Writing Romance: The Internal Apocalypse, by EM Lynley

I've noticed that of my past posts here the ones about naked guys, Sherlock and writing tips seem the most popular. Today I'm sharing some thoughts on writing.

In addition to writing, I edit for several different publishers, all in the genre of erotic romance. I learn a lot about writing from editing. When I edit a story, I always look for the parts which don't quite fit together or work for me. And one of the big issues I've seen lately is writers struggling to bring in enough conflict and tension to keep their stories going—and building toward a satisfying conclusion for readers.

Why You Need an Impending Internal Apocalypse

Don't just throw random obstacles in your characters'' paths. I see this a lot. Some writers like to make characters jump through hoops to test their relationship. What this does is lessen the impact of the main conflict, which should be huge. Smaller conflicts are fine, but they work best when you use them to show (remember "show don't tell"?) characterization and values of your main characters. 

Make the big conflict life-altering. The main conflict in a romance should be something which threatens to break up a relationship or destroy the chance of attraction becoming more. This is where the opposites attract or "we're mortal enemies but I love you" comes into play. You want to create an obstacle to the romance that forces either or both characters to make a huge decision about who they are and often involves a terrible choice that forces them to choose the relationship over the other goal. 

Notice a trend in films and books of someone having to choose between saving the world and the woman he loves? There's a reason that's such a prevalent theme. Anything less than impending apocalypse and there isn't enough to threaten the relationship. You can always come up with a way to avoid any other external problems. Not every story lends itself to saving the world, but you absolutely can (and must) come up with a more personal disaster for the protagonist to contemplate, and to balance against the love story. So, instead of preventing the end of the world, you must force your protagonist to battle an impending internal apocalypse.

Casablanca: We don't have the end of the world, but we have Sam still in love with Ilsa, and she's ready to sacrifice herself in trade for her husband getting the travel documents. She thinks Viktor's important enough that he has to leave, no matter the cost. Sam knows he holds all the cards, yet at the moment of truth, he realizes that he isn't that bad of a guy who would force Ilsa to stay to save her husband. Ilsa chooses her husband's cause over her marriage and the fact that it doesn't take her long to make the decision tells Sam everything he needs to know. Ilsa doesn't love him and they'll never get Paris back as long as that's true. While Casablanca isn't a true romance (no HEA for the main characters) it's a perfect example of the kind of larger-than-love choices that create the best conflicts. In a romance the love wins, or also works out, while the external conflict is appropriately addressed. 

Let's try our own example of how to take a so-so conflict and make it even  more powerful

Example: Let's take a love triangle. We have a lawyer, and actor and a bad guy who can't get over being dumped by the actor. He wants to break up the lawyer and the actor, by threatening the lawyer. ( I write gay romance, so there's often an issue of homophobia, even for characters who are out. You can easily find a parallel conflict that has the same impact.)

The antagonist "blackmails" the lawyer with a threat to publish some racy pics of the actor back when he did some embarrassing work before he got well known and make it clear that the well-respected lawyer is in a relationship with this less-than-respectable actor. This could make the lawyer's life a bit uncomfortable. But should he give up the actor to prevent his from happening? Not much of a threat unless one or both are hiding. If both characters aren't afraid of being outed, it's a tame conflict and won't really break them up. It might cause some ripples and really it threatens the actor's career more than the relationship, but the lawyer will probably stick with him and they'll both be stronger against the antagonist. It can serve to show some characterization of both characters by how they discuss the potential threats.

Let's make it worse: The lawyer happens to work with children who are victims of abuse. He also lives in a conservative town where he's not exactly in the closet, but he's not broadcasting his private life. The antagonist wants to break him up with the actor, and threatens to tell not only that the lawyer is gay but that he might be abusing the very kids he's representing. In a conservative homophobic town the combination is enough to destroy his career. 

The conflict here: should the lawyer break up to save his career? We now have a very worthy main conflict. The lawyer loves his job and helping kids. Is he willing to risk this to keep a relationship with the actor? The facts in the case against him don't even need to be proven to wreak havoc for him. 

The lawyer's dilemma becomes a decision between the two most important things to him: his job, where he helps a lot of people, and the person he loves. How is he going to fight back? Will he fight back? How will the fight affect him and affect the relationship? This leads to the potential for a lot of drama and pain for both main characters.

Why does this matter? For readers to believe the relationship, it must be fantastic enough to compete with the other main internal goal of the protagonist. Of course this also requires that the love interest be worth any and all sacrifice. (We'll discuss that another day).

How to Set up the Internal Apocalypse

So, the key to discovering the best conflict is to know your characters before you start plotting out how you'll try to wreck their lives. Ask your characters some key questions. Go beyond the typical goal, motivation, conflict. 

What makes him tick? What is his dream job, life, etc? What will he endure to achieve it? What will he give up to achieve it? What is the worst thing you can do to this character? What is his biggest fear? What is the worst thing that ever happened to him and how did he respond? How did that change his life? Why is the love interest the right person for him? What will he do to win/keep this love? What won't he do?

You don't need all that stuff in your story. But you need to know it to figure out what is going to get your character upset, because you need to do that to make the conflict real. You have to threaten what he most loves and believes in. Sometimes trying to come up with a few early life episodes can really make the character come alive in ways you never expected. You can't just threaten something important to him, you must go after his most important identity, beliefs and concerns.Then find his limits and threaten or actually push him past those.

Anything less and it's not enough for real impact to the relationship or the story. Your characters don't have to be saving the world, but they have to be fighting for something approaching a life-or-death situation for themselves (or someone they care deeply about). 

EM Lynley writes for Dreamspinner Press, Silver Publishing and Torquere, edits for several erotic romance publishers and provides editing and writer coaching for private clients. She has worked in finance, the wine industry, and high-tech, though she'd rather be writing sexy man-on-man romance. She spent 10 years as an economist and financial analyst, including a year as a White House Staff Economist, but only because all the intern positions were filled. Tired of boring herself and others with dry business reports and articles, her creative muse is back and naughtier than ever. She has lived and worked in London, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., but the San Francisco Bay Area is home for now.Visit her online: http://www.emlynley.com or email at em@emlynley.com