The Spice of Variety – The Importance of Mixing It Up In the Boudoir (On The Page, Of Course!)

My personal oeuvre is gritty, raw, erotic romance. I have Dominant Alpha heroes, and feisty submissive heroines. I love intense love scenes, filled with graphic action hot enough to scald. But there are always occasions where I have to mix it up.

By and large I find, in my writing and in the erotic romances I read, that no matter how intense the story is, no matter how dark or dramatic, there come those moments when you need things less intense and more languid. Filled with less boom-chicka-bow-wow and more with velvet caresses and sensual sighs. Where perhaps, something kinder and gentler is called for. Perhaps one of the characters is wounded, at a black point, and the love scene is, in part, a healing or comforting for that character. Or another alternative that may be a perfect fit, something lighthearted - spiced with wry humor, or giddy joy – the occasion when nothing goes right, but it’s all okay! Where my lovers learn to laugh at themselves and relax . . . just a bit more (which we know will make things even hotter the next time around, right?)

One of the things I therefore focus on is the appropriateness of the tone and action of the scene: Does it fit the mood? The place where the characters are both in their own heads at that moment? In the course of their relationship? All while furthering that relationship, working smoothly with the plot, and advancing it at the same time.

I also survey of my love scene “roster” once I’ve got a rough first draft, to ensure that the mood and intensity does vary, so the reader is not treated to the same old, same old love scene throughout. (That’s a major complaint I’ve seen concerning the love scenes in FSOG, for example.) No one in the real world has sex the same way all the time, or feels the same way every time they are having sex. The intensity varies, the commitment varies, and the emotions vary.

Our moods fuel our lovemaking. Internal and external conflicts of my characters will fuel theirs. As will the seasons, surroundings, the atmosphere (one example is the staple of romantic suspense and romantic thrillers where the lovers are in the thick of danger – gotta love those adrenalin-heightened couplings!).

Likewise, the love scenes will morph as the characters and relationships grow and change. That introductory, somewhat stilted, or perhaps edgy, or eager and unfamiliar first love scene – where everything is being experienced for the first time, and those first sights of one another, those first tastes and touches are so vital.

Then the story grows into those scenes where the lovers have become more comfortable with one another, but are still discovering the depths of their passion; they’re exploring and trying new things – but there are still mysteries to unfold, and discoveries about one another to make.

And we continue to progress, reaching those scenes where the lovers are embroiled in their conflicts and problems as you approach the dark moments of the book. Their differences, fears and uncertainty infiltrate the scene. It might make the love/sex desperate, or yearning – or lousy. It might make one lover selfish and demanding, or another withdrawn and hesitant. And it might be a moment for coitus interruptus – the better to ramp up the tension, sexual and otherwise, as the characters deal with it.

Finally, the couple’s emotions are fully mature, and the depth of their love is powerful and strong and committed. As we approach their HEA, so does their sexual relationship swell in power and importance. Everything has become clear. They’ve overcome all the crises. They’ve fallen apart and healed those rifts. They’re recommitted, or reunited, with a soul deep connection that is illustrated in their lovemaking. Physical and emotional have become one, and the coupling is a hallowed moment as the sex becomes an affirmation of their romantic journey together.

So. Each of the moments within my stories have to satisfy many criteria. First and foremost, from a technical perspective, I want to change it up. Keep the sex varied for the readers (and my characters – can you imagine the complaints?!).

Secondly, I want my love scenes to fit smoothly in the moment in the story in which they appear. A humorous love scene in a dark moment probably wouldn’t work. And a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am when they’ve just acknowledged they’re madly in love would be inappropriate, too. And no brand new couple, falling into the sack for the first time is going to be utterly uninhibited. No matter how tough or feisty or Alpha, we all hold back a bit of ourselves in a brand new relationship, right? It’s a protective instinct to avoid hurt and rejection.

Thirdly, I must remain true to my characters, which means that even as the love scenes evolve along with the story, and with the relationship, they must reflect the ongoing tone, or mood of the moment. The actions cannot go completely against the characters’ grain. But they can reflect that changing moods of the character.

