So…I'm getting ready to go to bed, and I get an email from a reader. Yay, right?
Er, no. This is an irate reader. A reader who read Ecstasy Unveiled and is angry because I "broke my own rules" by creating Sin. She even pointed to this review and comment (which is actually a mostly good review) at Amazon that proves her case. (Oh, it's nice to know how much I suck just before I go to bed. Yay, me!)
Okay, so anyway, this post isn't about an angry reader mail. I actually get stuff like that all the time. I'm broken in.
This is about the rules of your paranormal (or real) universe.
Every fictional world has rules. These are promises an author shares with the reader that go like this: "I, the author, swear to make you feel safe and secure within my world so that you trust me, my writing, and my decisions, and you'll know that I won't pop a blue troll into a world where I've said blue trolls won't exist."
The reader's rules? Well, it would be nice if readers had enough faith to believe that any deviations from the rules will be explained, BUT…that's not required. As a reader, I've been burned before, and it takes a while to trust an author I've never read.
So, yeah…as a reader, IMO, your only rule is to read the book you bought at your convenience. Don't like the book? It happens? Love it? That's awesome.
Authors? We have to make sure we don't break our own rules.
Except…
What if blue trolls DO exist in the world where you've said they don't? First of all, there had better be a damned good reason. If they show up, there NEEDS to be an explanation.
I'm a rule-breaker, but that's because in the real world, there are exceptions to every rule — BUT THERE ARE REASONS FOR THE EXCEPTIONS. 
Let's take Wraith. Wraith is an anomaly. But he doesn't break any RULES. I said there are no female Seminus demons. I never said that vampire Seminus demons can't exist. Just that none ever had. I love anomalies.
But Sin…she's a rule-breaker. Yes, another anomaly. But that doesn't mean that I've run out of ideas — I had her planned from the very beginning…she was an initial idea. I LOVE to break rules. (Have I mentioned that?)
And here's where the reader confidence thing comes in. By this point in the series, I HOPE I've earned enough reader trust that they will know that Sin's existence will be explained. She didn't pop up from nowhere. There IS a reason for her existence. If I didn't achieve that trust…well, that sucks. I clearly didn't do my job for some readers.
World-building can be seriously challenging for authors, especially in the fantasy and paranormal world. But even in the real world, it can be difficult, because people "know" things in real life. (And actually, that's the big challenge for writing contemporary and historical novels — overcoming the things people "know" that aren't true, or things people know without seeing any exceptions.)
In fact, I would say that keeping reader trust in a contemporary novel is actually harder than in a paranormal. In a paranormal, I can create my own rules, and as long as I do it believably and don't break those rules (heh) readers can believe it. But having your character pump his own gas in Oregon? You'll get crucified. (For those who don't know, you can't pump your own gas in Oregon.)
But say you NEED your character to pump his own gas? Here's where the rule-breaking rules come in. There's a way…you just have to make sure it's believable. If you have your hero pull up to a gas pump and start pumping, fine. That happens. My husband did it, not knowing he wasn't supposed to. Got quarter of a tank before the attendant came flying out of the station like he was going to explode. But the attendant DID come out.
So…don't have your hero pump his gas, go in to pay, and the attendant is like, "Oh, sorry, dude. Oops, didn't see you." Even if that happened to you, it's just not believable, and let me repeat, EVEN IF IT HAS HAPPENED. That's how we people are. The fiction world has to be more believable than the real one.
You need a good, solid reason for the attendant to not have noticed that the gas was getting pumped.
So have your hero go inside and find the attendant shot from a robbery. Or tied up in the back. Whatever. You CAN break that rule — but make it believable. You've got to make it obvious that you, the author, KNOW that you're breaking a rule or that you KNOW you're doing something that might not be normal.
Just recently, there was a conversation about pop/soda/Coke on Twitter. It reminded me of a critique I got a long time ago, where I had a character order a pop in Maine. I got nailed to the freaking wall for that. "We say soda in Maine!!!!"
Yes, but my character was from Washington state, where they say "pop."
Didn't matter to the critiquers, because they knew that in Maine, people say soda. Period.
Were the critiquers morons? No. I, as an author, did not do my job. I didn't convey, to the reader, that *I* knew I was doing something out of the ordinary. I made it look like I didn't research, didn't take into consideration reality, whatever.
The fix? So simple. Make it clear that I knew that what I was having my character say was out of the ordinary.
"Can I have a pop?" Tom asked.
The clerk cocked an eyebrow. "You aren't from around here, are you?"
Tom grinned. "Just moved here from Washington."
