Tag Archives: revenge romance

Possible Blog Mini Series

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I have a perfectly good blog sitting here, so why not put something on it?

Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash

I’m thinking of doing a mini series on writing tropes or sub-genres that have been underrepresented.

What do I mean by that?

Previously, I blogged about how difficult it was to find articles on writing revenge romance. Recently, another writer confided how difficult it is for her to research her niche of cozy fantasy. I replied with how difficult it has been for me to research what type of plot pattern a good mystery needs to have, for my mystery subplot. In addition, there is an entire taboo category of romance and dark romance that gets ignored unless you’re in the right reader Facebook group. Yet, these are obviously categories many readers camp in.

Which would be fine, if we were actually teaching people how to write these things. But who can I approach to teach me how to drop mystery hints when my protagonist is not a self-proclaimed sleuth, or how far is too far in rawness in an erotic romance scene? Who can teach me how to keep readers from hating my antihero who wants revenge on the heroine, when she does not want revenge on him? What about showing and not telling, when showing is graphic, or how to write in rich metaphor without overusing “like” and “as”?

You were going to answer, “Find a how-to writing book or article,” weren’t you. (Or use software to nitpick individual words.)

Except, we have a problem: How-to books these days aren’t even what university teachers are recommending. That’s because they are so general that they rarely help other than making a writer sometimes feel less alone in the process. Which is what writing community is for, by the way. Find a workshop. Find a Discord. Find a local group. Something. Anything. Use an online search engine before you say you can’t.

I have several how-to books on my shelf. The issue isn’t that how-to books exist. The issue is that people describe the same elements and repackage them with a different cover. Plot, dialogue, character, and setting are staples. You cannot promise me YA-specific content, or NA-specific content, and then tell me all the generalized content about stories that I already know, and place a line at the end saying, “You should read books in this category to see what’s the norm.” No. That’s why I bought your book. Tell me what I’m looking for. Tell me something other than how teenagers might call me out for trying to be hip. I live in real life; I’ve already seen that. I’ve been that teen. Tell me how to craft voice when I have a younger character. Don’t chicken out because you’re an adult and you’re winging it.

There is a deficit on our bookshelves and online and on our e-readers. The topics that we very clearly need sensitivity readers for are the topics that I have a 10% chance of getting in a workshop once in two years, and almost no chance of getting anywhere else. DEI is not the only thing that got buried.

If you’re like me, in that hole, trying to research and coming up empty, I can’t give you expert advice.

What I can do is start a blog where I share what actually helps me from my search, as I’m searching. Maybe that will jumpstart your own blocked search. Maybe it will spark someone who actually is an expert in one of these categories to do more than regurgitate how important it is to have a plot, have three sections, and save a cat. Those books have already been written. We need your help with new specifics, please. We need your techniques.

Don’t worry; our writing won’t come out like yours if we’re using your technique. We’ve got our own quirks to apply your techniques to.

We talk about “writers lifts” on social media, but isn’t a true lift when we give each other the tools we’re missing, so the rare manuscript gems that are challenging us the most actually get into readers’ hands?

Since when was the status quo fun to write for books?

Let’s write what needs to be written.

I want to pause and say to the many workshop and webinar instructors and speakers I’ve been sitting under for the past two years, and earlier than that: Thank you. Thank you for taking the time and covering the difficult topics, for providing the one-sentence takeaways that I’d been searching three years to find, for answering a dozen questions in a row, for not turning away our difficult and messy endeavors and our crayon-drawing-equivalents of addressing writing prompts and trying out your techniques. It took me a long time to find workshops like yours, and I recommend them to many other writers. I can’t say they all step up to try to tackle such big ideas, but I hope in the future they will.

Heartless: The Unhinged Fey King and the Gamer

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

Heartless (Immortal Enemies, #1)Heartless by Gena Showalter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My Summary:
Cookie may be dying, but she’s not going to let that stop her from kicking butt at video games. A heart transplant offers Cookie an extension on life, a chance to enjoy living in her dream house. But this fey heart comes with complications. Sucked into the world of the fey to become Kaysar’s revenge pawn against those who imprisoned, tortured, and kept Kaysar from his little sister, Cookie’s new life becomes one dangerous mishap after the other. Kaysar is not a very patient man, but he can’t imagine life without revenge. Soon he can’t imagine life without Cookie either. That’s just fine; he can adjust his plans. Or so he thinks. Kaysar is good at acting to get what he wants, but Cookie doesn’t like being lied to, and she can dish back just as much as she’s served. With abandonment of him on the table like it’s never been with any other woman, Kaysar begins to realize his stake in Cookie’s life might need to be permanent. As Cookie and Kaysar try to feel out what a hot, steamy future together might look like, their aspirations to help each other backfire. Cookie fights for first place in Kaysar’s priority list, but even if she can free him from his revenge cycle, she would be signing up to be Revenge Target #1 instead.