My hero may be a crude and rough sadist, but he will find himself in a romantic situation where his emotions, and desires, prompt him to seek a different way to experience that sexual relationship. By doing so, it allows my hero an opportunity for revelation – for growth. As I did with my down and dirty sadist hero, Hud, in Hold Tight, when he abandons all of the paddlings and spankings, the erotic humiliation and total command of his lover, Eden, and discovers that the more vanilla experience is just as rich, and enjoyable – and even more naked, emotionally – without the trappings of the lifestyle or kinky touches. The simple act of making love is a breakthrough moment as he realizes she’s “the one”. It’s not just the kink. It’s the woman.

Likewise, no matter how freely my submissive Eden gives herself to Hud, there comes that moment when she turns dominant, forcing him to accept her and his own desires, and becomes the driving force of that particular love scene – the climactic one that ends the story.

The bottom line is that I want my characters to change it up in the bedroom. It keeps things lively for them – and keeps my readers looking ahead to see how the characters’ physical relationship grows along with their emotional relationship.

Because as we all know, variety is the spice of life!

Lise Horton writes super steamy erotic romance and, as Lydia Hill, intense erotica. She’s published in full-length fiction by Carina Press, and in short fiction by Ravenous Romance, Riverdale Avenue Press (a recent naughty coupling can be found in RAB’s “Bad Santa”) and her latest story, “Tryst of Fate”, as Lydia Hill, is included in the Cleis Press “Best Women’s Erotica of 2015” anthology, edited by the iconic Violet Blue.. For more on her thoughts on writing romance and the writing life, you can find her and all her social media links at www.lisehorton.com.

What's YOUR Favorite Romance Trope? All That Glitters Is Not Just Her Hoo Ha!

When it comes to the romance trope, I am especially fond of the “glittery hoo ha”, for the name alone. However, I consider it less a trope, than a de rigueur requirement of the genre. No matter the heat level, once the hero has, er, experienced the heroine’s “hoo ha” (or her lips for the chaste among our genre titles), he will be blind to any other woman’s non-glittery type hoo ha (seriously, a tarnished hoo-ha? I think not!). The heroine’s will remain his be all and end all go-to hoo ha, romance-wise.

So, while I chuckle over the term, I don’t consider it a trope, unlike the myriad others from enemies to friends (always good for conflict), to the ‘meet sweet’ trope (not one of my faves). There’s a trope out there for every taste, naturally, but if forced to choose, I am especially fond of what I’ve seen called “the broken bird” trope. (Though it trespasses a tad on the Beauty and the Beast trope, for in that case, the heroine must heal the hero’s psychological wounds and accept his scars, be they emotional or physical – in fact many of the tropes can be found in blended forms, and there are multiplicities of tweaks on all these tropes.)

The broken bird trope actually figures into my own writing quite heavily (perhaps all that misplaced maternal energy to heal and protect one of my characters, along with my tendency for melodrama?). Probably for the same reason that I enjoy suspenseful elements in my writing, and erotic romance – because the broken bird trope offers an opportunity for immense conflict, both internal (the broken character), as well as relationship-wise. It’s always a major uphill battle to heal the broken one and get that character to succumb to love.

However, I’ve most often seen this trope used in stories where it is the hero who is the broken one, and the heroine’s love that heals him. Because we love the tortured alpha bad boy, don’t we?

That’s the essence, in fact, of my recently completed BDSM erotic romance MS, Hold Tight. My billionaire hero (no, money doesn’t heal all wounds!) has been kicked in the teeth by life on a number of occasions. He now lives in his ivory tower, untouched by a woman’s love, and scarred by numerous past betrayals. And it is my average, every day heroine who comes along and recognizes the wounded little boy, and heals him with her love (and her tenacity and willingness to submit to his sadistic domination and mastery of her glittery you-know-what).

