Same Differences...
By Tiana
@kkaria309 (297)
United States
June 13, 2012 11:52am CST
I am a passionate reader of romantic novels. Mills and Boon. Cliche, I know! But recently I have found something that just doesn't sit well with me.
I have completed my studies now and have a lot of free time on my hand. To kill time [which I usually just do by reading more and more books], I have started choosing an author who's some book I liked, and look up more books by the same author. I download as many books by that author as I can find, because if I like the style of writing, I should like them in all the books, right?
But I have found that the books all have similar story-lines and the same type of characters to such an extent that I have gotten brilliant in predicting what will happen next.
To quote my personal example, I downloaded about 15 books by Betty Neels [no offence to her other fans]. As I reached the 4th or 5th novel, I found the similarities too obvious to just think a coincidence, or even hope that it would change in the next one.
Her heroines are all nurses, they are all plain-looking and not very attractive [they were beautiful in maybe 2 books out of the 15]. The hospitals were the heroines work are all situated in a seedy area of London. The heroes are all Dutch, good-looking, rich and doctors [in various specializations, thank God], and they are big-hearted enough to accept the heroine, even if she is not very beautiful.
There is always a female vamp character who is selfish and in very much interested in the hero, who, near the end, succeeds in filling the heroine's ears with nonsense. And finally, the end is always about the hero seeking out the heroine and clearing things out.
There is one or two kisses between the main characters during the course of the novel. And a last kiss in the happy ending.
This is just about Betty Neels. I have had this happen to me with 3 other authors at least, and sometimes in novels not even written by the same author.
What do I do?
How do I bring a varied palette in my romantic reading?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@PageTurner (2825)
• United States
13 Jun 12
Hello kkaria309
It seems that so many authors fall into this sort of formulaic writing and it just becomes wearisome. There are some authors I simply will not read anymore because it's basically like reading the same book repeatedly, with just a few name or location changes.
I don't know how you can vary your romantic reading palette othe than to suggest reading more authors.
1 person likes this
@kkaria309 (297)
• United States
13 Jun 12
That is true, thanks for your input. But I feel like, once I find a good author, it is hard to let go and find a new one. Good authors are hard to come by. Maybe I should take your advice and stop focusing on the authors and just focus on the story or the book.
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
13 Jun 12
I've never been a big fan of romance novels personally, but I remember when I was reading a bunch by the same author they would have a number of highly similar elements. With most authors if you read multiples of their books you'll find the same character archetypes and situations arise, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're practically the same stories as you describe.
I'd say just branch out and read different authors. You'll probably find some different tracks of formulated story-telling, but you also might find a number of stories that genuinely surprise you.
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
22 Jun 12
I would do that as well when I read romance novels. But it's been a very long time since I read one.
@kkaria309 (297)
• United States
13 Jun 12
Maybe not in the books you have been reading, but trust me, in Romance genre, this applies. I can give you 3 more examples, in detail, about similarities in stories written by the same author. And nothing but the names, the nationality and the situations change. In some, not even the nationality changes, only the names and places.
But I agree with your suggestion to branch out as far as various authors are concerned, thank you for responding.
1 person likes this
@blummus (451)
• United States
13 Jun 12
Well, getting bored with a formula can be a good thing. It gets you curious and looking for other books. There are a lot of other novels out there with romantic content that are not pushing that particular set of cliches. You might consider historical fiction; a lot of that is romantic, and the heat can be anywhere from chaste to bodice ripping, if you go for that kind of thing. You might have a look at The Romance Reader Top 100 List http://www.theromancereader.com/top100.html for some authors and titles you haven't read.
Now that you have free time, perhaps it's time you try writing one yourself. You're familiar with the genre, which is a big plus, and who knows? You may find you can add the variety and nuances that some other authors lack and launch a career writing a better romance novel!
@kkaria309 (297)
• United States
13 Jun 12
I never thought of it that way, thank you for pointing it out. You ar absolutely right, of course. Since this boredom with monotony, I have tried to find different books, different authors and as different variations as possible.
I have also read historical romance [it is a genre of Mills and Boon too, so obviously], but I have never went out to search works by any particular author in that category. I like historical romance, and they do have different stories and plots and sometimes they contain a great amount of mystery and thrill too, now that I think about it.
You are not the first person to suggest I solve my problem by writing something myself, but I am afraid my novel would turn out to be just a combination of different cliches that I have come across. Maybe a nice combination, but a combination nonetheless. How do I come up with an original plot, when I am not sure it is not something I read in some book a while ago? That would be hypocritical because I will just be doing what I started complaining about in this blog. Don't you think?
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