Twist the tropes. Please.
I read a book over the weekend. (You're probably getting tired of my posts beginnig with "I read a book.")
Being an aficionado of the romance genre, I'm familiar with the tropes, all the tropes. This hero in this story was wealthy (of course) and the heroine was not (of course). It's Cinderella all over again!
In addition, the hero is emotionally unavailable, a powerhouse in the board room, unbearably handsome, and an all-around alpha male. Of course. He's also a single father of three and at his wit's end managing both the children and the business. That's uncommon—not the single daddy trope, but the "at his wit's end" part. The heroine is gorgeous, intelligent, generous, loving, thoughtful, and all those wonderful, stereotypically feminine traits. Of course. She's emotionally and physically damaged, too. That's pretty much standard in romantic heroines these days. In this book she's tall, six feet tall, which is uncommon. We can't have a heroine taller than her perfect romantic partner, so the hero's taller at six feet and five inches. with proportionately oversized appendages. Of course.
Then the story veered off the well-trodden path. In their interactions and repartee, the heroine gave as good as she got, sometimes better. Hurrah for femininism! The hero actually indulged in some introspection. What a sensitive guy! My jaw dropped as I read the hero's patience his willingness to accommodate the heroine's issues, his kindness and compassion. In short, the hero wasn't a jerk and the heroine wasn't a doormat despite their socioeconomic inequality.
The humor running throughout the story leavened the drama and angst. I actually chuckled aloud while reading it. That doesn't happen often.
Despite the occasional grammatical bobble (no, "then" and "than" are not the same), a few missed words that a good proofreader should have caught and fixed, and some weird formatting glitches, this book deserves a 5-star review.
Five-star reviews don't indicate perfection. (If you've read my blog before, then you know what I think about perfection.) I assign such high reviews to books that impress me for one reason or another. Merely good books that I enjoy but which don't really inspire that "wow" reaction get 4-star reviews. Any book littered with copy errors automatically loses a star, acknowledging the author's failure to deliver the quality the reader public expects and deserves. Poor writing degrades the rating further.
The gist this week is to reassure new/amateur writers that happy readers don't need complete originality. Truthfully, there are no new story arcs. They've all been done before, thousands upon thousands of time. What confers originality upon those well-worn archetypes is how the author treats them. What little twists and suprises will delight the reader? What will catch the reader's attention? What will hold the reader's interest?
As noted in this article, often the story that engages my attention and holds it and impresses me combines several elements in unexpected and wonderful ways. They take me out of the same-old-same-old rut. As a reader, I can't ask for more than that.
Every word counts.
#henhousepublishing #qualitymatters #writingtips #storytelling