ICE CRYSTALS

"JANE TOOMBS’ NOVEL IDEAS"

"Plots stack up in my mind like planes over Newark," says Jane Toombs, romance novelist, whose twenty-sixth book, Midnight Whispers will be published in December [1989], and whose recently completed Riverboat Rogue is due out in March [1990]. She has written under her own name and various pseudonyms, but she recommends "against using a variety of pseudonyms, because if readers like one of your books, they won’t be able to find your other books in a bookstore."

Jane writes romance because she believes that the relationship between a man and woman is the most important thing in the world--the foundation of family and civilization. Romances provide an escape into a world where women of mythic proportions find strong, nurturing men who care for them as if they were the most wonderful people in the world. In romance, the relationship is the most important part of the plot. Other elements may be present but only in limited doses. Romance readers prefer romance unmixed. Love must triumph in the end but readers want pitfalls, excitement, and conflict. Jane warns that readers don’t want any loose ends.

Intrigued by mystery, suspense, and the paranormal, Jane tries to make her romance stories different but says you must not let outside action overshadow the romance. Jane started with Gothics and when she switched to historical romances, she found them more difficult to write because they’re longer and also because sexy scenes are easier to read than to write.

To unify your story, Jane says you should be able to express your theme in one or two sentences. "Love conquers all" is the theme of all romance; each romance needs something more. Never preach at readers but subtly weave personal opinions into the story.

It takes her four to five months to complete a book. She has no set schedule but writes 7 to 9 pages a day on a word processor with the simplest program she could find. She begins with an idea, then fleshes out the plot, looking through her notebooks of ideas if she gets stuck. She says the middle is always the hardest and that the incidents she thinks of first are usually too trite. Jane recommends Dean Koontz’s How To Write Best Selling Fiction as practical and readable but warns against trying to deal with a publisher’s contract yourself. It is easy to get an agent once you have an editor interested in your work.

Jane said that her first book was written while she was in the middle of a divorce, had a job, and five children. If she could find the time to write, so can we.

{Article published in Word (W)rap : Newsletter of the Hudson Valley Chapter, National Writers Club, Sept.-Oct. 1989, based on a talk given by Jane Toombs at the August chapter meeting.}