New Options
So, the revisions have been slow going and a lot of that has been due to the ending. What I’ve done is, I’ve written myself into a bit of a tricky situation. Which is good, because why should it be easy? It shouldn’t be. My characters need to bleed for this love and I need to bleed…well…making them bleed. Hey, I never said I was a kind and compassionate creator. This is one of the many reasons we can be thankful that God is in control and I am not.
But I think I arrived at a solution for the problem. I was setting up a resolution that was too neat. Too pat. Especially after all of the blinking torture my characters have to go through. Longing. Forbidden lust. Forbidden love. Breaking down emotional barriers. Becoming comfortable with who they are.
It’s a tall order.
And I’d been coming up with all these new layers to the characters, all these plans for how I needed their relationship to unfold, how I needed them to grow as individuals and as people. How I needed them to connect with each other. And a lot of that worked. But, something just didn’t feel quite right.
That’s when I realized something. The resolution I pictured in my head worked much better as another layer of conflict than it did as the HEA.
Without giving away too many details…my hero needs to come to terms with his past and what it means for his future, and how he can let go of the terrible traumas he’s experienced and see himself as the heroine sees him. As a man who’s worthy of love and happiness. But I wanted him to find all of it at once. I wanted him to realize his destiny, fall in love and get married. The End.
But I don’t think that’s it. I think he needs his destiny to come smack him in the face before he’s ready to deal with it. And hey, while I’m at it, why don’t I give him the wedding before he’s ready to deal with it too. I think he needs more time to work everything out so he can have true, realistic growth.
So here’s to The Sheikh, and all the crap I shall be putting him through this week. It will be worth it in the end, and you’ll thank me for it. But don’t hate me for enjoying your pain…
Comments
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LOL on the torturing characters and enjoying OUR pain!!! I think I’ve had a similar realisation about my HEA. Think it’s a little too rushed at the moment!
Yeah, I had…stuff to fill it in, but it didn’t allow for the growth I needed him to have. And you really want that character development…which puts us back at torture. 😀
Best of luck on your own evil endeavor, Rach.
Good luck on bleeding your characters! I need to do that with my latest wip. Sometimes I feel like a vampire…..lol. Caroline
And to think some people believe that writing romance is easy…!
I think my hero’s journey is too easy all the way through, never mind just at the end!! Oh well, time to learn how to enjoy torturing.
Good luck with your Sheikh, he sounds yummy.
Sometimes you’ve got to be cruel to be kind. Sheikh cannot love until some blood sweat and tears are shed.
Shoot down those who say its easy. I had a guy I used to work with say to me recently ‘I was going to write one of those’ ie, a romance. It was as if I said to him I got a new i-phone and he said, yeah me too. Pffft.
So annoyed with the M&B forum, it won’t let me log in to comment and keeps saying my email is not valid or something stupid, grrr!
I have 5 kids. That’s the answer to your question there. Sorry to interrupt this thread!
Bring on the instruments of torture…cue heroine… 😉
Caroline, vampires are tres chic right now. 🙂
Lucy, some people are stupid. 😀
Joanne, admittedly, I live to screw with my characters, but not every writer is as evil as I am, nor do they need to be. 😀
Janette, Sheikh must suffer. ugh. And also, is there an app for romance writing on the iphone? If not, we should make it. Hero Nationality: Italian (random name generation) Your hero’s name is: Raphelle Di Firenzi, heroine (select options): Virgin? Y/N/N, never been satisfied by a man. Hair Color: Gold, Pre-Raphaelite, or chestnut? Eyes: aqua, indigo, violet?
Jane, I bow to you. I truly do. I am standing solid, done and exhausted at three.
Jackie, she has been cued…in fact, she’s making out with him against the side of a building at the moment. Naughty minx.
Ah, I thought I was done at two. For an entire decade, I thought that. Then husband number two came along …
Love the eye colour romance app idea, btw. My youngest is called Indigo.
All my other kids enjoy quite dull, normal, everyday names – like me, in other words – but at age 37, I suddenly feared I would never have my hippy-chick celebrity-style silly child name moment in the sun …
so she got to be called Indigo.
M&B site still not letting me on. Am I the only one?
Oh, I think it’s a gorgeous name, Jane. But I love names that are a bit different. My husband is Haven and his siblings are Blair, Miranda, Zared and Shiphrah, plus my name is a bit unusual, and our kids are Aidric, Kian and Alani. 😀
No, it isn’t working for me or Jackie A either, so I’m assuming it’s everyone.
Nup, still not working. Will have to wait until it’s Monday in London I guess. Oh hey, if you write that iPhone app, I’d buy it!
I’m all for smacking around the characters and making them bleed. 🙂
Bwahahha.