This week Amalie Berlin talks about adding conflict. Please welcome Amalie!
The Importance of Romantic Conflict in Romance
The best thing I ever did for my writing was embrace the
concept that all my character conflicts should be related. Writing got a lot
easier, and my stories got a lot clearer and more focused when I began to come
up with one unifying conflict theme and then work it through all my GMCs for
each character. This is not to say that you can’t have disparate Internal and
External GMC threads, but your story immediately gets bigger when you do so and
will take more effort to tell well. You make your life harder going that route.
The second best thing I ever did for my writing was make
defining the Romantic Conflict for each character at the start when I do all my
GMCs and character planning. The final tweak to that was realizing that my best
romantic conflicts spun out of the Internal GMC.
Romantic Conflict:
What keeps the couple apart. This is the obstacle to their Happily Ever After,
and why they are going to have to sort all their crap(those GMCs) out before
they can be together.
In the first two books I sold, I did not start out with that
Romantic Conflict planned. I assumed just because I had really well fleshed out
GMCs, that the characters were sufficiently interesting and harried to carry a
story. And they did, but those first drafts? Weren’t really romances. They were
stories about how two people became best friends. I basically rewrote both of
those books twice each, and those rewrites were all about pulling forward the
Romantic Conflict and giving it the time and spotlight it deserved. Those
rewrites made the books I had always intended to be romances… actually
romances.
It’s very easy to hand wave Romantic Conflict—leave it
undefined, generic, just rely on the idea that the character(s) are just too
messed up somehow to be involved… without ever giving the real reason words.
But without making it clear exactly why these two people shouldn’t be together
along with why they feel compelled to fight it… that aspect of the story can
remain undeveloped. If that happens, you lose this extra conflict outlet, and
that leads at the very least to less satisfying romances.
For example: In my October release, my heroine’s main
driving goal in life is to stay safe. Orphaned young when her parents died in a
car accident, that loss has kept her from connecting with people. To stay safe.
She has one connection—her brother—who is her polar opposite, and worrying
about him all the time is about enough to drive her mad. She has no use for the
idea of dating and marriage, she just doesn’t think she can take on one more
person to worry about and possibly lose. She doesn’t want to love someone
she’ll never feel is safe.
Staying safe is a very big factor in her life, and so her
Romantic Conflict spins directly out of her Internal/External GMCs(staying not
just physically safe, but emotionally safe too). If she doesn’t love anyone
else, she can’t be hurt when something happens to them.
Tying their romantics obstacles directly into those internal
fears give you an automatic outlet to ramp up the emotion when the characters
start to get close. But it also allows you to really focus your story. Instead
of having your romantic conflict be unrelated and thus needing a separate
thread to address, your scenes that test those GMCs can also test the romantic
thread. In category romance especially, it is important to make every scene do
as much work for your story as you can(short books are hard!).
In my pre-story planning, I consider the Romantic Conflict
to have its own GMC. I say I have three GMCs per character, and that’s why.
Having them all there together keeps me focused and helps me understand how
each element of the story relates to the other. I’m attaching a snapshot of my
3-GMC chart for Adalyn below to make it a little easier to see in action.
Amalie Berlin's latest release is:
Falling for Her Reluctant Sheikh
Falling for a desert prince…
Sleep therapist Dr. Adalyn Quinn has had difficult patients before…but gorgeous Prince Khalil Al-Akkari presents a whole new challenge! Darkly brooding, and haunted by the night he failed to save his brother, Khalil is the last man Adalyn should desire…
But as they share long nights under a desert moon it becomes impossible to deny their sizzling chemistry. Can Adalyn help Prince Khalil recover the peace that eludes him…even if it means unlocking the heart she's protected for so long?
Buy Links:
Love that chart. I was reading a book just this week where there was absolutely NO barrier to romantic resolution. And I felt cheated. Truly cheated. I know the author loved how it played out, but what about the lowly readers?
ReplyDeleteIt really shows when it's not there, though when you're just starting out it's not necessarily something you realize. My first editor had to practically beat me over the head to get some romantic conflict out of me :) Well that, and other emotions besides snarky humor.
DeleteI hear you. All of us have to grow into our art.
DeleteDebra Dixon!!! I attended her workshop on GMC back in the mid-90s. She was a member of one of the Southern RWA chapters and she traveled to ours to do a day-long workshop. So awesome! I still follow the concepts today. There's a book called GMC by Debra Dixon--not sure if it's still on Amazon or not, but pretty much everything you covered is all anyone needs to know.
