According to the Formula: Lessons from Romance Novels Pt. 2

Continuing from Pt. 1 - an attempt to see whether there are any Romance novel formulas that apply to the novel I'm writing intermittently about Alina and Bren...

Let me put Bren aside for now, because he is not really the love interest..

Stesha wasn't supposed to exist--well, not as such.  When I first conceived of the idea for the novel, Alina and Bren were to have parted with a promise to always be true, but the situation of their land--which was to change rapidly from a forest to an industrialized landscape due to some sort of conquest--led to such radical changes in who Alina perceived herself to be that she would not have been the person that loved Bren before he left, or whom he thought he loved.  Rather like, in The Princess Bride, how Wesley as the Dread Pirate Roberts was not the same as Wesley the Farm Boy.  But as I thought about what barriers they might encounter when Bren returns, it seemed to me that Alina should be pregnant.  And then, it seemed that for her to have latched onto someone other than Bren, she would have to be shamed into abandoning her hope that Bren would come back for her--or to have had her self-worth badly damaged.  It seemed not enough to have her jaded and cynical, or even for her to be a subversive.  So I cast her as having been damaged sexually--objectified and used.  But I couldn't leave her there.  Someone unlikely needed to be there to provide healing... and hope.

Stesha and Alina already have a Romance novel scenario.  After all, he finds her broken, and helps to heal her.  That healing involves a consummation, though it starts as physical and becomes emotional.  He teaches her to survive, and to want to survive.  And then he leaves.  And then what?  I don't have a definite formula for what happens next, but I'll try...

Scenario 1: Stesha is called away, and doesn't return.  Alina may or may not receive word that he has died.  Shortly after he leaves, she realizes that she is pregnant.  She progresses through most of her pregnancy on her own, waiting... again.  And surviving.  Waiting isn't very exciting.  She is vulnerable, and needs protection from the authorities.  Someone offers to marry her to give her legitimacy.  This is borrowed, in a way from the most recent Outlander novels, because it has the "true love" going away followed by a situation that causes her to lose hope that he will return.  But in this case, if Alina accepts and Stesha returns, Alina's relationship with Stesha, while marriage-like, is not marriage, so the new marriage would be binding.  Bren brings nothing to this party, having no rights under the new regime, which necessitates a new character.

Scenario 2: Stesha is captured or deported, and can't return.  Alina may or may not receive word that he has died.  She realizes that she is pregnant.  She progresses through her pregnancy until she can no longer hide it, at which point Bren and Stesha both return.  Tension ensues.  In a young adult scenario, she would recognize her desire and affection for both men.  The one she favors might be significantly flawed, and so unable to love her back--at least at first.  When she finally decides to devote herself to the other, the one who was previously flawed might have resolved whatever difficulty there was, causing further tension.  Either Stesha or Bren would then have to find a different path.

Scenario 3:  This one is bound to be a bit more sordid, as I am thinking of a strange combination of Lancelot/Arthur/Gwenivere and a film by Pedro Almodóvar Carne Trémula.  Stesha is called away.  Alina may or may not receive word that he has died.  She realizes that she is pregnant.  Bren and Stesha both return, and in a battle, Alina and Stesha are both wounded.  Alina loses the baby.  She mourns for the baby, and for Stesha, who has been paralyzed from the waist down.  By mutual consent, Bren agrees to help Alina to conceive.

Scenario 4: Stesha is called away.  Alina may or may not receive word that he has died.  She realizes that she is pregnant.  She progresses through her pregnancy until she can no longer hide it, at which point Bren returns.  He realizes that her current life is untenable, and that he has nothing to offer her.  He offers nonetheless.  They decide that he will help her find Stesha, and if they find for certain that he is dead, Bren will offer her companionship and raise the child as his own.  Stesha has, in fact died.  Bren must now help Alina to rebuild her own life and build a life with him.

Scenario 5: Stesha is called away.  Alina may or may not receive word that he has died.  She realizes that she is pregnant.  She progresses through her pregnancy until she can no longer hide it, at which point Bren returns.  He realizes that her current life is untenable, and that he has nothing to offer her.  He offers nonetheless.  They decide that he will help her find Stesha, and if they find for certain that he is dead, Bren will offer her companionship and raise the child as his own.  Bren stays with her through childbirth, and they rediscover their affection for one another.  He is devoted to her and to the child.  They continue searching for Stesha, having had word that he is alive.  They find Stesha, and tension ensues.  Alina must decide which attraction/affection means more to her.  Ultimately, she remains with the father of her child, to whom she is (already) symbolically wed.

A simpler scenario would involve only Stesha's return, or only Bren's return.  If only Stesha returned, he would probably have to be damaged physically and emotionally, meaning that Alina would have to nurse him and be patient with him, while also raising their child.  If only Bren returned, their relationship would probably remain celibate, and he would be like a brother to her, helping her raise the child.