NOW the reader knows that the author knows that what he said didn't make sense.
Okay, so…rules. I breaks them. I like breaking them. I like it when authors break them. But show me that you know you're breaking them and that there's a reason for it.
I hope I've earned reader trust by now, but no author works for everyone.
Readers, have you been burned before, so that you have a hard time trusting certain authors — or all authors? Authors, what do YOU think is harder to create — a fantasy/paranormal world, or a real one?
I have no problem when authors bend and break rules but there better be a believable explanation for it. If it comes off as simply poor planning by the author, then that weakens the whole world building. I have been turned off by a series because of the contradictions in world building and the feeling the author is just throwing things out there without thinking them through.
Readers are smart and believe me, we notice the details. But I also think that in an established series like yours there does need to be some trust on both the reader’s part and the author. The reader to trust the author to make the world building ring true and the author to deliver on that trust. In the case of Sin, knowing that her book is next, I’m assuming that her existence will be explained there. That makes sense to me.
And no pumping your own gas in Oregon? Didn’t know that. Learn something new everyday.
I didn’t know that about Oregon, but I knew that about New Jersey – I’m now kinda curious as to what other states are full service only…
[Heh. Yes, I'm easily distracted. Oooo shiny!]
It’s pop! I have the map to prove it! ;)
This is a great post though – and… awe. All your real life reader emails totally trump what I came up with :P Sadness.
As for being burned… yes it’s happened before. Straight contemporary into *hello* time traveling paranormal?! Um, no. Especially when it makes no sense and is badly written. *hiss* Actually, broken trust for me mostly comes down to bad writing :X (And here is where I need to go into hiding…)
But breaking rules just to “push the edge” with no reason or point? Yeah – to me, that’s bad. If there’s a rhyme or reason, I can go along with it. But doing something outrageous like… (ok so I won’t say what popped into my head first O_o) just because- *and* it totally deviates from everything else with no point? … no.
Hi Leslie!
Yeah, I promise, Sin’s existence will be explained in her book! It’s pretty simple, actually. *g*
And yeah, no pumping your own gas in Oregon! There’s another state like that too, but I can’t remember which. I love not having to pump my own gas!
LOL, Limecello! Yeah, I get some doozy emails! Time-travel…you know, that’s the one thing I can’t stand to read or watch. I’m a HUGE Trekker, but my most hated episodes are always the time travel ones. I can’t stand it! No idea why…
Ah, okay, so it’s New Jersey. I wasn’t sure if they were the no-pump state or one of the other few no-sales-tax states!
I think all your real fans trust you enough to know that you don’t just sit and break all the rules and come up with crazy characters just to sell a book.
Authors who don’t break the rules are just plain boring anyway- so keep on breaking rules!
Don’t listen to these people, you’re a great freaking author and if they can’t see that, well, too bad. For them.
Go anomalies!
LOL — thanks, Hilda! Three cheers for anomalies!
Paranormal world is harder to create. You have to work out all the rules before you even start writing. SO, like you said with Sin, you pretty much need to know your characters and their whole story before you put the first word on paper. For the record, I never questioned Sin’s existence. I’m just looking forward to your next book so I can learn her story.
I agree…I think the paranormal world is harder to create…but I think readers are harder on contemporary and historical writers who get something wrong (or perceived to be wrong.)
And thank you! Hope you like Sin’s story! I think she’s going to be a heroine people either love or hate.
Bree and I have big problems with the unreliable narrator–meaning we have them and we can’t stop. LOL It occasionally leads to problems, even with our editors.
And those problems do sometimes look like we can’t maintain our own continuity. In our first Red Rock Pass book, a character tells the heroine (in front of a few people who know better) that vampires don’t exist. No one contradicts him. When we introduced vampires in the third book, our editor was a little O_o but was willing to go with it, especially when we explained that no one contradicted that character because the heroine was a quarter-inch from a freak-out anyway and didn’t need to hear it.
However, knowing what I know now, I would have written the scene differently or just left out what was essentially a throw-away line. Because what you say is true–we can hope readers will trust us to explain and know what we’re doing, but it’s a request, not an obligation.
I think a lot of the problem happens when we know something in our heads…and it doesn’t translate to paper, so the reader doesn’t know we know — even though we do.
I get that comment a lot from my editor. “I know you understand everything you’ve laid out, but that hasn’t translated from your head to the paper.”
So you might have known you were going to have vampires appear eventually, and it didn’t occur to you to make it clear in that first book.
Yeah…I’ve learned SO much in the last couple of years! Just wish I could actually remember to USE it!