ReplyDeleteIt is on Amazon! In fact, you can get it in e-format now, within the past year or two that changed. When I bought my copy in like... 2011... it was only in hardback still. And it's great, but I still have trouble separating out all the bits. If you look at my chart, everything is there that I need, but it's not necessarily in the right header ... not neat and clean within it's box, it all sprawls out all over. I don't think that's because of the book--the book explained everything--I just have trouble categorizing stuff. I blame the dyslexia :)
DeleteThat's a fantastic chart and great way to set up the romantic conflict and make it central to the romance along with the character's external/internal goals.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I didn't show the rest of my plotting, but I have loads more charts. It is way too much to put into a single post, and when my pantser friends see my process... it's almost seizure-inducing for them :)
DeleteConflict is an essential. It is part of all of our lives, and should be part of all of our reading too (if it is to be believable).
ReplyDeleteLoved that chart...
Totally agree. Be mean to your story people :) Your readers will thank you! (And your editor won't have to shake you...)
DeleteThanks :)
This is a terrific post about something all writers should keep in mind, not just romance writers. Gotta have conflict to drive a story. Who wants to read about perfect people living perfect lives?
ReplyDeleteYour latest book, on the other hand, sounds... perfect. :)
Not me! I want to read about people who are more messed up than I am--which is kind of a tall order, so I usually read books where the characters are a bit more together than I am... but the ones I dearly love are the hot messes :)
DeleteAnd thank you. My Sleepy Sheikh is my new favorite book. Surpassed even my debut in terms of favorite-child-status now.
Thanks for sharing that chart. I love to see how others plan.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing other people's processes too. Every time I make a tweak to my process(usually by stealing something from someone else), I'm convinced that it will make writing easier. Which is my ultimate goal, and ultimate lie to myself. It gets a little easier over time, I think, but I like to tell myself it will be SO MUCH EASIER THIS TIME :)
DeleteI live in a state of professional denial :)
It's interesting to see how authors plot out a story.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I have so many craft books I should really start donating them to the library... And why I love conferences and workshops. And the RWA national recordings...
DeleteI probably need a 12-step program for this fixation, actually.
There most certainly needs to be conflict in a romantic relationship... otherwise the story would be incredibly boring... xox
ReplyDeleteNot just conflict, but romantic conflict! I swear I had really really conflict-riddled characters before I sold... I just took forever to figure out how to spiral those internal issues into romantic roadblocks.
DeleteThanks for sharing how you chart out your story. Very helpful.
ReplyDeleteYour book sounds like a great read.
Thank you and you're welcome :)
DeleteThat was definitely a helpful chart, and gave me some good things to think about!
ReplyDeleteThe other aspect of the chart that I love? I print them out on huge index cards and write on them with multi-colored ink and it makes me feel like I'm in some 80s movie-montage about being organized and doing work... in the library, with a bunch of books piled up alll around... and a typewriter... even though I don't have a typewriter, and I don't like to work with people around... And with Solsbury Hill playing in the background :)
DeleteYou know... because if you imagine the work in montage-form, it's way less scary to start a new book.
(I know I'm weird.)
Thanks so much for the advice, Amalie! I read something years ago that said, "No conflict, no story." That stuck with me, and I appreciate the additional insight you offered here. Happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteThank you and you're welcome! :)
DeleteI had a great weekend, went to an all day writing workshop with a great friend. (And bought more craft books so I can learn stuff!).
That chart looks really helpful to keep everything straight. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIf I don't write stuff down and make myself put it into words, nothing is ever straight in my head.
DeleteI really envy people who can just flow with the story, but at least this lets me claim multi-colored pens and index cards as legit business supplies... not just me buying pens and index cards because I like to buy pens and paper products... :)
So glad you put the chart in as I had no idea what a GMC was (other than the car brand). Thanks for all the tips that worked for you. Wishing you much success!
ReplyDeleteGoal Motivation Conflict! There are different ways to get that necessary foundation into stories, but this one is the easiest for me to remember. Michael Hague's conflict structure does the same thing, though he doesn't focus on romance... but you can find a summary of the idea here: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/08/the-inner-struggle-guides-for-using.html
DeleteHello, Amalie! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Squidy! And thanks for having a fun ID... so I can call someone Squidy today :)
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing the chart and for learning about the best things that Amalie has learned. :) Wishing her all the best!
ReplyDelete~Jess
Glad it was helpful :) And thank you!
DeleteI always think about conflict in general, but this really opened up my eyes to the idea of romantic conflict.
ReplyDeleteIt was a hard lesson for me to learn, so if I can help someone else avoid all those future rewrites, the post was well worth it :)
Delete