For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the romance fiction editor for Sourcebooks. We publish about 300 new fiction and non-fiction titles each year, and I acquire single title romance in all subgenres, commercial women’s fiction with a strong romantic element and an unusual premise, and historical fiction, especially Jane Austen sequels.
I get about 200 submissions every month, and I’m noticing something really interesting about credibility.
Let me back up for a moment and tell you that I have 4 criteria for the romance fiction that I choose to take to the editorial meeting and suggest that we publish. I’m looking for:
*a heroine the reader can relate to
*a hero she can fall in love with
*a world gets created
*I can sell it in 2-3 sentences
In addition to those criteria, I also think about Philip Larkin’s criteria for the Booker Prize (he was the Poet Laureate, and the Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious in literature, so I figure this can’t go wrong, right?). He asked:
*can I read it?
*if I can read it, can I believe it?
*if I can believe it, do I care?
*if I care, what is the depth of that caring and how long will it last?
So credibility–or, can I believe it?
Mostly, this shows up as an issue when the world-building is under-developed, and the subgenre most affected (at least in the submissions I’m seeing) is romantic suspense.
Most people don’t have a twin (or a baby) they never knew existed who has now been kidnapped and they have to save her/him. Most people’s parents were not murdered by a serial killer whose daughter/son is now the hero/heroine’s love interest. It’s not enough to just call the hero/heroine a cop, FBI agent, Navy SEAL or CIA agent—the author must also bring to life the world of that profession, its routines, training, jargon, the atmosphere of its operations, etc.
That actually applies as well to any hero/heroine’s profession—teacher, doctor, cowboy, journalist.
It’s interesting that credibility is more of an issue in romantic suspense than it is in paranormal romance—perhaps because a paranormal world is completely made up, while the world of law enforcement or the military or investigative journalism has a basis in reality and readers are very savvy (thanks to TV!).
It’s important to note, however, that if you have something absolutely unbelievably original and/or masterful going on, you can get away with some slight lapses in credibility. Your reader will suspend disbelief if your writing is beyond and above or your hero is to-die-for or your plot twists are so compelling that the reader will follow you anywhere!
So dive deep into that research, make sure you’re building your world out fully and completely, and ask yourself—can I believe it?
No related posts.
And believability is not just in the big events, but in the smallest details. It’s surprising to me sometimes what readers notice and comment on!
I remember Stephen King talking about finding the truth within the lie. I think that applies to fiction writing in a number of ways (including finding the themes and ideas that resonate with readers). World-building is one of them. As you point out, I think readers will go along for the ride if you’ve done a good job with that world-building, including enough detail to allow the reader to feel comfortable suspending disbelief!
Interesting point about rom suspense; although I do think paranormals can have some huge issues with credibility, specifically and most often when an author fails to follow her own rules for the world she’s built.
Thank you Deb! I’m currently writing my first manuscript – a cozy mystery – and this is a great reminder.
Sabrina
Hi Deb! Great article. I love romantic suspense and am always looking for good authors to read. My favorites, no surprise, are the ones who’ve done the painstaking research. It’s interesting that you see this issue in RS. Do you see the issue less in historicals, I wonder?
Hi Carolyn: In historicals, credibility seems to be issue in the language more often than in the world-building.
A reader who is teaching a team-building course just phoned me. He wanted to tell me that, to illustrate a point, he read aloud a paragraph from SEALed With A Promise!
He laughed and said he never thought he’d be using a romance as a teaching tool. But, he said, he didn’t know where he’d find another paragraph that was so right-on.
Made my day!
“Dive deep” huh? I’m working on it! LOL.
The credibility factor is one of the reasons I love to write paranormal – I can make up my own reality, but I do have to stick to the parameters. A “bible” to my world has been immesurably helpfu.
Good point Deb! I agree with all of what you said. It even makes sense from a reviewer standpoint. My questions about credibility/believability are: Would I rec it? Would I buy it again? Would I put it on my favorites shelf?
Very true, Deb! When I wrote romantic suspense, I loved doing the research, to make sure it was all accurate but with paranormal I love even more making the unbelievable believable.
Linda
Ah yes, the unbelievable made believable. Remember that when the guy who next changes your tire in the Colorado mountains turns out to be more than the wolfish hunk of a character he appears to be.
World-building will make or break a book for me. Lois Lowery’s multiple award-winner _The Giver_ failed miserably on world-building. The population numbers didn’t add up at all.
I tossed one book of erotica across the room because it was clear the person who had written it had no IDEA about the laws governing trucking (alcohol outside a locked trailer=no more license) as well as using hideous euphemisms.
I find it’s an issue in SF or fantasy, since I don’t read suspense. Show me a world that could happen. Even if I only get hints of the political structure and history, like Heinlein’s _Friday_, that’s better than another sex scene in the laser shower with the sonic dildo.
Make your numbers add up. Keep the year straight. Don’t just slap “skiffy” words into the sex.
Say, aren’t you all at Sourcebooks the folks who are reprinting Laura Kinsale?
Just a note to say “thank you”!
Eric, yes, we are publishing 4 of Laura Kinsale’s backlist (Prince of Midnight, Midsummer Moon, Seize the Fire and Uncertain Magic.
Even more exciting, we have a BRAND NEW Laura Kinsale coming out Feb 2010 titled LESSONS IN FRENCH–it’s wonderful, hot, poignant and funny–you’re going to love it!
Very true, and an excellent reminder. It’s all too easy to run an editing comb through our work to find the obvious continuity lapses or misplaced modifiers, but to view it through the eyes of “how much will the reader care?” is tough when the work’s your own baby. It’s easy to assume that because we care, everyone will. Ain’t always so.
Eric, yes, we are publishing 4 of Laura Kinsale’s backlist (Prince of Midnight, Midsummer Moon, Seize the Fire and Uncertain Magic.
Even more exciting, we have a BRAND NEW Laura Kinsale coming out Feb 2010 titled LESSONS IN FRENCH–it’s wonderful, hot, poignant and funny–you’re going to love it!
Great post, Deb –
I write romantic suspense. The trouble with ’savvy’ readers who watch TV is that they think they’re ‘right’ but half the stuff either doesn’t exist or would never happen that way. So if you write it ‘right’ they’ll think you’re wrong. It’s a fine line to tread, because you certainly don’t want to lecture your readers and put them to sleep.
One new television show this season is “Castle” about a writer who’s working with the police (already a stretch of credibility). The day after it airs, Lee Lofland, a retired cop who’s a writer, does an analysis of the police procedures on his blog, The Graveyard Shift.
And he admits to enjoying the show despite its frequent errors.
“The Hong Kong Connection” is a legal thriller about a gutsy female attorney who takes on high ranking International officials. It’s a taut, rollercoaster of a ride from New York to Palm Beach to Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. The plot is expertly woven, the characters persuasive, and the dialogue snappy and spot on.
http://www.StrategicBookPublishing.com/TheHongKongConnection.html