Great post, Larissa. Personally, I think getting all the facts right in a contemporary is harder than in a paranormal. Like you said, readers will call you on your errors in a cont. way faster than they will in a paranormal because the rules in real life are finite and in a paranormal you can bend them to a certain degree so long as you have a logical explanation that jives with your world. One thing that always kills me in romantic suspense is when the hero or heroine slips the safety on their Glock. Um…Glocks don’t have safeties. And that’s a rule you just can’t break.
I laughed at your soda/pop comment (yep, so totally true) and the gas thing. You know what I really want to see? A character from Oregon who has to get gas in another state. My mother is a highly educated, smart woman. But make her stop for gas somewhere outside Oregon and watch her freak out a little.
Boy what a pain to have to try and explain everything to everybody. It would be nice if people would just enjoy the work and not over analyze. I’ve found “mistakes” in quite a few authors works that usually were explained later. I’m just SO happy that you all write material I like to sink my teeth into.
Thank you!
PS – It’s POP! At least to me;).
Oh Larissa to hell with that one review- I LOVED the book!! Seriously for someone to not like the story about Sin is just crazy. Really,like you would have a whole book about her without explaining how she came to be. I mean first she is Lore’s TWIN (that explains one thing) and secondly they (the Brothers) each stated numerous times that they had never heard of a female Seminus but that does not mean they know each and every Demon out there. They “thought” that it was actually impossible. They also said it was nearly impossible for a Seminus to mate with a human and ta daa wham bam there are two now!! I seriously think some people need to chill out- YOU wrote this story, these are YOUR ideas and YOU are kind enough to share them with US. PLEASE keep on writing these FANTASTIC books for your true fans.
Ok to the gas pumping- really? I did not know there were still places that had attendants, I would love for someone to pump my gas for me. We learn something new every day. I am a southern girl and we have always called it Coke- lol no matter what you wanted it was a coke. I’ve heard people use soda before but never actually heard someone say Pop (well except on the tv)
Huh. Until now, I never considered Sin as breaking the rules. To me, it was just the other characters not knowing that there was a female, not that there could never be one. Like is a suspense when a friend turns out to be the bad guy. The main characters didn’t know he was a nut job, so as the reader, neither did I. If that makes any sense…
As for trust, I have very few unbreakable rules. If it’s a romance, there damn well better be a believable HEA. If not, I’ll never buy anything by that author again. For urban fantasy, I just expect for a character’s actions to be consistent with what I have come to expect from previous books. If a heroine kicks ass in the first few books and then starts solving all problems by sleeping with the bad guys in later books, I have a problem with that.
I try to remember always that the characters and story belong to the author…I’m just along for the ride. Has this made me stop buying certain author’s books? Usually only when they get so predictable that it gets annoying or when the plots become so convoluted that I can’t follow the story without getting out a notebook and taking notes …..
Paranormal or real life? Very hard to choose as to which is more difficult to create. First i strongly believe that everything in this world is down to subjectivity and you cannot please everyone. Also, putting on paper the exact thing you are thinking about and imagining is close to impossible. Secondly, i agree, rules are meant to be broken. Some things are better left unexplained, adds to the mistery, to that feeling that gets your heart racing when you read.
Your books are your universe that we have to addapt to :)
Larissa this was as usual an interesting post with some new information for all of us not from Oregon, I never knew there was a place in the USofA that did not let you pump your own gas! I also would never walk into a convenience store and ask for a Pop even though know that it is indeed a carbonated beverage commonly known as soda water. Did you know that on the airline to Aruba you better not ask for “soda water”, that is what you will get not Coke or Pepsi or Sprite or whatever. ( I found that one out by accident the hard way, yucky soda water!!!)
jackie b central texas
I find that even if you explain things explicitly to the reader, there are some readers who will refuse to get it. Look at that nasty letter the Twilight fan sent to the filmmaker of Wolfman telling him that werewolves don’t “work that way.”
You can lead a horse to water sometimes, but you can’t make it drink.
Man, I’m embarrassed to say that pop in Maine would’ve stopped me too. I try to avoid novels set in Boston/NE which aren’t written by natives (and even then there are hiccups, like in a certain vampire series) because those little details scream so loudly at me I can’t hear the story. But if he was from Washington, and that was mentioned earlier, I’d have pulled through.
I grant more leeway in world-building in paranormals. Aren’t I generous? I figure you know your world best, and if you’re fudging the numbers, there’s a reason for it. Now, if I get to the end and the bits still don’t line up, then I might let a tsk tsk go, but maybe not. I figure once magic’s in the mix, anything’s possible.
