Reading for Writers: Jude Deveraux’s For All Time

I started to read Jude Deveraux’s A Knight in Shining Armour after watching an inspiring (and funny) interview where she talked about how she found her inspiration for this book. But then my husband kidnapped my Kindle, so instead, I settled for another of her books which I found at the library – For All Time.

For All Time is the second of Jude’s three-book Nantucket Brides’ series, and though I hadn’t read the first, I didn’t find myself too lost while reading this book.

This story is about Graydon Montgomery and Toby Wyndam and takes place on the island of Nantucket.  Graydon is the heir to the Lanconian throne and is betrothed to a noble woman in his country as part of an arranged marriage. Toby is an ordinary woman from Nantucket who can distinguish Graydon from his identical twin brother, which marks her as his true love according to the Montgomery family legend. But despite this – and the attraction they feel for one another – they decide just to be friends. However, the forces of fate and time challenge this resolve, and Graydon and Toby must change the past, which might just help them be together in the future…

I learnt two important things from this book:

1. Falling in love should be the focus of a romance novel.

For most of this book, Graydon and Toby spend their time planning a wedding together and getting to know one another. They have dinner, talk, and spend time with their friends. Simply put, they spend time falling in love.

This taught me the value of writing emotion.

While the popularity of erotica cannot be denied, it does not mean that romances have to have sex as a focus to make the reader like it. In fact, I think it might be harder (no pun intended) to write the emotional than the physical because you have to ensure that you have layered the relationship so well that when it crashes at that inevitable crisis point, the reader is devastated while you still have a foundation to build the reconciliation on.

Focusing on the simplicity of falling in love – the journey of it – is a good exercise for a writer. You have to learn to use the emotional and sensual tension that naturally occurs during the dating process to create a believable relationship. And if you do this right, your reader will experience that feel-good feeling falling in love evokes while reading a romance novel.

2. Tropes are your friend.

Our hero in For All Time is a prince who will ultimately become a king – a great example of the royalty trope. Jude Deveraux used it so well when she created an authentic royal character in Graydon. He takes his responsibility to the throne seriously (to the point where he is willing to sacrifice his happiness by going through with an arranged marriage), is loyal to his country and actually wants to be king.

This taught me the value of a good trope.

Sometimes trying to think of new plotlines can exhaust your creativity – you have to worry about creating a new theme and figuring out how your characters will fit into it, all the while thinking about whether or not readers will like it. With tropes, you are able to put a new spin on a theme that’s already been proved successful. Royalty, for example, is a theme that has happily-ever-after ingrained into it so you know your reader will be happy.

What do you think?

I’ve already begun to use these two lessons in my own writing, and I hope you find them useful, too. Let me know if you have anything to add – about these lessons, or my first Reading for Writers review!