I Often Give Myself Very Good Advice…

One of the most challenging aspects of writing romantic suspense is that you basically have to split yourself into pieces to get it done.  If you’ve read Alice in Wonderland lately, you probably have a good idea of how romance writers operate – we spend a lot of time arguing with the creative side of our personality, which is approximately one part reckless adventurer, one part sex-crazed nympho, one part dark and scary gremlin, and one part petulant teenager.  Together, all these parts operate the fingers to get the words on the page, but most of the time, it’s like herding cats.

First and foremost, there’s the romance, which is the heart and soul, and in a lot of ways, the easy part of the story, for me at least.  Giving characters serious, toe-curling chemistry and then dumping them in a messy, impossible situation is the best part of the process.  I don’t know about other writers, but I take great glee in making things as obnoxious for my hero and heroine as possible – after all, you don’t want to make it too easy for them, do you?  It’s more satisfying if they have to work for it!

The second part of the process is the suspense, and this is where the serious challenge comes in, because you’re trying to accomplish a bunch of different things at once.  You want the audience to wonder what’s coming next, you want them to worry about the characters, and you want to avoid anyone figuring out the puzzle before you’re ready.  So, you have to write the conflict with all of its intricate little pieces, and then you have to go back and hide all of those pieces to keep your characters in the dark.  Then you have to rewrite the story backwards, or so it seems – do all the pieces fit?  Does it all make sense, or does the villain just reveal himself/herself out of nowhere without enough evidence?

And then you still have to wind the romance story thread back into the suspense and make the two threads complement each other and work together to tell one complete story.

It’s exhausting.  And exhilarating.

The best emails I get are from readers going, “OMG, I never would have guessed he was the villain!  So scary!”  Those are the emails that make me hop up and down with delight, but I’d be lying if I said that the whole process isn’t a hair-pulling, nail-biting, coffee-swilling nightmare of a writing exercise that takes loads of outlining, structure, shredding of notes and ideas and sanity, and something no sane writer should undertake.  Ever.  Which is why, of course, I have two sequels planned for the Bright’s Ferry series – SAFE FROM THE FIRE, for February, and SAFE FROM THE STORM, for next summer.  LOL.

Why?

Because, when it comes down to it, the cheerful, loving, playful, flirty persona is really only happiest when the crazed, deranged, “let’s write a serial killer storyline” persona has dragged the characters through the muck to make sure that they really deserve their happily ever after.

Isn’t writing fun?