Larissa,
I as a reader…I chose to read PNR..b/c I like NOT knowing what is coming next.
If you want predictable – go read non fiction.
The fact that you have the right to take the story anywhere you want…is amazing & fun to read.
Larissa…you are the bomb. If you wrote about lettuce…hell I’d read that too. LOL
You don’t have to explain any of your choices to me. And I can’t wait for SIN!!!!
All I can say is that Beer is great, God is good, and People are crazy.
<<I love this expresion
I have no rules when I read books. These are your stories and I’m just along for the ride. If you say there can never,ever, EVER be a female Sem and then you produce a female Sem, then I was be enchanted as I read WHY the never, ever, EVER came into existence.
Crazy law: In MA you can tie your spouse to the state capital courthouse flag pole and beat them between 10 & 2 on Sun.
Um, yea… what you said! I just assumed that we would learn more about Sin, so it didn’t bother me. In fact, I was a bit intregued by her. ALSO, I figured the reason for the rule “There shalt not be any female Seminus demons” is that no one had ever seen/met one… So along some Sin and well, the rules adjust. ALSO, I thought MAYBE there is more to Sin than meets the eye…
But I love paranormal and sci-fi for a reason – there is flexibility in the rules and we learn them along the way. I mean, hello – Jack Bauer/24 anyone? Now there are some big rule breakers! (And sometimes breaking the rules is fun to watch/read)!
I like that you created Sin it makes things more interesting. I can’t wait for her story to come out!
Wow! It’s a fictional story taking place in a world that can’t even be said to be based on reality, unfortunately.
It’s not about how to save a life or change a car tire like a how-to book. Yes, readers need continuity, believability (is that a word?) but chill out, trust the author you’ve invested in 3 other books with and, as another favourite author of mine tends to say to her readers who question her about certain things, “Keep reading”, before you spaz out. Keep doing what you are doing, Larissa, & ignore the crackpots! I know this isn’t the point of your post but I’m reeling over the fact that there are some states that won’t let you pump your own gas. I love that! Self service is bloody inconvenient sometimes!
Hi Larissa *waving from across the pond*
So, did you go to sleep in your Trekkie pj’s? Or compose this post?
Hey, I realised that Sin was an anomoly . . . but so was a duckbilledplatypus till they found one! Just one more reason (if I needed one) to get my mitts on her book . . .
Well, I think you nailed it when you said that you have to have TRUST. As a huge fan of your writing and your whole demon world, I never even questioned Sin. I THOUGHT for a sec, “huh, a female Sem.” And then a second later, “I bet Larissa’s explanation in Sin’s book will be cool.” For a reader to get upset about it is just crazy. Guess they aren’t a true fan to question your skills! I love the Demon brothers and Sin is going to be an awesome addition—keep up the FAB work!!!
I’m new to the Demonica series, but I flew through them once I started. :) I didn’t question Sins existence. It was stated time and again that Sems weren’t supposed to mate with humans. I figured that a female popping up could be one of the side effects of mating with a human. I like the fact that she popped up, I can’t wait for her book.
Rules: Make em, Bend em, Break em…you are the author! I love Sins character I mean come on she starts plagues…maybe not cool to some people but to people like me I think its creative and considered a power mmkay?! Sin is kickass and whatever happened to anything is possible..that is the point of having an imagination isn’t it?
ne~who..Larissa Ione you rock my heart with your books, characters and wit. So thank you from an appreciative reader~Amanda
Rules: Make em, Bend em, Break em…you are the author! I love Sins character I mean come on she starts plagues…maybe not cool to some people but to people like me I think its creative and considered a power mmkay?! Sin is kickass and whatever happened to anything is possible..that is the point of having an imagination isn’t it?
ne~who..Larissa Ione you rock my heart with your books, characters and wit. So thank you from an appreciative reader~Amanda
People really need to chill. Sin’s character adds such a great twist to the Demonica family, you can’t help but to cheer her on for her own HEA. And if you do decide to put blue trolls in one of the books, make sure those trolls have washboard abs. Growl.
The fact that I’m reading a paranormal novel, I think, tends to rationalize the choices of the author.
You’ve created a world and your write within it — you have the right to do whatever the hell you want because it’s yours.
Now, if it were a situation where you were ghost writing for an author, let’s say Stephanie, and you wanted to make the villian of her next SEAL hero a vampire…well, yeah, that wouldn’t work because, being that it’s Steph’s world, a world based in reality, vampires don’t exist there. But, in your world, they do. So, we get Wraith. (Yay!)
