One of the first things a fiction writer needs to understand is the journey a character makes from the beginning of his or her story to the end. We here in the trenches call that the character arc. Interesting stories show the emotional develop of the character(s) as they face the roadblocks the author throws at them. Those problems should be both internal and external and the conflicts should balance out as to which. When the Universe tossed the following into my inbox, I had one thought…

Would you ever take a journey, Silver, if you knew ahead of time that you’d become hopelessly lost, have your heart broken into pieces, and sometimes wish you’d never been born?

Now, how about if you knew ahead of time that on that very same journey you’d later find yourself, fall passionately in love, and live happily ever after?

Yeah, I know, you made the same choice a long, long time ago.

Que bueno,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®
Silver, it’s all downhill from here (in a good way).

…ROMANCE NOVEL! Going into a romance, the writer AND the reader know going into the story that things will work out. There WILL be a Happy Ever After, but the hero and heroine have to face their personal demons–internal and external–as well as their emotional journey with each other. So, the next time someone asks you about writing character arcs, you can borrow this. Especially if you write romance like me. 🙂