According to the Formula: Lessons from Romance Novels Pt. 1

I have read a somewhat disturbing number of Romance novels recently, particularly since I am a literary snob and until recently avoided the genre on principle.  While I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a brain vacation the novels could be, but only because I mananged to find some fairly intelligent examples (there's a lot out there that isn't worth the digital ink it's printed with--and that goes for every genre), I still found myself wondering what this foray could teach me about plot, and story more generally.  After a while, I became very tired of the Regency marriage plot, because: formulas.  But formulas themselves can be instructive, especially when you're stuck.  And let's face it; I'm stuck.  I never quite envisioned the Alina and Bren novel/trilogy(?) as a Romance novel, but I do want it to have an awful lot to do with relationships, expectations, and what happens to naive love in disastrous circumstances. It can grow, yes.  But after a separation, with the circumstances completely changed, is it reasonable to expect it to rekindle, come together, etc?  I pose that different circumstances call for different kinds of love.  With people who have been together, and who remain together, and who are committed, this means that love can grow and adapt to fit the circumstances.  This is hard, but it happens.  Heck--in many ways this is what marriage is meant to do.  But when one half is committed to pursuing his own thing, and the other stays to hold down the fort (as the world crumbles)--well, expectations need to be readjusted.  And that is more or less what I want to communicate.  And yes, it is about the nature of love.  With puts me squarely into the Romance genre, at least in terms of purpose (though often what we really have is the nature and power of sex/attraction, but that's an entirely different topic; or maybe it isn't...)

So trying to see whether the formulas I've seen in Romance can get me unstuck, I want to try an experiment:  imagining what my novel(s?) would be like if they were Romance novels.

I'm not sure that the first installment/backstory would exist, except to explain Alina's disposition.  She was--well, not exactly spurned, but certainly given the message, though she might not have gotten it at first, that she was not the most important thing to Bren, even though he was the most important thing to her, and though she was willing to sacrifice so that they could be together.  Rather, he selfishly left her behind so that he could pursue his own identity.  We might or might not blame him.  I mean, it's hard to give yourself to someone else if you don't feel particularly whole.  Nevertheless, given her loneliness, and subsequent events, she might just possibly get bitter.

If Bren is the male love interest, this bitterness would be something for him to overcome.  Except that he becomes cynical and jaded and hopeless but still desires her... and yet finds her untouchable.

Scenario 1:  Bren realizes while he is away that he is desperate for Alina, returns, and tries to win her back, but finds her untouchable, damaged.  He courts/woos/seduces her--breaks down her barriers gradually to thaw her with his charm and good character.

Scenario 2:  Alina and Bren are thrown back together and react with mutual hostility, though remembering their past and what they have been to one another.  Their hostile interactions are thus fraught with sexual tension, and by acknowledging their desire they come, gradually, to acknowledge the feelings that still exist between them.

Scenario 3:  Bren returns to find Alina already engaged to someone else, probably from convenience.  While he does his best to support this, feeling that he has failed her, at the last minute he realizes that he can't live if she is with another, and intervenes.  She has realized her continued attraction to Bren, and is released by the other man, who is perhaps relieved to be out of the way.

Scenario 4:  Bren has done horrible things and been a bad, promiscuous, exploitative person while he was away, but he realizes that this was all because he wanted Alina so badly and he is now prepared to do anything that he can to win her over.  Meanwhile, she must be resistent, but able to make allowances because he was away from her, and men do these sorts of things, after all...  She will probably succumb physically, but reserve her affection until he declares absolutely that he loves her and will be satisfied with her alone.

The fact that both of the characters are supposed to be basically virtuous and that they both really do want to be married throws a wrench into several of the Romance scenarios that I have seen.  Also, any scenario involving Alina and Bren reconciling would either have Alina giving up, and acting from desperation or necessity rather than love, or would change the main point:  that love has a chance of surviving upheavel when the lovers are together, but changes shape when one has grown differently from the other, as Alina in particular has done.

To be continued...

Stesha Speaks...

As Alina tossed in her fevered dreams, slipping in and out of consciousness, she heard--at times--snatches of song in a twisted tongue.  At times, she was aware of a voice, speaking low and clear, hard to understand with its heavy rising and falling syllables.  But the words formed pictures and ideas, and Alina thought that she had slipped into that space where all language is comprehensible.  In her delerium, this is the story she heard:

My people came out of the North.  If you notice that I'm not like them, there are some among us who are dark--descended from the first people of that cold, icy land.  The little people who lived before taught the newcomers how to hunt and fish, and the tall, fair race brought houses and shipbuilding and written language.  But that was long ago now--our ancient history, recorded in our books, which we take with us on each new expedition.  It is good that you notice my difference--we all do.  And those of us with darker skin and hair, our eyes angled slightly--we are considered less high, less noble.  We are also not considered warriors, because our bones are too small, and we are light and lithe instead of braw and bulky. 