But I love seeing the broken bird trope turned upside down. It may be a bit more unusual to have your alpha hero be the strong, supportive and nurturing type who becomes the healer to a broken bird heroine, but I think it offers a wonderful opportunity. You get to create a hero who isn’t tortured or tormented, and who can be the lover to bring his heroine into the healing light. (And at the LIRW luncheon, and in several reviews I’ve read recently, the dearth of the “nice guy” hero was lamented…Voila! I have the answer!) (Keep reading…)

My second Stellato siblings novel, Hot In the City, is an example of this. My heroine is as dark a heroine as I’ve read lately. Not only was she abandoned by her father, and the father of her son, but now she’s smothered by her responsibilities, and her fears for her special needs son should she be unable to care for him. At first, what Berto offers her is hot sex – her only distraction from an anxiety-filled life. Alice sees her future as a bleak and demanding one, until Berto proves to her that he can give her more than momentary, distracting pleasure. He can protect her, provide for her, and love her – but he can also be a partner in life who provides the shoulder she’s never had.

I love my heroes dark and tormented. Mad, bad and dangerous to know. The strong, silent type hiding his wounds behind his muscles. The primal man unleashing his inner demons only to have them tamed by the heroine (and her glittery lady parts).

But it’s wonderful fun to also craft the solid, Gary Cooper, Atticus Finch, Mr. Smith hero who recognizes the humanity beneath a heroine’s tortured persona (and the allure of her glittery vajayjay) – whether she is using sex to block out reality, or cutting herself because of a trauma, or hiding behind an ice maiden shell to avoid pain, or a heroine battered by fate, going down for the last time – as she reaches out for the helping hand of the only one who can save her. When her white knight rides to her rescue, he may be a billionaire, or a boxer. A Regency spy or a WWII officer. A blue collar guy or a once-a-month shifter. But he’s the one who’s whole, and this time he’s doing the healing.

He is the hero broad of shoulder, compassionate of soul, with a heart of gold.

And he’s the proud possessor of the perfect complement to her glittery mound of Venus:

His “Golden Gun”.

A MUSE OF FIRE: Something Wicked This Way Comes – The Power of Villains

Thus do I ever make my fool my purse;
For I mine own gained knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor,
And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets
H'as done my office. I know not if't be true,
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for surety. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man. Let me see now:
To get his place, and to plume up my will
In double knavery. How? How? Let's see.
After some time, to abuse Othello's ears
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected--framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so;
And will as tenderly be led by th' nose
As asses are.
I have't! It is engendered! Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

(Iago's soliloquy, "Othello," Act 1, Scene 3)

Where cerebral or martial, man or woman, William Shakespeare unleashed upon the world some of literatures most complex and chilling villains. As I discussed in my earlier column on crafting strong adversaries/antagonists, villains are a particular subset. An adversary of a different color if you will. An action of fate can be adverse to your hero, but the action is benign. A villain – black-hearted, black-souled, sociopathic, homicidal or psychopathic – acts out of personal motivation to damage, harm, kill, destroy.

Shakespeare’s villains may wound with a word or a sword. They may take action themselves or set in motion a deadly intrigue; and then sit back with a self-satisfied smirk as the blood flows.

Motivations vary, but to me the most dark and chilling villains are the ones not driven by flawed human frailties, by need, or greed, or hatred, but the ones driven by a Machiavellian need to destroy. Iago fits that bill and his cold calculation makes him a deadly adversary for Othello, whose fiery and impetuous, passionate personality serves Iago well. In the end, Othello’s beloved Desdemona is dead at his hand and he is crazed with the guilt of what he’s done.

Creating a great villain requires finesse. A villain must be a worthy adversary for your protagonist: Smart and dangerous enough to challenge, but not superior enough to best your protagonist(s).

The best villains are crafted with enough complexity to intrigue the reader, but to avoid caricature or stereotype. Surprise your reader: The baby-faced torturer, the suave serial killer, the grandmotherly ax murder. Likewise, their psychological makeup must be a canny blend of psychology and motivation. We must understand what drives them, what their triggers are (the better to create an atmosphere of suspense as we see them driven forward on their evil journey, just as we see our hero and heroine compelled on their heroic and romantic journey), what their motivations are, and what conflicts may thwart them.

The caliber of villain you craft will depend on your story. Do you want the blackest-hearted blackguard ever written – whose demise will leave your reader standing and cheering? Or a tortured soul for whom the reader may feel a bit of pity? Is your villain the MacBeth type, or the Iago type? The first driven by human emotion, the other enjoying the murderous outcome with cold satisfaction?

