For the past several months I’ve been up to my eyes in research—okay, maybe only up to my neck. The point is that I’ve been doing a lot of research. And I love it.
One of the most fun things about writing fiction is that you get to make things happen any way you want. But sometimes it’s overwhelming to have the sky as the limit, which is why I enjoy writing historical romance.
With historicals, I’m still in control (as much as any writer ever is) of the characters and the plot, but the setting and the world my characters inhabit are constrained by history. So, for example, while my regency romance can have a heroine who talks back to a duke, she won’t be texting her comments to her adversary and she won’t be meeting him at Starbucks wearing a vinyl mini-skirt. The historical aspects of the setting provide the boundaries and guidelines that—at least for me—make the writing easier. Continue reading “#2: Puzzling”