Thursday, October 04, 2007

Unintentional Amnesia

Amnesia is a plot device that's been used many times in romance novels. I understand the appeal. It provides instant dramatic tension: Will the amnesiac remember his or her past? What will happen when s/he does? And in romance, will s/he return to his or her "old" life, or begin a new one with the hero or heroine?

However, I have once again discovered an unintentional amnesia element in my current work-in-progress -- a character apparently has no memory of a key event from a few scenes before. It's as if it never happened, because he or she never thinks about it afterward.

In the case of the current wip, it's a kiss. The first passionate kiss between the hero and heroine. This is -- or should be -- an important development in the romance, right? But for the next few scenes, neither character thinks about it.

Ay yi yi. Bad author, bad!

Just goes to show that no matter how many romances I write, I still make some major blunders when I'm writing the first draft.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My first drafts are garbledy-gook and need a strong edit and stronger rewrite phase. The last story I turned in had my principles having relations for the first time twice, four chapters apart.

Aww, well.