I caught my heroine sitting at a small cafe on the Left Bank smoking a cigarette and drinking espresso, watching the happy couples go by. Hunched in her trenchcoat, she straightened her sunglasses and muttered "What eez 'appiness?"
Unfortunately for Maria, she is actually traveling in a curricle with the hero in 1808, heading towards Derbyshire and the moors of the Peaks District.
I really dislike writing introspection. It is too easy to lose control of the characters. I like writing action scenes. I prefer movement. But I need these little bridge scenes before I get back to the violence. Romance characters think and feel too much. They are not pestered by the mundane concerns like what to fix for dinner. They have much grander issues to apply themselves to. Maria slept with the hero, fell in love and found out the next morning her feelings weren't reciprocated. Now she is stuck in the carriage with him for hours alone and I've got to get into her head. As you can imagine, it isn't pretty.
But I need to show her motivations for what comes next. My reader needs to understand why she acts the way she does, it is necessary for the external conflict. Just a few more pages and the action returns.
2 comments:
I love writing introspection but hate writing action scenes. :-)
Yes, that's right. I think I'm going to write an article about writing action scenes for the e-zine next month.
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