I like to think of myself as a pret­ty good per­son. I fol­low most rules. (Except that dumb one about speed­ing.) Maybe this is why I’m strug­gling with my lat­est Work in Progress.  There are some rules, whether writ­ten or just under­stood, about romance nov­els. Must have the rela­tion­ship as the main com­po­nent to the plot (obvi­ous­ly). Must be writ­ten in the hero­ine’s point of view for the most part. (I like a 60% 40% rela­tion­ship myself.) Must have a hap­pi­ly ever after(HEA). (Some pub­lish­ers are hap­py with a HFN-Hap­py for now though) Main char­ac­ters must be intro­duced with­in the first two chapters.

This is where I’m strug­gling with my work in progress. I just start­ed chap­ter three, and am only now intro­duc­ing my hero. Will read­ers put my book down at the end of chap­ter two, dis­gust­ed because they haven’t met Fabio? Should I care about the rules? Aren’t they tried and true, test­ed on mil­lions of read­ers? Should one romance author from Lit­tle Town Wyoming real­ly be the one to buck the sys­tem? What if I just go all out and make my hero into a pot-bel­lied home­less man who is ugly as sin?

I’ll just keep writ­ing. If it gets reject­ed for pub­lish­ing, then I guess we’ll know for sure. I’ll keep you updated.