On writing cliche stories

Many people are allergic to cliche stories; however, most of the time all we get are cliche stories. This is especially true with romance—a good girl falling hopelessly in love with a bad boy, a rich man falling for a poor woman,  a billionaire and his secretary, a gangster—don’t make me start with a gangster! After “She’s dating the gangster!” hit Philippine cinemas in July 2014, Wattpad, a community of writers and readers, has been flooded by a million other titles involving a gangster.  Talking about cliche stories!

I wish I could say I don’t write cliche stories, but I do.  Cliche stories are not outright bad. In fact, one cannot avoid writing a story with an overused plot because in real life the same thing happens again and again. The only problem with cliche stories is if the writer does not add anything new to the story line.

When I started writing my most popular Wattpad novel, Perfect Stranger, I kind of cringed at the thought that I was just repeating a cliche plot – a girl got pregnant out of wedlock and the only thing she remembers about her babies’ father is the unsual tattoo on his arm.  I knew, as soon as I started the story that it was no different from the other novels written before it of the same theme, but I went on with it because as cliche as it sounded, many readers were instantly hooked on it as soon as they read the story’s description. Because I knew I used a cliche plot, I tried to introduce the couple’s naughty twins to give the story some flavor. I think, modesty aside, the inclusion of the twins and how they relate to the characters in the story gave the plot a little twist.

To sum up, cliche stories in romance are not at all bad for as long as writers give them a new flavor.

 

 

Be Aware of Titles!

Whether you’re writing a fiction or non-fiction novel, titles are very important. It could make readers check your book or plainly ignore it. I’ve seen some books with long titles that fit almost the whole front cover and give out the whole story. There are also those with just a single word in it. Though there is no exact rule on the number of words a title should have common sense would tell you that it’s not good to have a title as long as the length of the book cover. A single-word title is also not good if it is not accompanied by a cover that reflects the story or genre of the novel.

By now, you might have been told to create a catchy title in order to get reads or views. The “How To…” titles often make me flip through the book. They’re not only instantly appealing, they also answer a specific need of a reader. Someone who’s looking for tips on how to make book covers would instantly click the “read” button for titles that goes something like: “How to Make Awesome Book Covers” and might ignore those that merely say, “Book Covers”. Remember the “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” movie starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey? It earned around 180 million USD in box office worldwide, more than three times it’s production budget of 50 million USD. Although some movie critics put a thumbs down to this movie, it didn’t stop viewers to watch it because it has an interesting title. But this doesn’t mean that you’ll start all your book titles with the “how to”.  There are a number of ways to make your titles interesting without the “how to”. So instead of saying How to Seduce a Billionaire, you could simply say Seducing a Billionaire.  You could even use your character name like Harry Potter, if it sounds unique.

Aside from the catchy title, you also need to bear in mind that credibility is everything in writing. DO NOT write a book that says, “How to Make Your Book Popular on Wattpad” when your profile says you’ve been a member since 2012, you’ve uploaded a few works but none of them made it past the 2K reads. No matter how good and sensible your tips are, readers will doubt its credibility because if indeed you knew how, then you could have already applied it in your own stories. Also, do not give tips on how to earn followers on whatever site you are promoting, if your own number of followers does not exceed a hundred. However, if you’re an established writer like J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown or Paulo Coelho and you want to give tips to newbies on how to make a bestselling novel, your number of reads or followers on social media does not matter that much because you’ve made a name for yourself  in the real world. That alone gives you credibility.

Next time, you think about the title for your book consider this:  Will I check this out myself based on the title?

Why I don’t use the rape theme in my stories

When I first came to Wattpad, I was shocked to discover a lot of love stories that revolve around a rapist and his victim.  I thought, since when did rape become an exciting theme for a love story?  For those who are not familiar with Wattpad, this is an online community of writers and readers where those who love to write upload their novels for the whole community to read for free. Anyways, the thing that shocked me the most was that these stories were written not by men but by young girls!  Yes, you’ve read it right! Young girls!  Though I do believe it happens, just like there is Stockholm Syndrome for kidnap victims, do you really need to romanticize rape?

To satisfy my curiosity, I skimmed through the pages of the rape-victim love stories and these were what I found out:  (1) the rapist is extraordinarily good-looking with a body to die for;  (2) the rapist is filthy rich and a member of a dangerous gang who can have any woman he fancies; (3) the victim is oftentimes depicted as a nerdy-looking woman who’s either stupid or weak or both, and; (4) the girl-victim is dirt poor or indebted to somebody dangerous – thus she needs protection from the rapist-lover. Sigh. What message does these kind of stories tell very young readers, especially girls in their pre-teens? That it’s okay to be raped if the rapist looks like a Hollywood star who just stepped out of a fashion magazine?

You might be shocked to know that many of these rapist-victim love stories made it to Wattpad’s hot list, regardless of genre. This simply shows that a lot of readers are ticked by it. And what’s even depressing is the fact that most of these readers are women themselves. But why do I don’t jump on the bandwagon? Simple. Rape is rape. No matter what angle you’re looking at, it doesn’t change the fact that it is a heinous crime.

 

Can I use a song title or lyrics for my story title?

You may have heard a song which touches your heart and you feel like the title summarizes all that you want to say in your novel, thus you decided to use it for your story title. Are you allowed to do that?

If you have noticed, song titles are sometimes identical. For example, there’s one called Always by Bon Jovi and another with the same title from a Korean singer Yoon Mi Rae which was used as part of the soundtrack for the mega-hit K-drama Descendants of the Sun. There’s I Can Wait Forever popularized by Air Supply in the 1980s and another song with exactly the same title released by Simple Plan. What does this tell you? It’s legally acceptable! In fact, according to Fowler (2011), “titles are not copyrightable” (par. 3); therefore, you are not violating any copyright law for using a song title for your story.