Also, what is the villain’s ROLE in your story? How is he to be the foil, the human embodiment of conflict, for your heroic pair? That question, too, will determine how you need to mold him or her with greatest effectiveness.

To help you craft these characters, you have a wonderful array of resources: Study contemporary villains – sadly, the news on any given day provides a despicable perp walk of villainous types, all of whose characters, backgrounds, motivations and actions are dissected in minute detail.

There are also innumerable non-fiction titles written about every high profile villain, from Jack the Ripper to Charlie Starkweather to Bernie Madoff. Written by forensic specialists, law enforcement, psychiatric professionals and reporters.

There are, too, countless research titles available. You can research abnormal psychology and crime scene investigations. Types of killing and murder, and overviews of demographics of who murders who, how and why (One reason why the Aileen Wournos case was so sensational? Women were not expected to be serial killers, and when the “black widow” murderess invariably showed up, they used not guns or weapons of overt violence, but the “kinder, gentler” weapon of poison.)

And there are books specific for writers: Some simply help you understand different character types. Some help you understand the purpose of your villainous character in the context of your story and how he or she plays against your hero/heroine. Some go into the details about writing different kinds of villainous characters in fiction.

Once you have chosen your villain, read enough to understand the psychology so you can create an intense villain, with layers of human complexity. Set up the character biography so you are clear on what has set them on this path, what their motivation is; what they seek to gain by committing their criminal act, and how they feel in the aftermath. And do enough forensic research that the acts they commit ring true and your reader will shiver at the thought of being prey to the heinous character. Of course, read the best in the genre to see how other capable authors handle these subjects.

As always, there are legions of films and television shows with great evil doers to study. And likewise, in dramatic literature, there are some great villains: Ms. Venable in “Suddenly Last Summer” is a chilling character who’d give Iago a run for his money. Regina, in Lillian Hellman’s “Little Foxes”, Mme de Merteuil in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Christopher Hampton, and of course Sondheim’s bloody “demon barber of Fleet Street”, Sweeney Todd in the play of the same name.

In point of fact, there is no end to the number of dastardly types you can study in order to give your readers the fright of their life: The fear that the hero and heroine may succumb to the marvelously complex and dangerous villain in their midst.

“Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even
the bed she hath contaminated.”

Iago, “Othello”, Act IV, Scene 1

A MUSE OF FIRE: All The World’s A Stage – Setting & Description

. . . And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass . . .
(Excerpt, Act I Prologue, Henry V, by William Shakespeare)

In theatre, a play’s author gives bare setting descriptions. Then the director and set designer work together to create the living set on which the play will be enacted. Whether it includes a falling chandelier, rotating sets and waterfalls or a spare, single room presentation, it takes an entire team to create the effective setting so the audience can see the visual rendering of the world of the play’s creator.
As writers of fiction, there is a good side, and a bad side, to our job as the sole designer of setting and our use of description. The upside: Our readers will imagine, based on our words, the place, and the setting that fits perfectly for them within the context of the story. No risk of disappointment as happens in theatre, or film, where the end result does not match the visual the readers had already created from the books. But the same plus, is also the downside. Because YOU are the sole creator of the setting. If you skimp on it, or if your description fails to captivate and conjure a sense of place for your story – then there’s no THERE there for your audience: The Reader.

Shakespeare gave his audience tremendous setting and atmosphere hints via his chorus speeches and prologues (such as I opened this piece with). His words allowed his audiences to fill in the blanks and augment the stage set with the grand world and events amid which his plays were to transpire.

He utilizes dialogue, as well, to enhance the sense of time and place, as in the first words of King Lear in Act III, Scene II, as he enters with the Fool in the midst of a storm:

“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!”

You have the opportunity to do this task utilizing both narrative as well as characters’ own description in thought or dialogue.

But how many elements go into crafting an effective setting?

Some major ones would be time, place, era, season, weather, temperature. What are they and how are you conveying this information? What impact or effect do these elements have on the narrative/action? Is it backdrop? Does it enhance the mood? Is it part of the challenge to the characters in the context of forward action?

