Becoming Emotionally Involved with Characters

 By Alyssa J. Montgomery

Well, it's a wrap! The third book in my Hope Creek Series - Now and Always in Hope Creek - has been released today. 

But, after the champagne cork has popped - and even while the messages of congratulations are being received - I confess that I'm feeling a little flat. 

"Why?" 

It's simple. I've spent so long with these characters - learning who they are and watching their stories unfold, that I've formed a real connection with them and now I'm going to miss them.

Below: The Richardson Family (AI image)

While I've been writing their stories (and you'll note I write 'their stories' not 'my stories') I've become deeply invested in them and formed an attachment to them. I've understood their fears, shared their triumphs, worried over their struggles, rooted for them and cried at their heartaches. I've been on an emotional roller coaster ride with them as each drama in their lives has unfolded. And ... the heroes have definitely claimed a piece of my heart. (Insert swoon here.)

How much attachment is good and how much is unhealthy? There are a number of articles on the internet about the dangers of authors forming deep attachments to their characters.

Above: Morgan, Matt, Stella, Mitch & Kade (and Jax the dog)
Callie, baby Rory and Jack; Jim and Margaret and Blue 

How deep is too deep? One of the pitfalls of caring too much would be if the author refused to let their character suffer or intervened in the course of the story to alter the character's fate. 

Yes, I speak as though the characters' futures are pre-ordained. I generally feel that way - as though I'm merely a scribe channelling their story. Sometimes, I'm even surprised at a turn of events that I didn't see coming, but if disaster is about to strike, I don't stop it from happening. 

I quote cmbel2005 from a reddit.com web page who wrote:

    "Fictional characters are incorporeal. Inanimate. They don't exist. To develop emotional feelings with them to the point of debasing the story is a failure in my opinion."

I think the crucial words here are 'to the point of debasing the story' because romance writers know how important it is to let the characters draw out every possible emotion in the reader. Without feeling all the varying emotions, would we care about the outcome of the story? Would we keep reading?

Have you heard authors referring to their stories as their 'book babies'? 

I think I understand what cmbel2005 is saying - up to a point.  Authors shouldn't be like overbearing mothers who can't let their characters develop. We shouldn't avoid relationship breakups or situations that hurt our characters because it might save their feelings but it will detract from the depth of the story. Characters must experience all the highs and lows of life so they're more relatable. In fact, I think it takes skill for an author to learn about their characters and make them leap off the page as though they're real life people. It takes skill and effort to make our readers care so much about fictional characters. 

I confess that I have been missing the Richardson clan from Hope Creek, and I've taken great joy in using ChatGTP to create some images of the family. I told myself it was to build the hype around the release - strictly intended for promotion purposes only - but wow it was amazing to see my characters coming to life in images that were straight out of the storylines.

What do you think? Is that taking attachment to characters a bit too far? It might be, because like a proud mum, right now I feel the need to share some of those images from the Richardson's family photo album with you! (Like Grandma's Brag Book). I like my characters so much, I want you to get to know them and be invested in them too!

Above: Morgan, Stella, Margaret, Jim and Callie (AI Images)

Below: Margaret and Jim Richardson of Hope Creek Station

Below: The Richardson Clan gathers for one of Margaret's famous home cooked meals.

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I'm sure that as romance readers, you've formed attachments to characters you've read about. I'd love to know which characters have stayed in your mind and what is it about them or their situation that's made you feel that emotional attachment? 

Love to Learn: About how other authors feel about their characters and how real their characters feel to them.

Love to Laugh: At the fact that I really may have become too involved with these characters - although having said that, I have moved on to write the first book of a new series and there are no Richardsons in sight!

Love to Love: Starting each story or series and making connections with the characters and knowing I'm going to enjoy their journey through the ups and downs of life.

The Ever-changing Landscape of the Romance Book Cover

By Jayne Kingsley 

Recently, I've found myself with time to kill on Saturdays in the city and being the book lover that I am, I've been spending that time perusing the fabulous offerings of local book stores. What's struck me, is the blurring lines of romance book covers and just how the hell I'm meant to understand the 'reader promise' from some of the new trends that have emerged. 

With that in mind, I thought I’d delve into a bit of research about how romance covers have evolved over time. 

 

Let’s start with the good ol’ ‘bodice ripper’ or ‘clinch cover’ as they were affectionately known. What’s not to love, right? The Fabio-esque male and his leading lady with luscious locks whose clothes clearly weren’t made well, since they always seemed to fall off at his one saucy wink. Too much? Fair. Back in the day this was the epitome of the romance novel – no confusion over the reader promises here. Truth – I have quite a few of these in storage

 

 

 

Moving on, and we start to see the rise in steamy and erotic romance, their covers depicted by suggestive single item objects and dark backgrounds. I can still recall when I was first told about the Fifty Shades phenomenon. Being a massive Twilight fan at the time (team Edward, always and forever), when I looked up Fifty Shades my immediate thought was that it was another vampire novel (I was really into Twilight so completely misread the situation). Reading the first few pages I kept waiting for the penny to drop… and it did… or should I say the whip did, not so much the penny. I’d based my entire thought process about the first Fifty Shades book on the front cover. I’d bought the e-book version, as it was the fastest copy of the book I could get, so I didn’t bother to read the blurb. That single object, dark mysterious cover had me sure that it was going to be a billionaire, hotter than Hades, vampire romance. My bad. 

 

 

 

Of course, there has always been the wonderful realistic depiction of an in-love couple on the front cover – screaming ‘read me if you want the romance promise of HEA’. These are a favourite of mine, and a large portion of the romances that I own have this style of cover. The slightly varied version that is still strong and has stayed within the ‘reader promise’ guidelines is rural romance – where we have a lovely, picturesque background graced with a main character – often a wholesome female lead or rugged handsome man. 

 

  

 

Authors such as Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, and Sally Thorne are just some of the names attributed to the great rise of the illustrated cover, which has been the dominant romance cover rising trend since 2020. The bright, composite, happy colours, bold font and illustrated couple are eye-catching, and are now synonymous with romantic comedy style romances with a HEA promise. 

  

 

This brings me to where I start to come unstuck with a cover. The title and author name are usually clues that it’s a romance, but the actual cover image leaves me a little stumped. Take for example, the beautiful watercolour covers. I first picked up Becka Mack’s novel ‘Consider Me’ at the airport. I was drawn to the watercolour illustration and was intrigued about the type of book. I had assumed maybe a sweet small-town romance or women’s fiction. You know what they say about assuming! 'Consider Me' is a sports ice hockey romance, quite a steamy one.

 

   

 

These covers below—text heavy, devoid of characters—have been popping up all over the place, and without reading the book I am left wondering if I’m going to be getting a steamy romance, sweet romance, young adult romance, cowboy romance or something else entirely. 

 

    

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a complaint. I’m loving the variety of covers that are out in the wonderful world of romance at present. The popularity of the genre and shift in covers is, I believe, creating a wider readership, allowing for more reading in public without the fear of censorship or judgement. It also gives me more reason to try new authors; and let’s face it, it’s always good to have another reason to buy more romance books, right?

**all images and photo credits contained in this blog post are courtesy of https://www.amazon.com/**

LOVE TO LOVE: finding new 'auto-buy' romance authors. I've recently added Sarah Adams and Victoria Levine to my list, their books are addictive!

LOVE TO LAUGH: at my cat chasing its tail. This is a new trick for Dora (who is middle-aged) but has apparently only just discovered she has an elusive, fluffy tail. 

LOVE TO LEARN: what others think about the new trends in romance covers! Hit me up with your favourite romance covers in the comments.