But there was a point in time when you do not want the song title but a portion of the lyrics. This one is a little bit tricky. You need to make sure that the part of the lyrics you want to use is not specific. I think it’s safe for you to borrow I Can Wait Forever If You Will From Air Supply’s I Can Wait Forever because it sounds generic, but if you are planning on using Let’s Marvin Gaye And Have It On by Charlie Puth, the singer who popularized Furious 7 tribute song to Paul Walker See You Again, think again. You might get in trouble. For more information about related issues, checkout this blog by Mark Fowler:  http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2011/02/titles-and-law-can-i-call-my-novel.html

Can I use real place in my story?

You may have asked yourself a number of times:  Can I use real places in my story?  Is it legal? Well, there are a lot of novels out there that use real places and the authors were never sued. Some of them who were bold enough even pictured out those places in a bad light, e.g. Dan Brown’s Inferno where he called Manila as ‘the gates of hell’. Though many Filipinos reacted strongly to it, the book still became a bestseller and Dan Brown got away with it. But I guess that’s because he’s Dan Brown. But to be safe be careful with how you use real places in your story. For starters, you may want to stay away from describing it in a negative way. You may try to be critical if you’ve already created a name for yourself. But for now, be positive!

Some writers, like those who created Descendants of the Sun, a mega-hit TV drama from South Korea, used a fictional name where they set most of the scenes in the drama. It was also effective because the events in the story have similarities to real events. So viewers were able to identify with it.

Whether you use a real or fictional place for your setting is not the biggest issue in writing a story, but how you make everything – from plot to dialogues – authentic.

To be with or not to be…

 

Companion

When I was a lot younger, I was never picky about companions. I adjusted my personality based on who I was with. I was just too eager to please everybody back then. Later, I realized that no matter how much you try to please others, you can’t just make everybody happy. There will always be people who, inspite of what you did for them, would still find fault in you or who would talk behind your back. Now, though I still try to be civil to people I don’t like (the rude ones and of course, the narcissistic), I feel less and less compelled to please anyone just to have companions. Being with others you don’t really like for the sake of having people around you proved to be stressful. I have also discovered that being alone does not always mean being lonely, or that having companions does not always guaranty happiness. So don’t be afraid to be true to yourself, folks!

Why Romance?

If you’re thinking about making a career out of writing, I recommend you write about romance. Why romance?  The reason is simple. There’s money in it. If you’ve noticed, most novels being published talk about romance. There’s a huge number of publishers that concentrate more on romance than any other genre because it sells.

Now, enough of the money stuff. You may ask, what is in store for me in writing romance aside from the fact that it has the most likelihood of being sold? Like most writers, you probably also dream of making it big – of getting to a point when you’ll be a household name. While you can get it in any other genre if you’re good and luck is on your side, it’s easier to achieve it in writing romantic novels. Now, before you react, allow me to explain my reasons. Many readers out there are women. Though men also read, given that most societies still expect them to be  the sole provider of the family, many of them don’t have the time to read long novels anymore. However, with women it’s a different story. We have a lot of full-time housewives who have the time in the world to read. And what do they usually pick up at book stores? Yes, romantic novels. I’m not saying that the market for romance novels are only housewives because there are also career women out there whose stress reliever is reading romantic novels. What I’m trying to point out here is there’s already a sure market for this kind of reading material. Therefore, you only need to know what ticks women – what kind of love story appeals to them.

You might be saying, I don’t like to write about romance because literary enthusiasts usually scorned it and I don’t want to be known as that writer who writes trash. Yes, you may have a point here – indeed many people think that the romance genre is for people who are shallow and not intelligent. I remember back in college, I had a professor who looked down at people who read romance. Though she recommends reading, she said, if we’re only going to read romantic novels then we better not read at all. But this is also the reason why you need to write about romance – for people who scorned it! The major reason why a lot of the so-called intelligent readers are looking down at romance is because of the unrealistic plot. I can actually identify the common theme in many of these stories. A handsome, rich man meets a poor, simple, and plain woman and they fall in love big time. Or, there’s a bad guy – a gangster who’s also filthy rich and good-looking at the same time who falls in love with a good girl who looks plain and knows nothing about his world. In short, many of the plots tell readers that only a handsome, rich man is worth to be the story’s hero or only bad-boy-good-girl story is worth writing. Here’s what you can do. You can help change this notion. You can focus on the important message you want to impart to your readers, especially the young women. Though I also use this theme (rich boy, poor girl), I make it a point to have a specific message which I want to tell my readers. In my most popular story on Wattpad, Perfect Stranger, I gave it a little twist. I created two characters, the heroine’s twin sons, to provide humor and emotion and at the same time to tell my single-mother readers that there’s hope in life. In addition, the story does not emphasize how rich the guy is, although he is in the story.  In my other novel, The Jilted Bride, which also amassed more than a million reads, my hero and heroine are just ordinary individuals – not rich nor extraordinarily different from your normal person. My main point in this novel is to tell readers that having forgiveness as a main theme is as exciting as vengeance (which is one of the most common themes in novels, not just in romance). Based on readers feedback, I could say that I was able to impart to readers what I want to tell them in these stories.

And lastly, though it’s good listening to others, be more sensitive to what you truly feel. Afterall, it’s what you desire that is most important. Because writing is all about satisfaction.A good writer is a satisfied writer.