Doing Bad Things To Good People

It’s one of the keys to solid romance writing, and it’s called conflict.

Conflict is my weakest thing. I hate doing bad things to good people. So do most of the writers I’ve talked to about this over the years. One person even likened it to stabbing the hero or heroine with a knife, then twisting it. But we do it, because, honestly, fiction is more like real life than we care to admit.

I love a story in which the conflict is so deep and painful that I cannot imagine how the story will end, how the hero and heroine will ever have their happy ending.

Anne Mallory, one of my Golden Heart sisters from 2003 (yes, I’m talking about the Wet Noodle Posse), and one of my favorite Regency-set historical authors, did this beautifully in Seven Secrets of Seduction (Avon, 2010). Miranda, who is not in society, is hired by Maximilian, Viscount Downing, who definitely is, to do a librarian-sort-of job organizing his private library. He plans to seduce Miranda and write a how-to book about the process. Oops, best laid plans and all that, they fall in love.

Maximilian and Miranda indulge in their flirtation, and, oh, the banter. I love banter. I try and try to write banter and only occasionally hit the mark, but this is one of Anne’s best qualities as a writer. Every word out of her characters’ mouths is perfection.

Miranda knows they cannot marry because of their stations in life. Maximilian knows it, too. So does the reader, who is, as she should be, rooting for a happy ending.

But, when? But, but how? Oh, come on, you know it all works out!

Because that’s the promise of romance. They always live happily ever after!

At least that’s what the sticky note on my computer monitor says. I know I can put my characters through the wringer as long as I make it up to them in the end. And I will...I promise.

P.S.

Two other books that have wonderful conflicts (and deliciously happy endings) are Mary Balogh’s A Matter of Class (Vanguard Press, 2009) and Karen Templeton’s Rita winning A Mother’s Wish (Silhouette Special Edition, August 2008). Karen’s July, 2010 Special Edition, Welcome Home Cowboy, also nominated for a Rita, is wonderful, too.