This is an adult High Fantasy Romance fey story, heavy on the spice and, later, heavy on the sex. The plot is the Romance, not the Fantasy.

My Thoughts:
The book starts out in Kaysar’s POV, which is incredibly helpful. DO NOT SKIP THE PROLOGUE!!! Kaysar is more than a little off his rocker, and you need to know why. Yes, I know, it’s long enough to be a chapter. Take it as it is.

Kaysar himself is difficult. His motivations aren’t difficult to understand, but it’s hard to wrap your mind around him, and therefore hard to understand how he should be handled. Kaysar is, in fact, the villain of the book. He has kidnapped and mutilated and stolen and conquered, and he fully intends to continue to do so. Not all of the characters Kaysar is harming fully understand what happened to Kaysar, and while few who do would dispute that what happened to him wasn’t right, that wouldn’t slow his revenge.

The temptation, I think, is to see this as a breeder book. Don’t. It’s set up that way in the beginning, with Kaysar’s revenge goal for the remaining Frostline prince using said prince’s wife, but the real romance is about prioritizing each other and overcoming obstacles. It’s also, interestingly enough, about embracing the darkness inside one another rather than trying to change one another. The book raises an interesting question: Would one man’s wife be a different man’s wife if she had gone through a different set of life experiences, or been rejected more? Should one partner really expect the other to be happy like they “used to” be?

The story is also a really interesting play with organ donor ideas. It’s said that, when someone gets an organ transplant, they may take on the likes or propensities of the organ’s original owner. In this story, the heart transplant literally changes Cookie from the inside out, to the point where she has to rediscover who she is and what she is capable of in her new life.

Consensus:
In terms of narrative voice, Showalter by far outdid herself. I had previously read her Urban Fantasy-set (Paranormal) Romance, Playing with Fire, and while it helped get me into non-wolf shapeshifters, the engagement of the narrative doesn’t even compare. That’s aside from my preference for otherworld Fantasy anyway. This series came recommended to me, but I don’t remember if it was by an MFA teacher or another reader. Yes, it’s a series, but I think the next one might be a little too brutal for me. And that’s saying something.

Why three stars? It’s not the writing. Though pressing some of the romantic points home did get a little redundant, the way those things were said felt fresh and new every time. The mashup between a vengeful dark fey self-made lord antihero and a boyfriend-ditched gamer who loves junk food was perhaps the most original pairing I’ve seen, as well. The sex scenes never got old. I think my real problem, quite honestly, was Kaysar. I was intrigued, but I never fully connected to him. He was vivid, hot, larger than life. But he was so trapped in his childhood, and in childish malice, that I never felt like I’d actually want to bring him home or stay in his castle, even if I could understand why the heroine did. Cookie didn’t really have any adult moves to make up for that. In the end, they got their happy ending, but I wasn’t convinced it would stay that way for long.

In all, it’s a brilliant piece of fiction, and it’s permanently staying on my shelf. Even though they were not my favorite characters of all time, they are dynamic, and you need to find out what happens next. I do recommend it to graphic readers who, like me, are so sick of people setting all their Romance in the real world. The book’s a wild ride, and enough to digest that at times I had to take a break. It’s good to have a book like that sometimes. Do note that there is violence and explicit sex in it, and that it’s not about optimism, before you pick it up.

View all my reviews

Revenge Plotting: When Revenge Doesn’t Have Plot Points

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

What do you do when you realize your antihero’s revenge isn’t just an embellishment, it’s the plot of your novel?

Why, look up revenge plotting resources, to make sure you hit all the main points, of course. Until you find out there aren’t any.

Revenge is a trope readers and viewers know well. Classic examples are William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Jason Bourne movie series, and the TV show, Revenge. Clearly, the revenge trope can overtake an entire plot. So, why has no one converted the Hero’s Journey or the traditional plot arc into a map for writers to follow?

My best guess is it’s because revenge is an emotional motivation, and most people aren’t brave enough or foolish enough to try to logic out a string of emotions into a plan. Yet, isn’t that the essence of a revenge story? Isn’t that what the protagonist is doing in their head every step of the way?

