Why Christmas Stories Are A Hard Sell

yes, we all love 'em! I know, we try to say we don't but if you are like me, going to my vet starting in October, they already have the Hallmark Channel running with the Christmas shows running. We're suckers for these stories. Of course, we now think, these have to be in high demand. Publishers ALWAYS need these stories. 

Well, you might be mistaken here. Let me give you a little inside information on this.

Those Christmas slots on the publishing schedule are coveted slots. These are just as hot as the summer reading slots. Every author wants to be placed there. It is just like the movie release schedule when you want your block buster to show up right before summer when EVERYONE will want to be watching! But here is the catch.

Those coveted slots are not going to go to the new authors.

These will go to those people who have "earned the rights". The publishers will give those books to the authors who have a following and who know how to really produce! In many cases, these are even books that will be added their contracts as a separate piece, sort of as a bonus. 

So, why do I bring this up? Because so many of you will spend months writing those stories that are actually pretty dang good, but honestly, will be hard sells because we have to find a way to show the publishers that your story is somehow better than the established authors.

See where I am going to with this?

My suggestion? Focus on a standard story but keep those holiday classics on the back burner. You'll get a chance to write it later. I promise!

Tropes Do Not Make A Story

Romance writers love 'em. The good old trope! Unknown baby, forced proximity, you name it! Romance writers seem to think a story needs these to make a story work. Ahh, my good friends, that is far from the truth. In fact, too many of you romance writers are ruining your stories with these tropes.

What? Are we using the wrong tropes? That must be it, right?

Actually, no. The reality is that you are either basing the entire story on a single trope and just wearing the reader out, or throwing in far too many tropes at us and really killing us. 

Let me explain.

First of all, we need to remember the definition of a romance. This is a story about a relationship to a HEA or a Happily Ever After. Simple As That. It means that the plot of the story, the central story arc focus on the relationship. It doesn't matter if it is a RomCon, Historical, Romantic Suspense, Inspirational or Romantasy, M/F, F/F, M/M, it is about the relationship. Do you notice I am not saying anything about the tropes here? 

To build the story arc, we add in conflict. That comes in with the GMC, or the Goals, Motivations and the Conflicts of the characters. In other words, what they want, what is driving them and what is standing in their way of achieving it. What stands in the way of their relationship is the central conflict of the story and it has to be something more than a simple "we have to get over ourselves" moment.

BTW, have you noticed...still no mention of a trope???

Now, if you want to throw a spin into your plot, sure, you can toss in one (and yes I mean ONE) trope but only if it needs it. I always like to think of it like those cooking shows.

A little bit goes a long way.

Don't buy into the myth that it is the trope that sells the story. It is the writing and how you use it. I promise. 

When Opposites Attract - Don't Make It Extreme

The opposites attract storyline is always a fun one to play with. How do we bring people together, who we think should not fit, into a relationship. It has a built in conflict at some level so why not try it. For those of you who struggle with trying to find a conflict in your story, this might be a great approach. 

HOWEVER

Yes that is the class Scott Big HOWEVER...

Be cautious that you have not created people that are so polar opposite that they would never, in any time or place, ever come together. This is when reality is blown completely out of the water. 

A lot of times, authors try so hard to create these opposites, that the story becomes farcical. It just becomes plain stupid, and then they wonder why they are getting so many rejections. Sure, their critique partners might think some of the scenes you created are fun and entertaining, but remember, you are not selling a scene, you are selling a FULL story. 

I remember reading one many years ago where the author was proposing a story where pretty much a social elite (think Paris Hilton, or Kardashian level) falls in love with a homeless guy who was a drunk and a drug addict. The guy didn't even come from any prior background such as a fall from grace. He was literally a nobody (and don't take that the wrong way, everyone is human and I think we need to help out all of the people in these situations one way or another). The point here is that there is no way and no situation that these two would ever be in a situation where they would be together long enough to build a relationship to fall in love. 

Sure, they might be in a brief meeting such as a homeless shelter where she is serving at Thanksgiving, but the odds of anything extending beyond that are slim to none. Their social spheres are so different that they would never get together. 

Look, as much as I would love to have dinner with Stanley Tucci, the odds of that are slim (yes, I do have a link through the literary world, but... working those connections is a bit slimy...although I am always open to an invitation, hint, hint!).

I am going to return back to what I am always saying. Would your character really do that? Would your character really talk to that person? Come on, think about the talk they have in The Breakfast Club toward the end of detention. They all openly admit that on Monday, they won't talk to each other that they think that sucks and is stupid, but is 100% true.

Writing With Tropes

For romance writers, we all know about those tropes: secret babies, arranged marriages, friends to lovers and so forth. All of these are great elements to stories, however, too many author make HUGE mistakes when they write their romances. They simply make the ENTIRE story about the trope.

That is a problem.

Let me explain. 

If you make your entire story about that single trope, the story becomes repetitive. Your story has to keep coming back to the same point over and over again, just from different angles. At some point, your readers are going to just get bored. Frankly, there are only so many ways you can say the same thing.

What we really want you to see is to just use that trope as a small part of your bigger story. If you want to give us a regular contemporary romance, let's say you set it in the corporate world and the two characters are fighting for the same job. Not anything overly fancy but you get the idea. Now, we can throw in the "secret baby" part but maybe just hide a pregnancy knowing that might screw up the corporate plot line. Get the idea? It is just a piece of the puzzle. 

Again, when you think about those tropes you see editors talk about what they like, this DOES NOT mean they want you to write the trope. Just remember that.  

Tropes Are Not Your Story

So, let's talk about tropes today. First of all, if  you are a literature person, in other words, you graduated from college with a literature major, your brain is thinking a different definition of trope than most of us. So, for this post, I would like to thank my father (who unfortunately is no longer with us for my birthday present for sponsoring this post) for the definition of Trope from the OED.

"A figure of speech which consists in the use or a phrase in a sense other than that which is proper to it"

Now, over the years, we have seen a new use of the word trope in literature which many of you have been using. In this case, I am going to reference an article "What is a Trope" Oregon State University Associate Professor of Medieval Literature who defines it as: 

... is a story telling convention, device or motif; specific tropes might be a characteristic of a particular genre of storytelling. For instance, one trope you see all over the place in folktales is the "rule of three" - where three characters or events create a predictable pattern (usually two failures and a success). We might think of the Three Little Pits, the magic lamp that grants three wishes, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella and her two stepsisters, and so on.

I bring this up today, especially for you romance authors who seem to now believe the trope is EVERTHING. You all seem to believe the trope is the plot.

The problem with this is that you have now created a story that is not amazing, not unique, and not something editors and agents are going to be excited about. In fact, if you get a reject letter back that says your story is to "trope" (is this even a word)"  or that your story is too "trope heavy" this is what they are referring too. You have literally drowned the reader in the trope. You are barfing trope!

What you have to remember is that a little trope goes a long way. 

There is nothing wrong with throwing a trope in a story. You want a forced marriage. Fine. Toss it in just for kicks. Spend all of 80,000 words on it? TOO MUCH. Secret baby? Sure, surprise the hero at the end of the story. Walk in on page 1 with the little rascal who is now in her second year of college and is $120,000 in debt with college loans and NOW YOU WANT TO BRING IT UP? Ummmm, no. 

Just think of it this way. If you watch those cooking competition shows and they slam the contestants for using too much sesame oil or truffle oil.

The same goes for tropes. Use too much...

And you will be CHOPPED!