But, as far as Sin goes, you’ve already touched on the fact that, because her mother was a human, it is logical that Sin and her bother would be abnormal in the character’s already abnormal-to-us world. If you never really touched on Sin’s Smurfette-ness again, it would be okay because we’ve already been handed a logical explanation.
But, because we know that there is one book to come, Sin’s book, and we know how you write and tell your character’s stories, there should be a sort of comfort that comes to the reader knowing that we’ll get our answers in the end.
Personally, I loved the idea of Sin. Just the fact that, hello, here comes this Sem Female in a world where no Sem Female have ever existed, I found it exciting! I’m thrilled that we get to see the unrelenting lust of the Sem breed from a female perspective. I mean, yes please!
So, yeah, in short, people should just chill.
Oh, BTW…in Texas, where I’m from, soda is pretty much known as “coke.” It’s so generalized that it doesn’t even need to be capitalized really. It’s not uncommon to be at a resturant and hear/say “What kind of coke do y’all have?”
Yeah, it lacks the suave sophistication of “pop,” but that’s just how we roll.
I think it’s ok to break your own rules once in awhile. Especially if it spices up the book a little. I think sometimes a book needs a little twist or turn to the story line. That makes for a good story, and leaves us reader’s wondering, “hmmm, I wonder what the author’s gonna do next.”
You just keep writin what you’re writin ’cause you do it so well:) You just like to throw us a curve ball every once in awhile.
I am a professional historian so in my world we examine every written word and we critique as well as severly judge, but I am talking about historial articles, non fiction pieces, books that convey theories, treatises that analyze and retell primary source facts. In this case we are talking about fiction, paranormal fiction so I don’t see the big deal as long as the story still flows and there is an explanation offered that explains the anomaly then so be it. Usually breaking the rules results in an even more interesting tale.
SO what Sin is a female sem and everyone assumed since they had never enounterd a female sem that it just didn’t occur. Shocker…..some men assumed wrong….like that is the first and last time men were wrong about something.
It must be difficult tring to create a whole other world especially a paranormal world which in its essence breaks all the rules and goes beyond reality. I have the upmost respect for you Larrissa. Your creativity is inspiring.
I am sure with each story new ideas come up that change the direction and break the rules. As the writer you make the rules, you come up with the ideas therefore you have every right to introduce different avenues to create an even more interesting story line. HELLO it is a paranormal story…meaning it is a story outside the range of normality.
The pop thing and the gas thing..you ladies are funny. I am an Army brat turned Army wife so I have moved around all my life and I have no distinct regional accent or a preference of word usage so whether you say soda, pop, or coke I don’t even delineate between the terms. I just know you mean a carbonated sugar laden drink…haha. Unfortunately I have yet to live in an area where we had gas attendants. I must say I feel cheated, all this time I have been pumping my own gas..who would have thought….*sigh*..whats up with that. :)
Truly…Who cares about rules when reading a book?? As long as the book is fun, entertaining, and nice and juicy who cares. We are talking paranormal here. In the world of paranormal ANYTHING is possible. I love the series. I love the idea of the brothers having a sister. Especially one as kick ass as Sin. I think it is going to bring out such protectiveness and humor out of the brothers. Would love to see them all worked up over Sin having a boyfriend. Can’t wait til the book comes out!!! The wait is killing me. I think it is pure genius for you to bring Sin in and make the brothers worlds more interesting. Kudos to you. I never expected it!!!
I, for one, am totally stoked that you are doing what you can to build trust, build a coherent world (lol D&D-style compendium) and make the book an excellent read for readers. When you posted the question about writers losing your trust, I thought immediately to Anne Rice’s Blackwood Farm. After spending 20 years enjoying her Vampire/Mayfair series, to be treated to THAT?
That experience left a bad taste in my mouth and since then, I’ve been a little wary of the whole paranormal genre. Then I started reading the Demonica books and really enjoyed how well crafted the world is. Thanks for being sensitive to your readers and doing what you can to build their trust. I never would have thought that betrayal by favorite author could possibly happen, but then, there was Blackwood Farm. To read you reassuring readers this early in the game has got my trust.
Anyhoo I’ve been trying to convince the hubby to read the Demonica series, stating that it’s better than Anne Rice. One thing’s for sure–your characters, for all their character flaws and quirks, have yet to grate on my nerves the way that Mona Mayfair did. They’re much more credible, as well. I think you fill the shredded void that Anne Rice left, and then some.