The setup only gets worse when you’re writing a Revenge Romance. How can the setup of a known trope, in such a definitive genre, be so blurry?

Here is what articles have said:

  • Essential Archetypes: Victim, Villain, Avenger
  • The protagonist has to become an outlaw for the sake of revenge
  • The Victim died
  • The law doesn’t work; justice is not served
  • The Victim’s death is the inciting incident
  • Show the hero’s normal life before the victimizing event
  • Make the reader feel like the protagonist is in the right and their actions are justified, even if not admirable
  • Revenge plots are a function of Thrillers
  • Use the Villain as a foil to the Avenger
  • Successful revenge ends in death, likely for the protagonist

I’m no expert, but those points seem to be ignoring some things.

Here’s why that doesn’t work:

  • The offender (Villain) is now an unwitting Victim
  • The Avenger is the Victim, and is turning into the Villain of another character’s story
  • A non-Avenger Victim doesn’t have to be dead; they could be kidnapped, they could have been forced to marry another, they could be seriously impaired mentally or physically, or they could have gotten over their trauma in a way the Avenger cannot
  • Revenge tropes show up in every genre, with Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Romance in particular inviting revenge as a motivator
  • An administrator of Law could use the law to take revenge
  • Justice could be served by another character, but the Avenger’s grudge is personal and therefore not resolved
  • As proven by the Revenge TV series, revenge may be most effective when working from within, rather than being hindered by outlaw status
  • Depicting the Avenger’s lost normal life at the beginning of the novel might mean starting the story too early, which is the bane of publishers’ existence and not why readers are picking up a revenge novel; you’re just giving people something to skip
  • Killing off the protagonist in a Revenge Romance makes the story a Tragedy
  • If the Avenger is set up to get revenge on their not-yet-Love-Interest, the ending may not be satisfying, and may even undercut the rest of the story’s progression
  • If you have to convince the reader that your morally grey Avenger is serving true justice, they’re not; revenge is about personal satisfaction from within one’s own means and an attempt at practical closure, not about the existence and efficacy of justice as an abstract idea
  • Enemies-to-Lovers makes this theory crumble to pieces

Every time I have mentioned Revenge Romance, somebody asks if I meant Enemies to Lovers.

No, I did not. I said what I meant.

Revenge Romance vs. Enemies to Lovers

  • Enemies to Lovers implies each party sees the other as an enemy to get revenge upon. Mutual destruction is assured, unless one bests the other first or both fall in love simultaneously. Think Romeo and Juliet.
  • Revenge Romance only necessitates one party see the other as an enemy. One character could be blissfully unaware that the other is targeting them, or could have no desire to fight the Avenger even when antagonized. There is also a greater likelihood that revenge methods could be curbed by slowly-softening characters to lead to more humiliating, more redemptive, less lethal solutions.
    • I’ve begun reading Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss to explore this a bit deeper.

Revenge Romance in BKC

If you were reading The BeastKing Chronicles back when I was posting chapters, you probably noticed that Rome pulled some jerk moves because he was self-consumed and misguided. But sometimes, those motives were also skewed as a response to what Labriella had done to him in the past.

In the first couple versions of the story, Rome came out hot tempered and emotionally resistant, while still thinking sensually. His temper, and his catch-and-release cycle, drove Labriella nuts and stunted the story progression. The next couple versions of the story integrated the suddenness of a predator who waits, then snarls and suddenly pounces. Anybody would be afraid of a predator, even an old childhood friend, and so is Labriella, though she still cares about the man she knows beneath.

But what came out, in the private moments between the two characters, was a tit-for-tat vie for acceptance of which of them was right about what their relationship should be. In the back of Rome’s mind was always the sight of Labriella’s back, fading into the distance, leaving him alone again, and the urge to make sure she paid for that mistake. As the story progressed, Rome’s tactics for making her pay backfired, and he found himself caught in his own trap with sensual desires he didn’t know could cripple him.

That may have been what was in the back of Rome’s mind, but in the back of my mind was the worry that it could take a whole book unto itself to reconcile Rome’s starting disposition with Labriella’s disposition toward him—possibly even a whole story arc. That was when I realized: Rome’s revenge mindset, or at least his initial hurt, needs to be dealt with before the end of the temple repossession arc. Book 1 already needed to be shortened. The best solution may be to let his revenge play out in Book 1…and bite him in the butt.