Why Conflict Is so Hard to Create in Romance

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Romances don’t usually have a villain, but there is a strong conflict driving the plot.

The romance genre is an odd mix of writing difficulties. On one hand, it’s easy to write because it has a clear structure and set of goals for every story—get two people to fall in love and live happily ever after. 

On the other hand, since both protagonists want the same thing, it’s extremely difficult to create conflict—and plot is created by conflict.

Unlike most novels, there's no mustache-twirling antagonist standing between the lovebirds and happiness. And since the protagonists need to come together in the end, you can’t have one defeat the other, or it throws off the balance of power in the relationship and makes for a bad (and unhealthy) romance.

Without these common antagonistic elements, finding a conflict strong enough to drive a plot can be quite the challenge.

5 Common Problems With Endings

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Your ending is the whole point of your book.

This is the last post in my mini-series on common problems in beginnings, middles, and endings. Today, we’ll take a look at common problems with endings.

When a reader picks up your novel, they do so because something about the blurb made them think "This sounds like a great book." It might be the premise, the voice, the setting, or even a character, but something intrigued them enough to give it a try. How you end the novel and resolve the story will determine whether or not that reader raves about the novel the next day, or forgets about it before the week is over.

Oh yeah, endings have that kind of power. 

Because the ending is the moment readers have been waiting for the entire book (no pressure). It resolves the core conflict of the novel and puts the protagonist up against the antagonist, which is why the most common problem with endings is that they don't live up to that promise.

The only thing tougher than an ending is the middle. Except for the beginning.

Getting the Best Response From Your Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Don't confuse your readers by mixing up what happens when and why.

When one of my nieces was little, she'd tell me stories about her day. They usually made no sense, and not just because she was seven. She'd always tell me what she did before she told me why she did it.

"I cried on the swings, because it wasn't fair and they yelled at me."

It often took multiple follow-up questions to get the real story that she got scolded for playing in a sandbox she'd been told three times not to play in (the reason why involved a cat mistaking it for a litter box).  

Granted, few writers write a novel like a seven year old telling a story, but mixing up the stimulus/response structure happens all the time. Usually it's a small mistake that readers can figure out and move on from, but sometimes it's a big error and leaves them confused.

Using Story Archetypes to Find Your Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Story archetypes are useful tools to develop a novel or story.

Although we hear about character archetypes a lot in writing, I’ve found story archetypes much more useful when developing a story. They’re solid jumping off points to help shape an idea and figure out the best direction to take it.

Story archetypes are the common events or situations often seen in fiction. 

Coming of age, rags to riches, the quest, getting retribution, earning redemption, battle of the underdog. They’re classic story types readers have come to recognize and even seek out.

Some story archetypes offer clear tropes and plots to follow, while others are more thematic, fitting whichever style or process a writer has. Those looking for more direction might welcome a trope-laden archetype, while those looking for general inspiration might prefer the theme-laden side. For example:

Writing Your Novel Backward Might Be the Secret to Success

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

It’s hard to plot a novel if you don’t know what problem it’s trying to solve.

Creating plots has always been easy for me, but endings are my nemesis. I usually have a general sense of what they are before I start a novel, but far too often, I have no clue about the specifics on how my conflict is resolved. My outline might say, Nya needs to “stop the bad guy using her shifting ability.” Grace needs to “find her father.” Chip needs to “solve the murder.”

Vague as they are, my endings at least give me a direction to work toward, which is sometimes all you need to start writing. I might not know how my protagonist solves their problem, but I know what generally needs to be done and where the plot is headed.

Not all writers are this lucky. Some—maybe even you—have no idea where their story is going, because they don’t know what “the end” looks like.

6 “Fatal Flaws” That Will Kill a Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Fatal flaws can sink a story, but don’t lose hope if you find one in your novel.

First drafts are all about getting an idea from your head onto the page, but sometimes that idea doesn’t come out quite right. Maybe you took the wrong approach, or maybe you tried to do too much to the story, or maybe you overlooked a critical aspect that would make it all come together.

Whatever the reason, your first draft is…not good.

It doesn’t work, there’s something wrong, and you have no clue how to fix it. It’s possible you haven’t even finished it yet, because all your instincts are telling you “Stop writing until you figure this out!”

What’s worse, is that these flawed drafts are often well written and quite good on a scene-by- scene basis, because the writing isn’t the problem. The problem is rooted in the story itself, or how you decided to approach that story.