"When they asked me what I liked best, I'll say it was you."
~from "City of Angels"
I realized yesterday, as I was helping my sister prepare the big meal, what my one work, One Night in Boston, is missing (doesnt' inspiration strike at the oddest times?) It's the fact that my hero and heroine don't officially meet until almost half-way through the story. I gave them both a lot of conflict up to that point, as well as some flashbacks to remind them about each other...but they don't see each other face to face until chapter 10 of 24.
Hmm...that may be a problem.
I mean, I know there are other romances where the H/H don't meet right away, but then how much *real* romanctic tension is driving the story forward? I know my story doesn't have to be totally formulaic, esp. if I want to write mainstream rather than for a Harlequin category or something, but still. When I compared it to the other work I'm actively preparing for publication, the latter one is filled with sexual tension almost without my trying, because on every damn page the H/H are running into each other, from chapter 1.
So while the realization depressed me a little, because I like ONIB and think it has a decent storyline, I think at least if I go back and tackle another revision, I might have a good idea of what needs to be fixed.
Sigh. Oh, well. Live--and write--and learn.
2 comments:
My H/H in Playing House don't meet until well into the story (more than halfway) BUT they do interact with one another in other ways...
I wonder if you could do something like that??
Good luck!
Hi Allie,
Hmm. That is something to consider. In most stories where couples are reunited after time apart, we see them together early on--but, of course, that's not to say your story isn't structured so it can be the exception, cuz it could well be.
If none of the folks who read the manuscript have commented on it, maybe it's a non-issue??
But, am I remembering correctly that you wanted some mystery by not letting the reader know that the H/H were thinking about each other? If that's so, then maybe the tension of the reader knowing how they are pining for each other would serve as romantic tension until they meet.
Another idea might be to let him see her, or her see him--let one of them know for sure the other is in the picture, but not both, and that will add salt to the desire, so to speak, leading to the time they meet. but, you'd still have to work it so they don't expect to see each other in that time and space when they do finally meet.
Oh, the joy of writing never ceases!
You'll work it out. :-)
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