Then there are the subtleties that more specific description adds to your setting. Like a set designer your eye must fall on every single nook and cranny of your setting. Then decide what is vital, and what is unimportant for your scenic design and what details would be innocuous, and can be ignored. How does describing the important elements help make your setting richer, bolder and more conducive to drawing your reader into your world – so that it runs like a film in their head as they read.

Take for example a set piece – a clock, which can be utilized both as a set design element and as a detail to help establish time frame, perhaps, or passage of time, as it ticks away the minutes. How can this element be adding to your atmosphere. Does it toll the ominous passing of time as the heroine desperately attempts to escape her bonds and flee the killer coming for her? Does it register the mounting excitement as a bride awaits her bridegroom on their honeymoon night? The frustration of a woman awaiting her lover who is late, or the trepidation of a character awaiting news of a job interview, the angst of a parent awaiting word on a sick child? Or does it notch up the erotic tension as a man watches his lover coming towards him to begin their tryst?

From ensuring that your description is specific: Is your heroine’s hair blown by a wind? Or is it a zephyr, a gale, an icy gust? Here’s where your word selection will come into play, and remember that action words convey more than non-action descriptors, details that bring to mind sense responses – especially touch and smell – can ramp up the depth of your setting. When elaborating on your setting include specific details that help anchor the time and place in your readers’ minds. Not just a city – is the city more like New York? Or Paris? Moscow, Shanghai or Casablanca? Kalamazoo or Kingston? Does the character live in a house surrounded by a garden? Or by a wild cacophony of wildflowers, daisies with bright faces, and nodding sunflowers? Is the smell permeating the room simply “food cooking”? OR is it the smell of old bacon grease and stale coffee, the pungent aroma of garlic and herbs, or the homey scent of meatloaf and cornbread? Is it raining? Or is it a typhoon, a sun shower, a nourishing spring rain, or a thundering downpour? Is the house just a house? Or a hobbit hole? A magical Weasley oddity or a dreary Kansas farmhouse?

What tiny elements can add atmosphere and mood to a set? What can help convey the tone and emotion of the characters in a given situation? What aspects of your setting and description round out and complete the world your characters inhabit so that – whether the setting is a space ship headed for Alpha Centauri in the year 2525, a Scottish castle in the highlands, or an upper West Side Manhattan one-bedroom apartment – it is a rich, vital, immediate and REAL world for your readers?

Like a combination playwright/set designer/director you must use all of your skills to build a perfect world – setting – and illuminate the place in which your novel’s action proceeds. From first page to last, in every chapter, scene, paragraph – your descriptive detail of the surroundings must be gripping, evocative, enlightening, compelling and they must sweep your reader away into a world so real that there IS a THERE there!

P.S: For some additional plays where marvelous “worlds” are created, try “The Iceman Cometh” by Eugene O’Neill, “The Hot L Baltimore” by Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard’s “True West”, “Bus Stop” by William Inge, “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen, “Steel Magnolias” by Robert Harding or “The Skin of Our Teeth” by Thornton Wilder.

And for incredible setting and descriptive detail – within a story that runs from modern-day London, to the English countryside, as well as back into Victorian England and Italy, there is no more wonderful novel I have ever read than A. S. Byatt’s Booker Prize winning Possession. It is like a wonderful creative writing class all by itself!



I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;

Oberon, Act II, Sc. I “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
William Shakespeare

The Important Role of Secondary Characters

“His name is Romeo, and a Montegue;
The only son of your great enemy.”

Nurse warning Juliet, and illuminating the crux of the conflict for the audience
Act I, scene v

(Painting "The Storm", by Wlliam Dyce depicting King Lear and secondary character, The Fool)


Shakespeare’s plays are filled with secondary characters of every sort and variety. For every towering, iconic protagonist, there is a secondary character who aids and abets the action. Hamlet has Horatio; Prince Hal has Falstaff; Juliet has Nurse; Prospero has Caliban; Portia has Bassanio and the list goes on.

Secondary characters play many roles in fiction. Mentor, confessor, guardian, teacher, foil, sounding board, catalyst, muse: They may be present in the guise of friend or foe, parent or sibling, loved one, stranger or servant.

Use of a secondary character offers an author a wealth of possibilities. Your hero’s best friend can be the voice of reason that helps the volatile hero work through a crisis. Your heroine’s big sister can act as confidant to help her make relationship decisions. In these roles they allow a further exploration and exposure of the protagonists’ thinking and emotions, without the “telling” worry. Perhaps an abusive parent allows the author to illustrate the difficult times our hero has risen above, illustrating his fortitude and strength without blatantly hammering the point. A teacher’s wisdom lets us be privy to a character’s struggle and growth. A secondary character’s predicament allows an opportunity for a hero or heroine to show their loyalty, bravery or willingness to put themselves in danger for a friend.

But while we can use these characters to great advantage, there are also pitfalls inherent in who you populate your stories with.

If you fill a story with a gallery of innocuous secondary characters who are little more than window dressing and are either duplicative of, or of no value to, a protagonist, it means they probably shouldn’t be there.

Certainly, too, the “chorus”, or tertiary background characters used to create a sense of time, and place and social background are valuable. But keeping their participation appropriate is important.

And the important role played by secondary characters brings up the flip side of the problem. Rather than ineffective secondary characters, you have the potential problem of a secondary character taking center stage and usurping the limelight from the protagonists. This effectively nullifies the importance of the hero or heroine as well as distracting the reader. There are many authors who very effectively straddle this fine line, creating secondary characters who both know their place, but who are rich, complex and human. They appeal to readers, and the author, even while they ultimately allow the primary characters their moment in the sun. We’ve seen this happen frequently enough when a character is so appealing he or she ultimately grows into the protagonist of their own story, bringing in those fans who enjoyed the character in a supporting role in a prior book.

A slightly different problem is creating secondary characters so strong or superior that the protagonist in question pales in comparison. An non-romance example might be Melanie and Scarlett. While Scarlett was admirably tenacious and determined, Melanie far outshone her in the admirable qualities we imbue our heroes and heroines with. Loyalty, gentle courage, honesty, morality are all Melanie traits but Scarlett? Well, not so much …

Look at any of the great stories and you will find examples of these vital characters and the authors’ deft use of them. Beyond Shakespeare’s own cadre of the good, the bad, the wise, funny, and ugly, and more accessible to us, would be the supporting actors in television and film.

Harry Potter is surrounded with classic secondary characters, from Dumbledore (mentor, guide) to Lucius Malfoy (catalyst). Likewise, Frodo in Lord of the Rings learns from Gandalf and he is provided (as are we, the audience) a glimpse of what might come to pass in the example of the obsessed, grotesque Gollum.

Buffy has her team of seconds, from clowns to BFF.

Antihero Dr. Gregory House has his conscience and voice of reason in the form of Dr. James Wilson, and takes on the role of mentor to the changing cast of residents.

Andy Griffith had Aunt Bea, Goober and Gomer, the classic sidekick Deputy Barney Fife, as well as Opie – his parental interactions with Opie allow us to see Andy’s sterling qualities as parent and teacher.

Superman had Perry White, and Lois and Jimmy Olsen were the frequent catalysts (read: victim needing rescue from heinous antagonists) in providing the superhero plenty of opportunities to exhibit his super-hero-ness.

Many actors today have honed the skill of playing the supporting cast member to the hero and as such frequently are seen in those roles. John Goodman, for example, supporting not only Dennis Quaid and Al Pacino, but Roseann herself.

TV, film, Shakespeare, other novels – all offer stellar opportunities to study the role these supporting characters play, and how to craft them effectively. How to make them rich, fully-fleshed, playing his or her role to perfection while not encroaching into the protagonists’ territory, can be learned from reading any good romance novel.

And, as always, from the dramatic canon of my fave, Tennessee Williams, I have a perfect example of the vital secondary character, whose presence effects all of the protagonists in one important way or another and leads them to decisions and actions that rock their world. He is not even given a name, but he is the human interjection that changes everything. He is The Gentleman Caller, and when he joins the action among Laura Wingfield, her brother Tom, and faded Southern Belle, Amanda, upheaval ensues.

