Manic Scribbler's A-Z Challenge - B is for Bard

B is for Bard

As in the bard.  

Now old William Shakespeare knew a thing or two about love, and all other aspects of the human condition, didn't he?  As a teacher, I was frequently asked by complaining students how the plays and poems of someone writing nearly 400 years ago could possibly be relevant today.  Here's (more or less) what I would tell them.  The themes of Shakespeare's plays have made them endure throughout the centuries. His tragedies deal with issues vitally relevant to us today; for example: the complexities of love and friendship in every form, whether between men and women, parents and children, siblings, colleagues or friends. He delved deeply into human emotions and how these manifested in a multitude of profound and complex ways, such as jealousy and deception, possessiveness, pride, anger, foolishness and many, many more. In all his plays he explored important issues such as loyalty, duty, honour, marriage, trust, honesty and societal expectations as well as what happens to

the human psyche when these are threatened or undermined.  Nuff said?

The title of my first romantic suspense was stolen from Shakespeare - I hope he wouldn't mind.  In Loving Hate is about just that, love and hatred and the fine line separating both.  The phrase (an oxymoron) came from Romeo and Juliet who, despite their youth, experienced profound and very real love. 

Capturing the intense pleasure and pain of love and portraying it to the reader differently each time is no easy feat when you are not Shakespeare but we can only keep on trying in the hope that practice will make us better, if not perfect.  Here is the moment when Lyssa and Alex from In Loving Hate stop fighting their desires and follow their hearts:

He reached beyond her to tug at the stiff, old sash and, as it yielded, his face brushed against her hair and she felt the warmth of his breath on her ear.  She turned, as if hypnotised, feeling the heat of his body through the thin, silk robe he now wore.  She looked into his eyes and felt herself drowning in them.  Their lips met but barely made contact, lingering for a moment on that tantalising brink of uncertainty, until a little gasp of exquisite pain escaped from hers, to be captured by his, and the union completed.  She wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her.

As his warmth enveloped her, the passion so long quiescent within her rose and engulfed her until she began to tremble with the bewildering mixture of quivering fear and intense desire.  Her heart quickened and throbbed as powerful emotions pulsated throughout her body, swamping and crushing her like savage winter waves, bruising and wounding her with their intensity.

He held her closely, but with such sweet tenderness that her heart cried out in agony and anguish until it seemed to burst from its tortured confinement, erupting with a volcanic intensity that made her sob with longing.  She clung to him tightly with a powerful sense of belonging—no longer as a separate entity, but as a part of that vital essence within him which needed her as much as she needed him.

His response so matched and harmonised with her emotions that they seemed to drift together onto a completely separate plane, where words were redundant and all that mattered was that sense of perfect unity, that sense that only one force stood there, consoling itself in its own sweet embrace.

What's In a Name?

You would think that a writer would have a good enough imagination not to be phased when it comes to finding a title for her magnum opus. Sadly, not in my case.  When it comes to ideas for stories, it’s standing room only inside my brain, but finding titles for those stories is an entirely different…well, story.

A title needs to stand out, to grab the attention of potential agents, publishers and readers.  It needs to inform, intrigue and entice and most of all, it needs to be relevant.  It shouldn’t be boring, mustn’t sound pretentious and can't afford to be instantly forgettable. So, we’re not asking much of it, are we?  

And is it any wonder that I develop something akin to stage fright when I have to come with a title?

I indulged in a little moan about this recently on Twitter.  No one seemed to be able to offer me the magic solution, sadly.  One Twit (sorry, Tweep) said he had the reverse problem, plenty of titles, no story ideas.  After reflection that did make me feel slightly better, though it didn’t solve my problem.

I mean, take my first novel: ‘The Apple Tree’.   I still cringe at just how unimaginative that sounds.  One sensitive soul asked me what the relevance of the title was and was clearly unimpressed to hear that the heroine had an old apple tree in her garden which seemed to represent her childhood triumphs and achievements.  It’s a minor character in the story, however, and tells nothing of the dramatic traumas the heroine undergoes as an adult.

My most significant novel (the one of which I’m still so possessive that I can’t yet send it out into the big wide world to try its fortune) still has its working title “Unworkers”.  In fact it’s lived with that for so long that I doubt I could bear to change it now.  A good friend kindly pointed out to me that I'd invented the word, which was meaningless.  Not to me, it’s not!  The work is women’s fiction (with a supernatural twist) and one of the characters explains its meaning in Chapter Two.  “Unworkers”, she claims are those “Unpaid, unvalued, unnoticed [women] ... we’re like those little elfin tailors, beavering away invisibly, putting the world to rights with our neat little patches while we put our own lives on hold for everyone else.”  Speaking as one of them, I think I invented a pretty good word…it remains to be seen whether it will work as a title, however.

And now my latest dilemma is to find a title for my current work – a romantic suspense.  This has lived – untitled – in my mind for so long that naming it now seems almost wrong!  But name it I must.  So I put on my oversized thinking cap and went to work.  The moment I stopped toying with ideas, one popped into my head.  ‘In Loving Hate’.  Now, why I had been thinking of Romeo and Juliet at that moment, I have no idea.  So I asked my chief critic and mentor (my son) what he thought of it – and he told me in his delightfully honest way.  ‘Don’t like it.  Too commercial and common.  It lacks sophistication.’  Well, I wonder how William would feel about that?  I asked my good friend and fellow writer, Deb what she thought and this was her response: 'I LOVE the title!!! It's short and powerful, intriguing, and catches the reader's attention.  And it has a Shakespeare connection'. Hmm...

So here is my question to any readers kind enough to respond.  To be or not to be: ‘In Loving Hate’?  

Oh, and if you have a secret for coming up with great titles, please share it!