What would ………………… do? You can fill in the blank with whatever name you want. If you’re a writer, it’s something you do every day. You know where the story is going, but the day-by-day details of getting there are the actual mystery. If it’s a romance, you know the two main characters will somehow overcome any odds they face. Your readers know too. Let’s say you decide to have your characters go for a dinner meal. The male character decides to visit a restaurant he’s never been there before for their meal. The woman reacts negatively to the restaurant as soon as she sees what it is. What is going to happen? You were surprised by the woman’s reaction. I have had characters refuse to do things. I can never write a coherent scene when the character refuses to cooperate with me. When this happens, I have to go back and ask myself, what was the purpose of this scene? Was the male character going to pop the question, or was there another reason for the scene?
When a character refuses to do something, I have learned to treat that refusal as a way to make the story richer. Let’s go back to the original premise: what was the purpose of the two main characters having a meal together? For the time being, I put that purpose aside. Why did the woman react negatively to the restaurant? I can use the reason to make the woman more human. Something negative happened at that restaurant. She got sick after having a meal there, maybe? We need the event to fit a romance novel. What if a previous boyfriend had taken her to dinner there to dump her?
We’ve got the beginnings of a great scene and a way to flesh out the woman’s character. Instead of a restaurant scene, the two can discuss how the woman feels about what happened there. The other important fact would be how the man reacts to her story.
In a romance novel, the two main characters will get together in the end, but along the way, we learn more about each one and, in doing so, care more about them. I always treat the refusal of a character to do something as an opportunity to enhance the novel.
