WELCOME TO
RWA/NYC’s HAPPY ENDINGS BLOG TOUR!
June being
the month of Brides,
we thought it apropos to talk about Happy Endings.
Visit us this week and learn what some of our members think about the much sought
after and often elusive “Happy Ever After.”
One of the cardinal rules of
romance is that a story has to end with a happily ever after. But does that
mean a couple has to say, "I love you," at the end of every romance?
Maybe not.
It's a question I asked myself when
I wrote "Seduction in the Snow". The story unfolds over a week at a
ski resort. Both Evan and Lydia tell themselves that their sexy hot tub
encounters are just a vacation fling. Lydia is particularly tough to sell on
the idea of love. Having seen relationship after relationship fall apart after
a few short months, she’s scared of the big “L” word.
Of course, this is a romance so we
all know where the story’s heading—for the happily ever after—but given Lydia’s
resistance to the very idea of love, I didn’t feel that a big, “I love you,”
exchange at the end of the novella would be fitting with her character.
Instead, I decided that Lydia and Evan should show us their deep commitment and
potential for future happiness in a different way.
As authors we have a responsibility
to really get to know our characters. What are their fears? How can we push
them out of their comfort zones? Would they actually say the words that we’re
writing on the page? While “I love you,” is the backbone of many happily ever
afters, it doesn’t have to be if it doesn’t fit with your character’s
personality.
Another thing to consider is your
book’s timeline. Romance authors tell stories that unfold over decades, months,
weeks, days. There’s such vast variation in the timelines in our genre that a
one-size-fits-all approach to the happily ever doesn’t always work. If a
character is more in touch with their emotions and open to the idea of falling
in love, the, “I love you,” exchange rings true. But we know our heroes and
heroines will continue to grow after our stories are complete. If that’s the
case, “I love you,” may realistically take them longer to get to.
Whether you decide to have your
hero and heroine say, “I love you,” or not, the most important thing to
remember is that it’s our job as authors to write a convincing love story. That
means you’re not just telling the reader that the hero and heroine love each
other. You’re showing their deep commitment through the actions and
emotions. Write your story with that in mind, and you’ll have your readers
falling in love.♥
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: During the day, Julia Kelly is an
Emmy-nominated producer for a New York City television station. Other times,
she writes sexy historical and contemporary romances. Her first novella, “Seduction in the Snow”,
appears in the anthology ONE WEEK IN WYOMING.
In Autumn 2014, Julia’s sports-set romance novel, SECOND CHANCE GIRL, finaled
in the Contemporary Romance Writers Stiletto
Contest for Unpublished Contemporary Fiction. Visit her at www.juliakellywrites.com.
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