So. It’s been a week and a half. I’m still in a brain fog. The older I get, the harder it is to make the adjustment. Just an hour, people say. What’s the big deal? Trust me. It’s a BIG deal. Okay, that’s my gritch of the day. It’s Thursday. Actually, it’s Wednesday (hence the week and a a half timeframe above) but I’m too befuddled to make sense until around 10 a.m. each. Which sucks. I’m not getting much done. I’m beta reading but I need to be sharp, awake, and aware to do a good job. It’s a slog–not becaquse the book is–it’s all kinds of awesome!–but because my brain is slow to react. Writing? Pffft. What’s that? Hey, I do have almost 4K words written. Too bad they are random scenes. Okay, I’m through whining. This is Thursday. The Universe has thoughts.
For millennia, Silver, the path to enlightenment has been made up of many steps.
Most commonly, it begins with festering misunderstandings that lead to pain.
The pain then leads to growth, the growth then leads to clarity, the clarity then leads to fun, the fun then leads to joy, and the joy then leads to true illumination.
May I recommend skipping to the fun part?
Love you forever, Silver –
The Universe
©www.tut.comP.S. Yes, Silver, you can.
This sounds like the basic steps/formula for a book, right? Especially a romance, but also any book. Think about it. Every book needs conflict (ie. festering misunderstanding. Wow! Isn’t that an image?!?) Then comes the pain. Gotta torture our characters, right? Indeed. But only up to a point. More on that in a moment. The whole point to the conflict is so that the characters can grow. They figure it out (clarity). They make up and that leads to the fun times. Then they get the HEA (joy). This is true for literary stories and any genre tale. Skipping to the fun would be nice in real life but in the stories we read? It’d be pretty boring if everything was rainbows and lollipops the whole time. Am I right?
Now, as for torturing characters. As mentioned, I’m all for this–up to a point. I want the MC(s) to end the bookbe in a good place at the end of the book. In series, this might be a “Happy Right Now” and there might be a bit of a cliffhanger–which I hate. I strive more for a hint of what’s coming next. True story: I found a UF/paranormal series that I really liked. It was different. Fresh. Sisters with “gifts.” Tahoe setting. I eagerly looked forward to each new release. Until I didn’t. I dropped the series. Why? Because the main sister and her romantic lead never got to be happy. Every book ended with them being torn apart. There was never even a hint that they had ANY happiness together. So, I was done. Have no clue what happened to them. Don’t care. My point is, listen to the Universe–whether as a reader or as a person living your life. Always strive for the fun. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Silver James 
You and the Universe are absolutely right. I do love how the Universe recommends skipping right to the fun but how much fun wis it really if you don’t work for it? It’s always better when you have skin in the game,
I would have dropped the series too. We need the HEA.
As for the time change, Rubio, Kennedy, and Trump better fix it. Just leave it alone on standard time. DLS is so bad for our health, don’t get JFK, Jr. started 😉.
Have a great day!
We can hope. There’s a state bill stalled out here right now that would make us like AZ and HI even if Feds do nothing. I’m worried they’re waiting on Feds to do something and while there might be a majority, even the right side can make a mistake and go the other way, no matter how many times we remind them of the 199974 fiasco!
I’m with you. If you don’t work for it, you don’t appreciate what you have! ❤
You and me in the brain fog together. :over here making foghorn noises: Thanks for doing the beta reading even if it’s not helping with the brain fog. Yeah, let’s skip the festering misunderstanding part and go straight to fun. Although, we probably shouldn’t skip the clarity part. And yeah, skipping any of the harsh parts would make fiction pretty darn boring. Bummer about the series. The writer should’ve given you at least some HEA closure. (Although, come to think of it, I had similar criticism of my genie books because Jo and Zeke never come together. The HEA there is that, by the end of book 4, she’s finally happy with herself, mind you, but I think readers were expecting a romance. :shrug:)
While I was on Team Zeke, I knew that the Djinn books were true Urban Fantasy, not UF/Rom. Disappointed, yes, but not upset. Much. 😉 In the series I was referring to, it was a BIG romance through all the books I read. Together. Torn apart. Back together. Torn apart, no hope. Back together. Ad infinitum. They may have finally gotten the HEA but I was done long before the end of the series. LOL