When I came to this place, we were a scouting party.  We sought more land to our East and South.  Some wanted a warmer clime; others were simply seeking adventure.  Most were seeking women.  Most were younger sons, and in our country, only the eldest was allowed to marry--and only the fairest among those.  Most families had more than one son, but only one daughter.  It is a secret among us that daughters are often killed because a daughter carries a burden for her family.  Wives are in demand because of the mandate to reproduce, because they carry status--the most powerful among us have 2 or 3 wives, and because they come with weatlh, no matter how poor the girl's family.  There is a tax on daughters, a part of which her husband collects when they marry.  When she is married, the family no longer has to pay.  But daughters who look--well, like me--are harder to marry off, if they can be married at all.  So the family has to pay for longer, unless the baby dies.  Then there is a death tax to cover the council's losses--or, I should say, the community's losses--and the family no longer has to pay. 

Girls who exhibit the old blood are undesirable wives because they are more likely to produce small, dark children; so they fall victim to an ancient custom.  When children are born, they sleep either outside, in an enclosed porch, or next to an open window, depending on the season.  Every night the temperature dips below freezing.  In winter, our days seldom reach above freezing. The cold is thought to fortify them for life's journey, and there may be some truth in it, because our children neither fear nor succumb easily to the cold.  Girls who have the brown birthmark--the mark of the old blood--are left to sleep unwrapped, and while a child who is a wanted child is often placed with a companion--a twin, another child of the family, a dog--or even kept near the reindeer herds, the marked child is given no companion.  Thus, it becomes not the family's will, but the will of the gods, that the girl should die.

The boys--even those like me--are allowed to live, because boys are not the same burden.  But you must have noticed my eye.  Indeed, I'm sure you were repulsed by it.  All are.  Rarely are we left unscarred--except the ugly and stupid, who pose no threat.  Those who are too pretty, or too clever--we are scarred according to our wit and beauty.  Then we can live, but eldest or not, we cannot marry.  So they took my eye, and slashed my cheek.  And then they tended me, and I was healed in body.  I was 10 years old.  And I was clever.  I worked with the clockmaker, in spite of having only one eye.  But I went beyond what he could teach me.  And I went to the blacksmith.  And the metalworker.  And the glassblower.  And the shipbuilder.  And the stone mason.  And I learned what they had to teach.  Ships I designed took us to other lands without the need for slaves--they rowed themselves.

When the time came, I was permitted to join the scouting expedition.  We passed through your forest to the other side, and when we found a place--here, far to the South--we began to build.  Then, we sent for the others--younger sons of their families who would not be marrying because there were not enough wives, or eldest and only sons, like me, who would not be permitted to marry because of our mixed blood, in which the darker race came out on top.  The decree held that we would still not be allowed to marry, but we would be useful, and might rise in status, and perhaps buy our way out and into another community--one such as yours was--or take to the sea.

But the ones who came after were brash and violent and too full of their own seed.  We found out later--when they came with their new slaves and potential brides--how they had raped your forest and burnt your homes and killed your men... And some of us were sorry, because our memory is one of gentler domination.  But some simply waited for their turn to buy a woman (there were no taxes yet, and the coffers must be filled), and fell into deep resentment that they were not present for the looting and slaughter.  And I am afraid that I am somewhere in between.  I have the resentment, though mine is different, and the sorrow, as I always have.

The narrative came to her in pieces.  Whether its telling was linear, repeated, sequential, or continuous, Alina couldn't say, but her mind captured it, and the voice was Stesha's.

A Plethora of Sources: Victoriana

If I'm going to do a steampunkish Victoriana for NaNoWriMo 2014, I'm going to need some Victoriana to modify.  The Public Domain Review is an excellent source for such things--mainly primary sources. This is just a linkfest, not a descriptive post, but maybe it will do for a start/reminder. Meanwhile, some Internet Archive links snuck their way in...

Practical Advice/Society:
The London Guide and Stranger’s Safeguard against the Cheats, Swindlers, and Pickpockets (1819) 

A History of Mourning (1890)

The Early History of Coffee Houses in England (1893)

Inns and Taverns of Old London (1909)

A Treatise on Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons (1820) 

Art:
Women Painters of the World: from the time of Caterina Vigri to Rosa Bonheur (1905) 

Fashion:
Fancy dresses described or, What to wear at fancy balls, by Ardern Holt; 1887; Debenham & Freebody, Wyman & Sons, London. 

