Okay. I admit it.
I'm a Classic T.V. Detective Show Junkie.
Perry Mason, Mannix, Magnum, P.I., Hart to Hart, Remington Steele… I love them all. But, as good as they were, they don't come close to the Master, the King, the Big Kahuna of them all: Columbo.
He's the greatest, isn't he? With his rumpled raincoat, chewed-upon cigar and his signature line of "just one more thing," it's hard to beat the Lieutenant. And, perhaps the most amazing thing about this classic show is that we, the television audience, knew just who did it from the very start.
Which is why I think a good romance novel has a great deal in common with Columbo. Hey, stay with me here! I'm not suggesting you model your next hero after Peter Falk. That might be a bit of a stretch. But, let's face it. When you pick up a romance novel, you already know that the hero and heroine are going to fall in love and live happily ever after. It's a given. So what keeps people reading when they know the ultimate outcome? The same thing that keeps us glued to the set when Columbo's on the case.
Conflict.
We know when we pick up A Romance Starring Brad and Judy that Brad and Judy are destined for each other. What we don't know and what keeps us flipping the pages are the obstacles they encounter on the way to their happy ending… a.k.a. conflict.
What's that? Did someone mention characterization? Well, yes. Characterization is important. Can you imaging our beloved Lieutenant in a well-pressed Armani suit spouting the King's English? It wouldn't fit. But, as entertaining and colorful as the character of Columbo is, we wouldn't watch two hours worth of Peter Falk sitting on his a--, chomping on a cigar and talking about his dog, Dawg.
Ho hum!
Do create terrific characters. Don't expect them to carry your manuscript by themselves. Give them some hurdles to leap over, some mountains to move, some conflict to resolve.
Are you seeing a theme here?
Make your characters do something other than just falling in love. Everyone knows that is going to happen. Throw in some surprises, some twists and turns in their road to happiness. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? And obvious? Ah, here's the catch.
Don't throw everything at them at once.
As writers, we've all heard of manuscripts (and maybe even written a few) that suffer from the dreaded sagging middle. Ick. Just typing the words makes me shudder. For those few of you who write perfectly plotted prose the first time around, a sagging middle is a story that starts out like gangbusters and then just goes bust, somewhere in the middle. Nothing is guaranteed to lose a reader faster than a sagging middle. So, how do you avoid this plotting peril? You guessed it.
Conflict.
Well-placed conflict, to be exact. Earlier I spoke of making your characters leap over some hurdles. Well, it's not a bad analogy. Think of a track that has been set up for the hurdles. What would happen to the hurdler if the barriers were bunched up close together toward the beginning of the race instead of placed at even intervals throughout the track? He or she would barely get his/her feet on the ground before having to hop up and over again. It would be exhausting for the athlete and the spectator alike! The same goes for conflict and your characters. If you place too many burdens on your hero and heroine at the beginning of your story, they will be worn thin by the time your story reaches the middle. Even worse, your reader will grow weary right along with the characters.
So, are you wearing out your characters and heading toward a sagging middle? Here's an easy way to find out-and I do mean easy. Trust me! As a seat-of-my-pants/I-don't-have-any-free-time type of writer, I don't use any plotting technique that isn't simple. Draw a circle on a piece of poster board-just like a running track. Think of your overall story (c'mon, it's there in your head even if it isn't written down). Add evenly spaced hash marks around the circle to indicate your chapter breaks. Then place big a big X at even intervals within the hash marks--about every 2-3 chapters. These x's mark the spots (hee hee)where you plan to introduce another layer of conflict within your story. If you are a seat-of-the-pantser, you won't know what the conflict is until you are sitting down and writing it; if you are a plotter, you can include a brief summary of each obstacle you will introduce at each x. Keep the chart near your desk for reference. It is a handy reminder of approximately which chapters need an extra "boost" of conflict.
Oh, and just one more thing. Have fun!
When Eva Fox Mate is not watching classic T.V. detective shows, she is an unpublished
romance author who is trying hard to change the UN part.
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