of a character?

I think effective flashback (i.e. placement, of interest without detracting from current story) takes more skill than inclueing. At least, I seem to give writers a pass when it comes to mediocre inclueing while I get very impatient with awkward flashbacks.

On the other hand, I love it when a story effectively has two threads going, a past and a present, and they both build on each other to make the book richer. But that's rare. Iain M. Banks is great at two threads. I didn't find Laura Kinsale's flashbacks of Samuel's past in The Shadow and the Star supereffective, although there were some truly affective scenes with his mentor and the book couldn't have done without them.

A thread at the AAR boards starts with Laurent's comment that:

I think romance novels are death to normal, real relationships.

What follows is much discussion about separating fantasy from reality with a good dose of, I know what you mean. Since my favorite kind of romance totally ramps up the tension and danger and emotion, I don't have a problem wanting my life to be like that. If I were in Laura Kinsale's romances, say, I'd be nervous wreck, if not downright insane. I like my quiet routine. I actually find reading romances adds to my life, more than distracts, because my life and life-as-portrayed-in-romances is utterly different.