You know how it is when friends and fellow professionals get together over a few glasses of wine and start discussing our work. Not the everyday toil of keeping patrons happy and ensuring that you’ve always got some casually extemporised verse ready prepared; but the deeper matters of what is written and how genres merge together and drift apart again.
One area that provoked discussion is the way that it’s now considered progressive, dynamic or even modernistic to subvert a genre by darkening the story. So should you be writing a tale of adventure, rather than having the heroes survive terrible trials through heroism and blind chance, the writer will casually kill them all off and start again with a new cast.
The same can happen with romance. Your classic romance has the young lovers separated by fate and they have to battle pirates, storms, invading armies, and other miscellaneous misfortunes, until at the end of the tale the author can triumphantly reunite them to live happily ever after.
There are other rules for the genre. The hero can be repeatedly battered by fate, but the heroine must emerge at the end of the story as chaste as she started it, having been repeatedly rescued from ‘a fate worse than death’ by the unlikely chivalry of passing bandit chieftains, or the personal intervention of minor deities.
The final rule for the romance is that the happy couple must live ‘happily ever after.’ This is the one rule that the writer doesn’t break. You can hint at impropriety elsewhere, or can suggest that the hero’s enthusiasm has flagged, albeit temporarily, but once you come to the final scene, then the reader can put down the book happy that the couple will now live happily and the reader no longer needs to worry about them.
When I say this rule should not be broken I merely have to point to the sad fate of Blart Volingdale. In his prime, Blart was perhaps one of the most successful writers in Port Naain. Whilst he wrote romance and made considerable amounts of money, none of us felt able to sneer because he was a truly excellent wordsmith. Not only that but however much we might want to sneer; we all devoured his stories with guilty enthusiasm.
Blart’s stories were not merely popular with the reading public. He had a strong following amongst the totally illiterate as well. This latter wasn’t really his doing, it was more a case of others spotting the opportunity and seizing it. Thus a young maiden called Jillet took to reading his stories in the Sattir’s Drop. Because the stories were long and involved, Blart often released them one chapter at a time. Jillet would make her way to the Sattir’s Drop on the day after the chapter had been released and at the appointed hour she would read it aloud.
Now it wasn’t the sort of place a decent young woman would enter unaccompanied. Indeed I’d venture to suggest that ideally it wasn’t the sort of place a respectable poet would enter without an armed escort either. But still, with Frina, the barmaid, to keep order, Jillet was well looked after. She would walk in and one of the regulars would fetch her a chair. She would sit down, lean her crutches against the bar, and Frina would bring her a glass of fruit juice to sip as she read.
Now it has always struck me that as well as being vicious, brutal and greedy, the regulars at the Sattir’s Drop could also be maudlin and sentimental. For them to have a lame young woman sitting amongst them totally unprotected seemed to provoke them to good behaviour. As she read they would listen in rapt silence and when Frina passed a mug round for donations they all gave generously.
Don’t think this was some brief flirtation with good behaviour. This happy scene had been repeated every week for over a year. Jillet had read to them ‘The Monster’s revenge,’ ‘The girl I worshipped from afar,’ and ‘Broken hearts and diadems,’ all of which had been lapped up enthusiastically by her audience. She then started them on ‘Dangerous Journeys’. Personally I feel that this was perhaps Blart’s strongest story yet. The hero was human enough to lift him above caricature, the twists and turns of the story were well plotted. But in his heroine, Blart had created a masterpiece. She was not merely beautiful, she was competent. In the course of her desperate journey to try and find the hero, (who was of course on his own desperate journey to find her and failing utterly) she slew, unaided, a feroce, two bandits and a dastardly tax assessor. All this whilst remaining modest, unassuming, and charmingly witty. Had this paragon of womanhood ever ventured into the Sattir’s Drop, she would have been overwhelmed with respectful, if somewhat incoherent, protestations of undying devotion.
Now Jillet was not the only person reading Blart’s stories to an audience. At the Port Naain Ladies’ sewing circle it was traditional to have somebody read whilst the ladies sewed. Blart himself would regularly read his works there. His excuse was that he needed to keep in touch with those who loved his work, but personally I suspect he liked a little female admiration as much as the next man.
It so happened that for the final episode of ‘Dangerous Journeys’ Blart, and Wain Drobbet his publisher, had timed the printing of the story carefully so that nobody could hear the end of the tale before he read the final chapter to the Ladies’ sewing circle. Jillet managed to grab a copy on her way to the Sattir’s Drop so had the disadvantage of reading to her audience something she’d not had chance to read herself. So in two separate venues perhaps five minutes walk apart, Blart and Frina started their readings almost simultaneously.
There’s no need for me to describe the way the story ends. Blart excelled himself. In the sewing circle, nobody sewed. In the Sattir’s Drop, the glasses remained forgotten on the tables as the entire bar sat in total silence listening to Jillet’s sweet voice.
Remember that Jillet had never read the story. She was as gripped as everybody else, and when she came to the final page, where the hero finally meets up with the heroine, only to have her die in his arms as she takes an arrow meant for him, Jillet was sobbing. The bar sat in utter silence before suddenly it exploded.
Across at the sewing circle, Blart fled, pursued by three or four score of angry ladies. He might have outrun them had he not met the grief stricken regulars of the Sattir’s Drop coming the other way. He fled down a side street heading for the river with both parties in hot pursuit. Cornered on a wharf he was never seen again, and the battered corpse washed up two days later was always assumed to be his.
