After a weekend spent away from romance books, in which she did groceries as well as play some more games on air, she stands at a crossroads on Sunday night.
Should I resume reading these books, or just accept the challenge issued to me with my current preparation? Would reading another book from a different author be of any help at this point? Caroline has a bunch of questions in her mind for Capitolium that she didn't feel appropriate to voice on air. The two then go into the voice chat after the stream:
"Yes, I know what value I'm getting out of reading various authors, but I think I read too much, too fast" Caro voices her concern to her loyal subscriber.
"Three books in three days is, yes, a lot, and an infernal pace" Capitolium points out to her. "I mean it, Caro, your complaints about the first two books are common in romance books, but I believe you might struggle to write characters that aren't, like you said, flat. Unfortunately, you must have realized by now that much of what makes a romance swoon-worthy depends on characterization. I read a lot of yuck and excessive sex, as well as flat characters are part of what made me bitter about hockey romance"
Now I must think of what would draw my leads into each other, Capitolium's words give her pause. And what makes them want to stay together, too.
"Life outside the relationship seemed to fall by the wayside in the first two, but the third one devoted more space to it"
"However, I am fully convinced that you are able to fit in various aspects of hockey"
"Just being able to fit in the hockey in a plot is not enough to make a hockey romance book better than an epic mess! My characters must mesh with each other, but at the same time, life outside the relationship must get in the way at some point! What makes you think I will get a sufficient grasp of characterization during these thirty days to make this challenge of yours feasible to me?"
"You said it so yourself that the resulting book would likely be an epic mess, and yet you feel that not even a manually written, fifty-thousand-word epic mess of a hockey romance is feasible to you in a month?"
"No one else among my regular followers expressed any opinion on its feasibility, and they made me feel like they were at my throat sometimes because of what I implied I valued in a hockey romance book!"
"The only consistent things about romance are the following: a meet cute and then a happy ending. If the source of happiness cannot be sustained in the long term, your happy ending is then called for now, but they must be happy and together for a happy ending to even qualify"
"I was willing to accept that books varied wildly in quality, and these endpoints, but no more than that"
"Caro, if you think of entering the challenge, just don't worry about the book's quality. You said it so yourself on air that you had to start somewhere, be it reviewing books, or writing them" Capitolium then DMs her a list of resources about plotting and characterization as relevant to writing romance books, as well as various tropes that come up often in the genre.
It might not be very good, but there's only one thing I'm confident about: building my plot around the male lead's hockey career and, of course, fitting in the transactional aspect of the sport, Caro thinks while she starts reading about various romance tropes. But I wonder why Capitolium seems to push me towards accepting the challenge. I now have a better idea of why he's bitter about hockey romance to the point where he feels I can somehow write a better one, but I think that holds only to the extent that he values integration of the hockey aspect. He did tell me about the need for major characters to have flaws, though.
Forced proximity, forbidden love, enemies to lovers, fake dating, alpha hero, grumpy x sunshine, miscommunication, dark past, second chance, these being some of the most common tropes she could find in other hockey romance books that she didn't read yet.
However, this nightmare, along with Capitolium's list of resources intended for beginners in creative writing, made her realize that she can't rely on only one method to learn as much as she possibly can about that craft in fifteen days, of which five have already elapsed.
Speaking of Capitolium, he starts wondering why is it that Caro went to such lengths to get ready for this, and what she's waiting for to accept it. By now, it should be a foregone conclusion that she will accept it, but did she overestimate the learning curve? Did she feel like she needed to meet some quality standards for the challenge to be considered fulfilled? The only terms I gave her were about manually writing a 50k-word hockey romance in 30 days. Nowhere was there any specification of any quality standards to meet! There is one more thing that she should realize: some people will read several books that all tick the same boxes, regardless of their actual quality.
On Monday, one of Caro's colleagues at work asks her for what she did over the weekend, at lunch. Her answer is forthcoming:
"J'ai lu un troisième livre d'amour de hockey, et je me suis mise à lire sur l'écriture de livres d'amour" (I read a third hockey romance book, and I started reading about writing romance books) Caroline answers her colleague.
"Tu t'es sûrement aperçue que les amateurs de livres d'amour sont prêts à lire plusieurs livres quasi identiques" (Surely you realized that romance book lovers are ready to read several near-identical books) her colleague adds.
This statement about romance reader tastes gives Caro pause. I guess, if some of these people picked romance books based on specific situations, maybe they live these situations themselves, and struggle to navigate these, Caro is left wondering what could drive a romance reader to read several near-identical romance books. With the only changes amounting to a setting, or a trait or two, but doesn't otherwise change the plotting or the relationship dynamics.
"Ce monde est encore un peu nouveau pour moi, je me demande bien pourquoi untel agirait ainsi, outre des problèmes dans sa propre vie" (This world is still a little new to me, I wonder why someone would act like this, other than problems in their own life)
"Ces lecteurs recherchent la satisfaction. Si tu es satisfait d'un livre, et tu sais ce qui te satisfait dans ce livre, tu vas chercher à en avoir un autre qui y ressemble. Tu es probablement familière avec ce concept dans un contexte de jeux vidéo" (These readers seek satisfaction. If you're satisfied with a book, and you know what satisfies you about it, you will look for another one like it. You're probably familiar with this concept in a video game context)
Except that I know what irks me more clearly than what satisfies me. From what I read about, some people took to writing their own stories because they were unsatisfied with what they read. And so I might be wondering if Capitolium would take up the challenge if I accept it. He sure sounded bitter when I talked about sex, and horror books in all but name on air, Caro is left wondering about how to make a romance based on the transactional aspect of hockey work. And, obviously, the relationship.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
But even more puzzling is the time it took her to grasp this concept of wanting satisfaction over quality, in that, in her gaming experience, she knew gamers were likely to change games based on unsatisfactory aspects.
Even so, it seems like she has mounting headaches just thinking about creative writing on her way back home that day. She even takes painkillers to calm her nerves down, feeling like she needs to be in a good mental place to stream her favorite online TRPG.
Once her stream gets underway, she decides to give it a go and, since it's the last day of her gameplay week, she begins the stream with the battle pass' checklist open on the screen. As soon as the battle pass' checklist is visible for all to see:
"Welcome to tonight's stream. Last week, we discussed my hockey romance reads, spurred by Capitolium, but let's not forget that some of you are here for the gaming. So if you have requests for using specific units, or playing on certain maps, today is the time to ask!" Caroline asks her viewers.
Maridun: Please run this week's gauntlet in infernal mode!
Maridun kept quiet all week when we discussed hockey romances, the streamer is reminded of how Maridun acted during her streams as she prepares to run the weekly gauntlet.
Whose prize is, in infernal mode, that is, the gauntlet's hardest difficulty, a level 1 high-grade unit, and fought as its boss at a much higher level. Which, in the endgame, is the best source of high-grade units, beyond the battle pass.
"It seems that, in my binge reading of romance books, I completely forgot about the weekly gauntlet!" Caroline gasps. "Thank you for reminding me... Maridun!"
I only am allowed four units, so I must make the best of what units I have. If I make it, it will make next week's dailies easier for me to deal with, especially since having an extra non-max-level unit frees up one unit for other tasks better suited to max-level units. There are clearly some dailies or other tasks in battle passes that are better off left to non-max-level units, Caro's thoughts race against the clock as she prepares to run the weekly gauntlet in infernal mode.
The gauntlet begins with a careful review of the enemy units' strengths and weaknesses so that she can deploy the right units to exploit the latter. Once the deployment phase ends:
"Let's roll!"
In fact, the people in the chat will be shown that death in detail is often the best way to deal with these maps in infernal mode. That is, ensure that she isn't fighting the enemies all at once. To the amazement of the people in the chat, the gauntlet seems to be happening in a way that makes Caro looks like she is in complete control of the situation. Even when there are more than four enemy units to fight in the gauntlet.
And the poor boss of the gauntlet is about to get pwned just a few minutes later. Only with all 4 of her units being a little worse for tear, but still standing.
"This boss is about to be pwned (pawned)!" Caro announces as she makes an attack which, while might not be guaranteed to work, has a good enough hit probability to make the move worthwhile.
Once her dark mage is in position to hit the boss, the spell is cast, and a flashy animation shows up. Which, upon hitting the boss, makes it vanish from the screen, as well as the map. When the confirmation of victory comes, the stream is treated to a grand entrance of the character of the week. As well as a quick elevator pitch to introduce itself before she starts leveling that shiny new unit.
And, since clearing a weekly gauntlet in infernal mode gives her a good haul of battle pass points, it nets her the BP unit of the week, given what she accumulated earlier in the playing week.
"Now, I should use both units gained for the week, and level them up together, but I will not bring them up to max level tonight" Caro runs down her checklist for the battle pass as she feels that she can rest easy only once she has accomplished the daily battle pass quest.
Before she accomplishes this, she sends other units on daily dispatch quests to pay for the costs of both leveling these two units and the costs of the weekly gauntlet. And hopefully get a bit more PvP done.
However, the viewers don't seem to be overly impressed with the units of the week, since they feel like they aren't much better than previous units fulfilling the same roles.
Yet, as Capitolium enters voice chat, he asks her about the challenge issued last week:
"Caro, after sending you beginner materials about creative writing, and the binge reading of hockey romance books you did last week, have you reached a decision about the challenge I issued last week? Your actions last week implied there's a good chance you would accept it"
"Very well, you leave me no choice but to accept" Caro answers, before her tone of voice turns to resignation. "I will try writing this hockey romance book next month!"
Which means that, next week, I will need to get all the weekly battle pass quests done by October 31, and, for November, limit my playing time to what's strictly necessary to get my battle pass quests done, Caro feels the need to rearrange the proportion of playing vs writing on the stream for next month.
Maridun: You never mentioned the elephant in my romantic room: the third-act breakup
"Maridun, last week you kept quiet when we discussed hockey romance books and reviewed some hockey romance books on air. Why did you keep quiet?"
Maridun: You discussed excess of sex, abusive relationships and fake dating, but for some reason you never talked about third-act breakups!
Caroline then opens a page about third-act breakups, where everyone in the chat learns more about these. She then conjures her memories of what happened in these books where third-act breakups could have occurred. Sampoong's rec didn't have any, the issue became that the relationship became too heavy on the sex. Lagado's was about the fake date having run its course, and accepting that he didn't feel anything for his fake date. Glitter's leads were questioning each other about 70% in, and even came close to breaking up; this was the point where I really wanted them to break up the most.
"I did say that Glitter's rec was a horror book in all but name last week. Now I have a better idea of how I would have changed the final third or so if it was an actual horror book: they would have broken up at that point, and the final third would have been about her ex's downfall!"
At this point, Glitter enters the voice chat. "You now have a better idea of what sets horror apart from dark romance"
"Maridun, you kept talking about third-act breakups without telling me what you disliked about third-act breakups!" Caro asks Maridun to clarify their position.
Maridun: Third-act breakups are annoying because they usually make it about something blown out of proportion, or miscommunication
And then Caroline starts a new Google Docs page so that she can jot down a tentative outline, with some ideas in chronological order for the stream to see. The book opens with the male lead being waived from team A late in the preseason, then is claimed by team B, where he improves his game. Then he's traded to team C at the deadline, feels nervous on draft day, fearing that he'll be traded again, only for team B to come up with an offer sheet. Which he signs and agonizes for 7 days, and then the happy ending comes.
Caro adds a few notes pertaining to the hockey-playing lead's evolution in cap hits. In the beginning, she wants her male lead to have a cap hit in the $2-2.5M range as of the beginning of the book, and then increase to $6-7M range at the end of the season.
"I never saw players get waived, nor sign offer sheets in hockey romance" Glitter comments on these two tentative plot points, while Lagado enters the voice chat for the first time.
"Yeah, what does waiving a player mean, and what's an offer sheet?" Lagado asks.
The other day, Caro told me about what could make future considerations amount to nothing. How is waiving a player different from trading the player away? Lagado is a little confused by this plot point, crossing his fingers that Caroline can answer her.
"Waiving players happen far more often than teams signing offer sheets. Typically, the aim is to send down a player to the AHL. However, once a player is on the waiver wire, all other teams can claim him and have twenty-four hours to do so" Caroline explains to her viewers.
"What happens if more than one team claim someone?" Lagado asks.
"The worst team gets the player, but on what basis depends on when in the season. For the purposes of this project, what matters is what happens prior to November first, which means it's based on the previous season's standings" the streamer answers her. "However, I don't want to imply that more than one team claimed my male lead"
"You haven't answered my question about offer sheets!" Lagado whines to her, hoping for an answer.
"As for your second question, Lagado, it's far too early in the project to worry about what an offer sheet is, not to mention the season" Caro seems to feel like she would be spoiling the ending more than she already did, because everyone and their dogs in her chat know there's going to be a happy ending of some sort.
Caro clearly knows the transactional aspect of hockey better than almost every hockey romance author I ever read, but I think November will feel long to me, because I feel like she will endlessly talk about hockey at every turn! Sampoong is about to tear his hair.