Comments on: Suspense and POV

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:25:35 +0000

You hit my blog today, I hit yours, Marissa! Interesting discussion and the kerfluffle was fascinating and sad at the same time. Huge no, no. It’s too bad because if she does succeed in attracting a publisher, you can bet they will Google her to see what she’s been up to and that rant could kill the deal.

I’ve written one suspense and used the villian’s POV in three short scenes that all my readers say helped to ramp up the anxiety and the stakes for my H&H. Few have guessed who he is until he reveals himself. Worked well for me in this case, but I can see how it would detract in others.

By: Megan Hart

Megan Hart — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:31:42 +0000

I guess I should add to that…romance is different than, say, horror or mystery or suspense where the villain’s POV is often used and can add a lot to the story. I’m not convinced you should never never use it in a romance, but it would have to be done right…question is, what is right?

It all comes down to: is it done so fabulously nobody cares if it’s different? Or is it working against the story? And sometimes that’s a matter of such individual opinion you can’t really say!

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:55:25 +0000

A MINOR kerfluffle? Um, this has been picked up by Karen Scott. It isn’t so minor now.

And Megan, I love your paparazzi example.

It’s been an interesting discussion. And one that’s always good to cover in romance writing.

By: Megan Hart

Megan Hart — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:09:01 +0000

I don’t think there are any hard and fast DONOTDOOOOOIT rules in any writing, romance or other genre because as it’s been pointed out, if you do it WELL, it’s going to fly. Problem is, how do you know if you’re doing it well? I agree that in a romance the h/h should end up together (else it’s not a romance) but POV is a less cut and dried thing for me.

I think the main thing to remember is that you’ll always be remembered for breaking the “rules” if you can pull it off and make someone love it. You’ll always be chastised for breaking the same “rules” if you screw it up. So the question is…do you feel lucky, punk? Do ya?

I also don’t believe in any ONETWUWAY because we all do it so differently, so rules…well, they just don’t work in every instance. Every genre has it’s conventions, I’ll agree to that, though. Things that have been proven to work well. I think the villain’s POV in romance perhaps hasn’t been done well, so it’s not something a lot of people like, but I wouldn’t toss a book for using it.

Oh…and just because a lot of famous starlets have flashed their nethers at the paparazzi doesn’t mean it’s cool to show off your private bits in public…authors should remember that, too. We all get rejected. All of us. Sometimes we even deserve it, as much as we’d like to think we don’t.

By: Marianne LaCroix

Marianne LaCroix — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:53:14 +0000

Hmmm…I think it is okay to have a scene or two in the villain POV. It depends where it is in the book and how it is used.

I’ve read Lisa Jackson and she does it in her suspense thrillers to add to the fear. But you don’t know WHO the killer is…not until the very end.

Yeah, it depends on how it is used.

Although for the record, I probably wouldn’t have gone public with a complaint about a rejection reasoning. What one pub doesn’t like will be another’s joy.

By: Sarah McCarty

Sarah McCarty — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:55:17 +0000

Villain’s POV- In Romantic suspense as opposed to suspense where you don’t know whose coming out alive in the end and therefore have more angles on which to build the suspense, I don’t like the villain’s POV beyond fragments of thought to increase tension. The reason for this is in Romantic suspense, I know the hero and heroine are going to be alive and together at the end of the book, therefore, the suspense lies in the mystery of who is doing it and why. That mystery is completely ruined if the author tells me through his POV who the villain is and why he is doing it and renders the suspense aspect of the book null and void, and for me as a reader, pointless.

By: Marissa

Marissa — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:22:14 +0000

Shiloh– Not so much a hard and fast rule, just the way that I have found most effective thus far.

And, yes, Jen, said author needs to keep things like that private. Bitch amongst your friends, in IMs and via email to one another… but only with those who you’d trust with your life… because otherwise? You just look like a twit.

By: shilohwalker

shilohwalker — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:26:18 +0000

Eh, I’d have to disagree.

You’re making it sound like a hard and fast rule and there are very few hard and fast rules in romance.

The only unbreakable rule, for me, is that the hero and heroine end up together. Doesn’t have to be white picket fences and orange blossoms, but I want to know they are together.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:00:21 +0000

Well, I personally hated “Blue Smoke” but I don’t think Nora pulled of the villian’s POV well at all.
It’s a rule of thumb to only have H/h POV (which I didn’t follow, btw, in “Heart Of The Storm” but I love Pogie.) but it CAN be broken if done well.
What I have a problem with is being specific and negative about a rejection. Sure, maybe that editor is on crack, but I would NOT say it in public. Just my opinion.
I think anything can be done in a novel, provided it’s done well. And if it doesn’t work for that editor, sub it somewhere else and be done with it.

By: Kate Scott

Kate Scott — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:52:01 +0000

I agree with this somewhat. I personally have only found a couple books where this has been pulled off, and those were Julie Garwood historicals. She wasn’t giving us everything, who it was, but gave clues directly from the villain’s thoughts.

It worked for me, but hasn’t in other books.