Ridiculous, I know. But hear me out.
Bocce is an Italian form of lawn bowling that many say originated back in the Roman Empire. Basically, the goal of the game is to toss a small sphere called a “pallino” (about the size of an egg, but round) onto a narrow rectangular court and then try to roll the rest of your balls (four to a team per round) as close as possible to that pallino. I just finished my summer bocce league (came in 4th – yay!) and since I see almost everything through the prism of my writing these days, I have discovered:
1) It’s easy to learn the basics of bocce, but much more difficult to get really good at it. Same with the romance genre: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, right? Well, yeah, but … if you want to intrigue your readers and have them come back for more, you’d better give them a heck of a lot more than that! You’ve got to come up with a meaningful approach, put some spin in the game, be clever. And so it is with bocce. You won’t win many games (or gain many readers) if your opponents (readers) know your every move.
2) Unlike football or basketball, where the goals are clearly defined, bocce lets you determine where your goal is going to be—at least in the beginning. That’s because if you’re the first person to throw in a given round, you can put the pallino just about anywhere you want it on the court. Play a short game, a long game, a rail game — it’s up to you. But beware, the goal can change with every throw, and can really throw you for a loop if your opponent is good at #1 above. Just remember, in both writing romance and playing bocce, no matter where the goal has moved, you still have to keep it in sight at all times. Consider plot: as the writer, you get to choose where you’re going, but if your route changes along the way, you still have to keep your eye on where you want the reader to go. You can’t start a road trip from Boise to Minneapolis and end up in Kuala Lumpur—unless you’ve explained the detour logically, clearly, and believably for your readers.
.
In the midst of a hard-fought bocce game…
3) Unlike regular bowling, where you always have a straight, smooth path to victory (as long as you can stay on it), bocce is full of unforeseen detours, even if the pallino (your goal) never wavers. Every throw brings a potentially new set of obstacles to overcome. So it is with the best romance: the ending might be predictable, but getting to that ending should be anything but routine. The more setbacks the better, right? Put your hero and heroine in a crummy situation and proceed to make it worse and worse and worse for them … until there’s a do or die moment, a choice is made, and the ending becomes clear. I can’t tell you how many times my bocce team has had a solid lead and lost it in the end …. or come from behind in a miraculous victory. That’s what makes the game so fun.
4) And finally, the goal of every bocce player is to get a “kiss” – to have their ball touch the pallino. And we know how that applies to romance!
So, if you ever have a chance to play bocce, don’t just think of it as an enjoyable game to play with family and friends on a tranquil summer afternoon. Think of it as a fun-filled refresher course on the art of writing great romance.
