Assumptions

Assumptions. I’m going to break my freaking big toe on one of them before this is through.

*pauses: gathers thoughts, breath and whatnots; carries on with a teensy bit less spite*

Assumptions are tricky bastards. Let me illustrate.

Strangers assume that if you are dressed spiffily, answer pleasantly, smile appropriately and converse smartly that you are without staggering mental hiccups (i.e. anxiety, panic, OCD, etc). This is all well and good… except when they do inevitably find out the truth they are certain you are either exaggerating to gain pity or outright lying to gain some kind of mythical leverage.

These kind of assumptions have been tripping me up for decades. As a result, I’ve learned to loathe them and to try to avoid them at every turn.

A prologue to a historical romance, however, is all assumption. A writer must guess what a reader already knows. Very few readers of the genre are there for a historical treatise on the time period. The author must assume at least some basic knowledge on the era is known… but the tricky part is knowing how much. Give the reader too much credit and you lose them before Chapter One. Give the reader too little credit and you bore them to tears and still lose them before Chapter One.

*sighs*

Assumptions. I am crap at managing them. Just saying.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe