Erin Nicholas | The top five challenges of writing a second-chance romance.
Everyone loves a great second-chance romance, right? Two lovers finding each
other again. The idea that love conquers all. The romance of never getting over
The One and having a chance to make it all right again. But there are challenges
to writing these stories too and that made After You one of the harder Sapphire
Falls books to write. Here are some reasons why :-)
Someone was probably a jerk.
Sometimes break-ups are amicable and people just grow apart and both admit it.
But not usually. Usually someone does something that hurts or upsets the other.
Which is real life. We all screw up and make mistakes. But when itโs characters
in a book, the writer has to be careful so that readers donโt hate the character
from the very beginning. They have to have understandable, and
forgivable, reasons for the break-up.
Theyโre not always going to be happy to see one another.
Obviously, in a romance, the characters have to spend time together in order to
work through everything and figure out how they feel about one another. But
theyโre probably not going to be that happy to see each other at first. Itโs a
tough balance between making sure thatโs real-- that no oneโs giving in too
easily or coming off weak and yet not having them fight for pages and pages and
pages.
They have to spend time together.
As mentioned above, they have to be together in order to work through
things and figure out how they feel. But there has to be a good reason for them
to spend time together, and actually spend some real time talking, as exes. In
real-life, it might just be easier to avoid one another entirely. But in the
book, they have to be together. So coming up with a good, believable, workable
reason can be a challenge.
Someone has to apologize.
Which means that they have to be sorry. But that means that the reason for the
break-up has to make senseโฆ readers have to understand why they felt the
break-up was the way to goโฆbut it also has to be something theyโve grown past.
That can be a challenge because, as the author, you donโt want to make the
break-up trivial. But you also canโt make it something impossible to overcome.
They have to have sex.
:-) Okay, I suppose that could be debated. Letโs just say, in my books,
my hero and heroine need to have sex. I think itโs an important part of
relationship development and hey, itโs fun! So there has to be an opportunity
for that to happen in the course of the book, in spite of the fact that someone
was a jerk and they broke up and there are hurt and angry feelings swirling
around. But the sex has to make sense. There has to be chemistry in spite of the
break-up. There has to be an acknowledgement, even if itโs just in their heads,
of feelings that go beyond lust in spite of everything. There has to be mutual
consent to take their clothes off in spite of everything J So it can be
challenging getting them to the point where they are willing to acknowledge
these feelings and be vulnerable with one another this way. But boy is it fun
when that happens :-)
~ Return to Sapphire Falls in this new novel from the little town with lots
of heat and heart ~
Only one thing has not gone according to Kyle Amesโ grand life plan.
Hannah McIntire.
She was his first love, the woman he planned to make his wife, the one that got
awayโall that romantic crap.
Two years ago, Hannah broke his heart and ruined all of his dreamsโฆ not
necessarily in that order. Which has been, well, not exactly fine, but heโs
handling it because he doesnโt have to see her every day.
In fact, Kyle had kind-of hoped to keep up with the not-seeing-Hannah thing for
at least a couple more years. Or a couple more decades. Or forever.
But now sheโs back in town to help her grandmother, Kyleโs patient and one of
his favorite people, recover from hip surgery. Okay, so two things havenโt gone
according to Kyleโs plans.
Itโs only for six weeks. Surely Hannah can survive living in her hometown and
helping her grandmother for six short weeks. If she doesnโt leave the house any
more than absolutely necessary. And puts on the show of being the same girl they
all remember. And absolutely avoids Kyle Ames.
But that plan evaporates the moment she sees Kyle again. And then things get
worseโway worse. Kyle plans to also put on a show too. To make Hannahโs
grandmother happy, he has to pretend that he completely forgives Hannah and
wants her back. He doesnโt. But he and Hannah are the only ones who know that.
And the pretend seduction quickly starts feeling far too real and Hannahโs
having a hard time remembering that sheโs supposed to be resisting the whole thing.
And then thereโs the not-so-tiny complication of falling in love with Kyle all
over again. And the fact that heโs falling for her too. And that theyโre both
realizing that maybe this time theyโre doing it right.
Romance Contemporary
[Author Self-Published, On Sale: July 21, 2017,
e-Book, ISBN: 2940158759086 / eISBN: 9780998894676]
I've been reading romance since my mom first let me into her book cupboard
when I was about fourteen. LaVyrle Spencer, Julie Garwood, Debbie Macomber...
they took my 'happily ever after' ideas from animated princesses to real people
in the real world.
I've been writing romance almost as long. Many a family car trip was spent with
my head bent over a spiral notebook in the back seat. I'll confess that my very
first attempts at fiction were fantasy and paranormals, influenced by my
father's love of the Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the
original Alice in Wonderland. If Harry Potter had been around, I'm sure he would
have been on the bedtime story shelf as well.
But it wasn't long until I started writing about true love and that's where I've
been ever since.
I'm so thrilled to be able to share these stories with you! I hope that they
make you smile, sigh, maybe even choke up a little. Most of all, I hope that
they help you believe in magical things like first kisses, the spark of passion,
and the power of true love.
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