Jillet gave the matter some thought, and the following week, at the appointed time she entered carrying a manuscript. The bar was absolutely silent as she started to read. Now you don’t need me to tell you the rest of the tale. How a passing sage managed to suspend the heroine in time and space whilst the hero spends ten more chapters gathering obscure and mystic ingredients and eventually saves the heroine’s life. They then live happily ever after.
Word of Jillet’s additions circulated through literary circles. Wain Drobbet called to see her in the Sattir’s Drop, read her manuscripts and made an offer. Nowadays all editions of ‘Dangerous Journeys’ are in Jillet’s name, and all but the rare and little sought-after first edition contain her additions.
Whilst everybody assumes that Blart Volingdale died, between ourselves I have to confess that I suspect he got away. Somebody mentioned to me that they’d seen a somewhat seedy character matching Blart’s description lurking outside an Avitas junkshop, pimping books for immoral purposes.
♥♥♥♥
Should you be sitting quietly in a bar somewhere in need of a story and the management haven’t seen fit to provide you with a story teller, then hasten and purchase this
One reviewer stated, “An assortment of Tallis Steelyard tales to make the reader chuckle, laugh, wipe away a sad tear, and all emotions in between.
Every story is a stand-alone gem.”
A great tale. I really enjoyed it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
glad you liked it, inspired by a comment made by somebody that they were less than happy when the romance they were reading ended in a death!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I can believe that. Romances are meant to be feel good and happy at the end.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You and Tallis march in lockstep 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Beware Reader – Here be fearsome (and crafty) AUTHORS 😄
LikeLiked by 2 people
some of the readers are pretty fearsome and crafty as well 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
This post reminds me why I don’t write romances!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think a good turn of speed is an absolute requisite for a career as a romantic novelist
Probably more important for a balladeer or similar 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Another clever tale from Tallis Steelyard 😃
LikeLiked by 2 people
“mere corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.” 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Who knew that writing fiction could be such a dangerous way to make a living – or that rules were set to help them survive the pursuit? 🙂 There will always be those who dance on the edge, and those who fall over it, I suppose..
Longfellow managed to survive Evangeline, however. Perhaps because the heroine’s lover did the dying-in-arms part – lol.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Whether Longfellow would have survived in Port Naain is another matter, they perhaps take things more seriously there.
Or perhaps the dying-in-arms part is not perhaps so equal opportunities as we might hope?
Still whilst rules are often just guidelines, a writer would be wise to think long and hard before stepping too far outside the boundaries they set 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL – well said, Jim. I wonder how well many well established poets would fare, were they transported to Port Naain. Tallis seems to roam and rove more because he must than out of a true sense of wanderlust. That might be the key to survival: a go bag always at the ready and good running shoes. 🙂
xx,
mgh
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suspect a lot of the problem is that if you kick somebody in polite society in Port Naain, everybody limps. A poet can easily offend somebody and thus, as you say, having a bag packed by the door is wise.
Tallis is on record as recommending ‘sensible shoes’ for poets 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great image – an entire village limping. 🙂
xx,
mgh
LikeLiked by 1 person
it’s an old phrase round here, ‘kick one and they’ll all limp’ 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Again a tale worth chasing after. These are stories one should never be caught without. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes you have to be a little particular about who gets to live happily ever after 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Another of Tallis Steelyard’s interesting tales recorded for history by Jim Webster. From this one, writers can learn a lesson.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked it madam 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
as an after-thought I wonder if some writers only learn lessons when forced to flee ahead of the mob 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
That could be both good and bad. Good because they’ve succeeded in stirring up emotion instead of boring readers. They also haven’t left readers with cliffhangers. Bad as they may not be able to “outrun” the mob and end up hanging from cliffs themselves. —- Suzanne
LikeLiked by 1 person
A wise writer is wary about just which emotions they stir up.
But yes, I’m not in favour of cliffhangers, I like it when readers and writer live happy ever after 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on willmacmillanjones.
LikeLiked by 1 person
a stern lesson for those who play fast and loose with their genres! 🙂
LikeLike
As a bona fide traveller around these shores, I have been known on infrequent occasions to stop at a caravanseria or hospitable inn for refreshments and to listen to the chatter and musings on life and literature.
Such occasions have led me to understand that the Romance Reading Public, or RRP, in these degenerate times only demands Happy For Now as the ending, rather than Happy Ever After. Though it remains a fact that to offend against this principle leads to a severe drop in your RRP and hence your earnings.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The advantage of ‘Happy for Now’ means that you get to write the sequel, which can continue the story and still end up with ‘Happy for now’ or even upgrade to ‘Happy ever after.’ (The latter is probably for when the writer is so sick of the characters by this point that the alternative is the chainsaw massacre approach.)
LikeLike
LOVED this one. Excellent writing, excellent characterization, and just excellent all over.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked it, trust Tallis didn’t play fast and loose with the genre 😉
LikeLike
So many ingredients to enjoy…I just love your names and the subtle suspense of not knowing what’s going to happen next in your tales. The characters too must all be on alert – never quite knowing what you plan next or where they will be?! If in French, the culmination of the stories would, of course, all be tragic with very few happy endings. Continued power to your imagination, sir. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Personally I think that Tallis, perhaps in spite of his long experience, still loves people. He recognises their weaknesses, rejoices in their foibles and sees through their facades to the person behind the mask.
🙂
And anyway, there are plenty of tragic endings out there, somebody has to sit with their thumb on the scales, to ensure the balance swings back in the right direction 😉
I’ve glad you like them
The comments I get back from readers are worth a lot
LikeLike