So, next time you are reading a book, give the secondary characters some extra attention. What is their role in the story? How does the author utilize them to good effect to bolster how we see the hero and heroine, and how their presence impacts the storyline?

Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!—
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. Oh, woe is me,
T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Ophelia’s monologue following confrontation with Hamlet wherein she shares the dastardly change that has overtaken her beloved.

Act 3 scene 1

A Muse Of Fire: The Magic of Words

“Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.” William Shakespeare

Words are the wondrous tools that can make or break a writer’s fortune. Shakespeare was an alchemist with words. He created magic for his audiences and readers alike. No emotion stymied him. No description stumped him. His characters’ names were perfection, his titles resonant.

He is acknowledged to have altered words to suit his purposes, and to create words when none in his repertoire suited his purposes.

Words. Such a little name for such varied things. You begin each story you tell with a single word. And then you build upon it, creating sentences, paragraphs, and ultimately collect them in groupings of thousands, which you bind together with your creativity, and present to your readers in the hope that this collection enthralls and entrances.

Words are, literally, everywhere around you, so there is vast opportunity to discover and hoard them. Entire books are devoted to nothing but words: Dictionaries and thesauri abound, each one different than the next. There are specialty books about words: Cultural words, slang words, dirty words, curse words, sex words. There are books by and about word lovers, like Ammon Shea Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages. There are linguistic tomes, and studies of etymology.

I grew up in a home where my mother kept her dictionary beside her chair. She never failed to use it on a daily basis, and I adopted the habit. Whether to look up a word I may have stumbled upon but did not know, to check the spelling, determine the correct usage, or find out the etymological origins of the word, I am a dictionary and word lover. Every time I open one of these books I discover another golden nugget of literary goodness to add to my word coffers. At the moment I am especially enamored of ilk, sepulcher, crapulous, dogsbody, Machiavellian and loathsome.

I’ve wondered how many words I know? Hundreds? Thousands? Could it be possible to know a million words?

What words amuse and beguile you? As writers words are our basic stock in trade. We can create nothing without them. They are like amazing puzzles –waiting to be arranged in any one of countless combinations to express your imaginative story. Some words are mundane, some are illuminating. Writing romance fiction we have some unique challenges, as well as some typical writing challenges. We must not be purple prosey. So finding alternative words and phrases to express the heaving bosom or the throbbing manhood or to describe yet again a heroine’s tresses or a hero’s eyes, can require a Sherlockian level of linguistic skill.

Overuse of a word, as Isabo Kelly showed us, a verbal tic, can deaden your writing. Pedestrian or repetitive word choices can lead to flat writing, a failure to communicate crisply, and will stifle your power to sweep your reader along into the world of your story.

Wordsmith and wag, Mark Twain (his own pseudonymous name a word play, as “mark twain” was the cry used by riverboat men when measuring the depth of the water) said: “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

And Anton Chekhov, dramatist and short story writer extraordinaire admonishes writers to value and use their words thusly: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Word choices are the difference between creating characters with unique voices, or caricatures of humanity; the difference between clarity and confusion, boring or electrifying tales, hilarious or dull writing, magical or mundane stories. Word choices enable you to create the perfect title, the perfect character name, and a vast fictional world. Would the iconic southern belle have captured our imagination as well if she had been named “Pansy”, as Margaret Mitchell originally intended? Would Harry’s Hogwarts School of Wizardry be as whimsical were it named Eton? Word choices set our stories – they help conjure time and place and mood and tempo. Words can be alliterative or rhyming. They can create the tintinnabulation of the bells. Or enhance the character of Severus Snape with use of a sibilant name. Unfortunate word choices can make a reader laugh as well. A malapropism when words are confused – the character joke embodied in Richard Sheridan’s Mrs. Malaprop. Mistaken word choices can appall an editor. Unnecessary verbosity when a single brilliant word will do can turn off both editor and reader. Hackneyed choices, uninspired choices - when there are so many words to choose among, why ever settle for second best?

Ah, but when the words are chosen with love and care? They are like the mixing of the perfect love potion – one that intoxicates your reader.