Michele Jaffe

Visit Michele Jaffe's website at www.michelejaffe.com Most people's response upon hearing that I write romance novels is to glance furtively at my husband, lean close to me and whisper, "Where do you get your ideas?" The answer to that question is, of course, a professional secret, but the answer to the question that inevitably follows - "How do you do it?" - is not. For me, writing romance is enormously delightful and, at times, enormously difficult. In an effort to illustrate some of the...See more

Visit Michele Jaffe's website at www.michelejaffe.com Most people's response upon hearing that I write romance novels is to glance furtively at my husband, lean close to me and whisper, "Where do you get your ideas?" The answer to that question is, of course, a professional secret, but the answer to the question that inevitably follows - "How do you do it?" - is not. For me, writing romance is enormously delightful and, at times, enormously difficult. In an effort to illustrate some of the gnarly dilemmas I encounter, I thought I would share some of the scenes that I wrote that did not make it in to my new book, "The Water Nymph." One of my constant struggles is to keep dialogue compelling, as this scene illustrates: Crispin looked impatiently at the woman sprawled on the bed. "Come on, Sophie. we have work to do." "Can't move," Sophie whispered, barely moving her lips. "Faint from hunger." "You are not in a faint." Sophie's eyelids fluttered and she gave a pitiful sigh. "Life...seeping...away..." Crispin leaner over her, struggling to suppress a smile. "Sophie, you are not starving to death. you ate my entire breakfast." "I did not!" Sophie's eyes snapped open, and color returned to her face. "You did too." Sophie sat up. "I did not!" "Yes, you did." "No I didn't. I barely got the crumbs." Sophie sucked in her cheeks and tried to look wan. "Only the crumbs. Is that so?" "That is so. You ate everything and left me only scraps." "I did not." "Did too." "Did not." "Did too." "Did not." "Did too." "Did not." "Did too..." I have set my books during the Renaissance because it is the period about which I know the most - I have studied it for over a dozen years - and because it is peopled with fascinating characters, like Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare. But as with writing a book set in any historical period, there are difficulties with the language. In order to make my books interesting to modern readers, I do not restrict myself to Elizabethan English, but I do try as much as possible to use words that would have been current during the 1580's, especially in my dialogue. This has, on occasion, proven to be more difficult that I imagined: Sophie smiled at Crispin with her mouth full of her third biscuit, then frowned as she looked down at the object in her hand. "What are you going to do about this?" "First, I am going to wipe the crumbs from your chin. Then I am going to eat my breakfas -- " Crispin reached for the platter formerly containing a steaming pile of biscuits, and found it barren. "My God, Sophie, when you said you were hungry, you were not kidding (not introduced into English until 1811) fooling (not in use in this sense until 1609) joshing (1891) prevaricating (1631) pleasanting (1655) razzing (1921) overstating (1803) jollying (1370, but sounds strange) obfuscating (1650, plus it's a bit pedantic for the morning) fantasticating (not a word) masticating (not the right word) jesting (1526! Hurrah! -- oops, not in use in English until 1798) My years in the library were good training for poring over historic word lists, but nothing about my academic training prepared me for the stylistic freedom of being a romance novelist, a freedom which can still make me giddy. Sometimes, caught up in a scene, my metaphors will creep away from me, assuming a life of their own, generally reflecting whatever is in my mind at the time. He swung round to face her, and when he spoke, his voice was sharp like a freezing wind sharp like an Arctic (1391) wind sharp like the wind off the Pyrenees (1555) sharp like the knives wielded by the peasants of the Pyrenees sharp like the whetstone used by peasants... See less