6 Steps To Write A Book
Let me know where to send it...
Let me know where to send it...
Today, I’m reviewing a story by Lauren and Devon Royal. In fact, I’m analyzing two stories. The first is Lily.
The second is The Baron’s Inconvenient Bride.
And believe it or not, they’re the same story.
The exact same story.
When a romance writer first starts writing, they have a decision to make. Do they want to write a sweet and clean book with no actual sex or swearing, or do they want to write a more risqué book that has both those things?
It’s also important to note than a genuine regency romance is always sweet and clean while a historical romance novel set in the regency era, isn’t.
They rewrote their books one for steamy readers and one for sweet. Now they have two books with far less effort than a full book.
Still, just because it took rewriting time doesn’t just mean the author threw in some sex scenes and called it a day.
In The Baron’s Inconvenient Bride, the sweet and clean version, Rand (the male hero) was in mid-twenties and Lily had just turned 17 by the start of the book. He’d known her since she was fourteen because her sister was married to his best friend.
In Lilly, the steamy version, the timeline was a little different. Rand first met Lilly when she was sixteen. By the time the book started, Rand was in his mid-late twenties and Lily was 20.
In the Baron’s bride, Rand liked Lily when he’d met her before but didn’t harbor romantic feelings because he was already an adult and professor and she was way too young. It wasn’t until she reached her 17th birthday that he started to look at her differently.
In Lily, he’d been infatuated with her since she was sixteen, but being an honorable man, made no moves on her. When she was turned 20, and he re-met her at his friend’s child’s baptism, he realized she was old enough to marry.
The second way the books differed was in the descriptions themselves. Both Lilly and Rand were described in much more sensual details in Lilly than they were in the sweet book.
Also, the environment around was more sensual too. Tickling breezes in the sweet book became caressing breezes in the steamy. A journal became a diary. Gestures and movements that seemed cute and innocent in the sweet book became calculated flirting and seduction on both sides in the steamy version.
Another difference was the inclusion of secrets. For example, in the steamy, it was mentioned that the eldest sister Violet was born after only 7 months after the marriage, and she was in no way small.
This explained the rather unorthodox behavior of the parents in the story. This little secret wasn’t’ even hinted at in the sweet and clean version.
Then there was a matter of a chaperone. A regency romance always needs one, and this was an extra source of scenes and conflict in the sweet version. However, a steamy novel did always with the chaperone, hence cutting all those scenes.
Yes, a few of them were replaced with sex, but most were replaced with Rand and Lilly truly getting a deeper understanding of each other and building an emotional connection.
And if you’re a writer, this is a great way to get two books in half the time it takes to write two books. Plus, it has the added bonus of delighting both readers who want sweet and clean and the writers who want it hotter. Now, you don’t’ have to choose.
Would this work with a thriller? A gory version and I non-gory version?
I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ll keep reading and let you know if I find one.
In the meantime, read both books and see how they differ.