Science and ideas:
Redressing the Balance: Levinus Vincent’s Wonder Theatre of Nature

Plates from Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora (1807) - Illustrations to Linneaus

The Naturalist and the Neurologist: On Charles Darwin and James Crichton-Browne

Was Charles Darwin an Atheist? - a challenge to that belief

Scientific Amusements (1890)

The Curious World of Isaac D’Israeli (1791) - Includes edifying essays on "Virginity" and “Fair-Sex having no Souls,” as well as “The Virgin Mary,” “Protestants,” “Coffee,” and "Transubstantiation"  Primary Source

Selections from the Tatler, Spectator and Guardian (1885)

Re-examining ‘the Elephant Man’

The Medical Aspects of Death, and the Medical Aspects of the Human Mind (1852) 

Portraits of Patients from Surrey County Asylum (ca.1855)

Just for Fun:
Hand Book of the Carnival, Containing Mardi-Gras, its Ancient and Modern Observance (1874) 

The Practical Magician and Ventriloquist’s Guide (1876)

Mythical Monsters (1886)

Steam Expectations (new idea for 2014?)

Based loosely on Great Expectations, but in a steampunk universe:

A female Pip - lives with her mother and "father"; oldest of 7 siblings.  They are poor; she is mistreated by her father, who is not kind to any of the children, but singles out our heroine for particular mistreatment.  There are rumors that before her parents were married, her mother was scandalously jilted by the blacksmith (or perhaps vice versa?) - a scarred and cynical man who nevertheless shows grudging interest in our heroine.  She daydreams that he is her father, as she was born when her parents had been married for only 6 months, healthy and strong for an early infant.  Fed by a wet nurse though others were fed by their mother.  She is strong and unconventional--a reader and dreamer as well as a capable cook, governess, housecleaner, and seamstress, she also has inclinations toward natural history (dinosaurs) and a fascination with glass blowing and weaponry.  In winter, she can often be found at the forge, though her parents tell her that she will be ruined by keeping low company (what are we if not low? is her response)

A male Estella - the ward of a very wealthy, single eccentric known for having been famously left at the altar by his fiancee.  (Fiancee was kidnapped into a flying brothel.)  He is also a bitter academic (think Charles F. Muntz in Up) who is doubly shunned because of his theories (something to do with ancient creatures, plate techtonics, or something--must be theoretically falsifiable; maybe human evolution/missing link?) and because of his supposed lack of manliness--that he was abandoned by a woman (is he impotent? and how can someone so unmanly be a scientist?) Has been raised (in a dirigible) with the objective of ruining as many fashionable young women as possible--or of ruining them for society without actually "ruining" them, so as not to tarnish himself.  Purity and cruelty go hand-in-hand with this one, but he is also detatched. He should not be too unsympathetic.

The situation - Our heroine finds herself the recipient both of the attentions of our "hero" and of an unexpected education from an undisclosed source.  The school is international--the British Empire is well represented.  It is based on land because to have young women flying about is not yet considered entirely proper.  The education is to be both moral and scientific, but is also to emphasize the power that women have over men.  Our heroine is a dreamer, vulnerable to attentions that she has not had.  (The education is paid for by the blacksmith's sister, a prostitute, who was the kidnapped fiancee.)  Like Pip, she becomes convinced that she is being groomed as a scientist and a bride for her counterpart, and also obsessed with who her benefator is.

More - because she has a handsome allowance, our heroine also tries to help her sisters and her mother, with disastrous consequences.

Still more - Our heroine falls in love with our hero, as he intends.  And with the school's guidance, she attempts to seduce/woo while avoiding ruin.  But this is not to be.  And she realizes it and moves away just as he begins to realize that he is in love with her--or could be.  Unlike Pip, she does not wait to be hurt, and she does not crawl home.  There may be another love interest, but perhaps better (by which I mean--more unexpected) if not.

Rules of Storytelling from Pixar

Every time I think about writing, my November Project is in the back of my mind.  I found this list of Pixar's Rules of Storytelling to help me get back to it some day:

These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar's story artist. Number nine on the list—when you're stuck, make a list of what wouldn't happen next—is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres.1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. Keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
3. Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the story is actually about until you're at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6 . What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7 . Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8. Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
9 . When you're stuck, make a list of what wouldn't happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize it before you can use it.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.
12. Discount the first thing that comes to mind—and the second, third, fourth and fifth. Get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.
14. Why must you tell this story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it's not working, let go and move on. It'll come back around to be useful later.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best and fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20. Exercise: Take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How do you rearrange them into what you do like?
21. You must identify with your situation and/or characters; you can't just write "cool." What would make you act that way?
22. What's the essence of your story? The most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
A version of this article originally appeared on Aerogramme Writers’ Studio. Follow Aerogramme Writers on Twitter @A_WritersStudio.This story first ran on PR Daily in May 2013.

Story Images

Bren, Alina, and Magda are still in my head, and perhaps someday I will be able to take the various parts and create their story.  But for now, I only have a vague impression of their world. Every now and then, something brings them back to me, like these images, found here, which could easily come from their world.