Making a Sweet Story Interesting

I wrote a review of Elizabeth Berg's novel The Last Time I Saw You back in 2010. After reading the review, my friend Peg Case commented, "Good grief -- can't a book be written about people who are happily married?"

The simple answer, is no.

And now, as I write Book 3, I am reminded of that every day. This is a sequel to Where Love Once Lived which ends with Karen and Brian getting engaged after thirty years of heartache and separation. It took more than eighty-thousand words to get them to this happy place in their lives. Now, I have to start the conflicts all over again.

Why?

Without conflict, you wouldn't read the book. And if you did, you'd be able to quit reading anytime you wanted to. There'd be nothing to get you to read on, to learn what happens next. You wouldn't care what happened to the characters.

That makes it even harder to write sequels. Some of you who read Where Love Once Lived have written to tell me what should be in the sequel. You want Liz to get a boyfriend. You want to know what happened to Laura. Did she have her baby? Some have asked how the marriage between Josh and Cindy is doing. I think many of you care as much about these fictional characters as I do.

The logical place to start the sequel is with the wedding between Brian and Karen. After all, we left off with their engagement. But, that's too happy. Not enough conflict. I want you to keep reading. What if the bride doesn't show? What would that do to the happy couple? What if Liz meets the man of her dreams, but he isn't the man he pretends to be. What would she do if she found out?

See what I mean. I can't tell you more now. I don't want to spoil it for you.

If you want to write a novel that keeps readers reading, keep this in mind: Every scene has a goal that is never achieved.

Older Characters as Leads

I used to think the lead character in a novel had to be no older than thirty-five. At least that is the way it seemed based on the books I read. I often wondered how those kids got to be so wise. Then, when Jan Karon came out with the Mitford series novels, her main character, Fr. Timothy Kavanaugh, an Episcopal priest was sixty and single. Eventually, he falls in love and gets married in a future book. In the last book I read, Fr. Tim was seventy. There is another Fr. Tim book coming soon and I'm anxious to see how old he is now. Jan Karon's book sales have not been shabby so I suspect there are a lot of readers who like stories about older people.

In Where Love Once Lived, sixty-five year old Liz is bugging Brian about why he quit going to church. Here's what happens as he tries to change the subject:

“I’m going to tell you about that one day, but, right now, I need to concentrate on getting us to Hill Country on time. Why don’t you tell me why you have a picture of Big Ben on the bulletin board back there?” That would perk her up and keep her from asking him questions for a while longer.

Liz nodded back to where the bulletin board was and smiled. “Didn’t I tell you about that? That’s my goal trip.”

“Goal trip?”

“Sure. If you set a goal and visualize yourself achieving that goal, then you will.”

“It’s that simple, huh?”

Brian had a goal. He wanted to hold Karen in his arms for the rest of his life. That goal was easy to visualize.

Liz’s voice boomed back to normal. “It works. There’s scientific proof. I read about it down at the library. I’ll find that story and show you, if you want.”

“Okay, I believe you.” he said. “Why Big Ben?”

“At my age and with my meager income, I’ll probably only make one big trip in my life. So I picked England. That photo of Big Ben is a reminder of where I’m going someday. It’s massive and strong-looking, and it’s a symbol of England.”

“Great idea. I’m sure you’ll make that trip someday.”

What would Karen think if she saw her picture on the bookmobile bulletin board right up next to Big Ben? Brian’s goal. She’d probably think he was crazy. Liz would understand.

“I know,” she said. “I already have my passport. Although, I must say, I cried when I saw the photo of that old lady on it. I’d hoped to travel as a younger person, but it wasn’t to be.” She grinned so big her cheeks pushed up to her eyes, but he could see the regret in her face.

In Elizabeth Berg's The Last Time I Saw You, one of the characters talked about her surprise when she looked in the mirror and realized she had aged. She had not thought of herself differently until it was time to go to her fortieth high school reunion. All the characters in the story were in their late fifties and it was good reading.

I'm sure you can think of many examples of older main characters in novels, and I'm sure there are many successful ones. However, the main character in my next book is thirty-one, just in case.

The Importance of Conflict in Novels

I wrote a review of Elizabeth Berg's novel The Last Time I Saw You. After reading the review, my friend Peg Case commented, "Good grief -- can't a book be written about people who are happily married?" (See the review here: The Last Time I Saw You.)

Peg's comment reminded me of something Bonnie Hearn Hill said to me when I took one of her writing classes. I don't remember the exact words, but it was how I needed more conflict in my writing. She said I was probably a nice guy who didn't like conflict, but I needed it in my writing to hold the reader's interest.

She was right about me. I don't like conflict and have avoided it all my life. But I wanted to write a book people would read so I started studying conflict and looking for ways to include it in my manuscript. Since I was writing a story about two people who get back together after thirty years and fall in love all over again, I had two protagonists and no antagonist in the story. No villain. No one to stir up trouble.

I added a character who was mean and let her get in the way of the progress of the main characters in the book. For more conflict, I made her meaner. I think you'll like the way it turned out. But, still there wasn't enough conflict.

One day I saw something on All My Children, a soap opera my wife never missed, and I couldn't avoid without leaving the house. On this day, I saw what Bonnie had been telling me about conflict. On the show, two characters could argue about something until one was convinced the other was right and then the other would wonder why and change positions so they could continue the fight. Evidently TV viewers and readers like this.

There is a scene in Where Love Once Lived between the female protagonist, Karen, and her best friend Cathy where this happens. Cathy is trying to convince Karen to tell Brian, the male protagonist, about what happened in Karen's past. Karen disagrees at first, they argue about it, and then Karen agrees. Cathy then decides Karen shouldn't tell him. It sounds silly describing it here, but I think it works in the story.

There are other ways to build tension in a story, but a certain amount of conflict keeps the pages turning.

Final Text Changes Made Today

Today, I made the final text changes to Where Love Once Lived. That scared me because every time I look at the manuscript I find something else to change. For example, I just happened to see this:

She felt the heat of his body and his familiar scent, both so strong she turned away.

Yikes! She couldn't have felt his familiar scent, not unless it was burning her nose. I changed it to:

She felt the heat of his body and smelled his familiar scent, both so strong she turned away.

Not great literature, but more accurate. This I found after millions of edits by me and several professional editors. So, I know there will be mistakes in the printed book. But, I've reached the point where it doesn't matter. Surely, there won't be anything too seriously wrong.

I made the final text changes because I received the interior proof for final approval. It was the first time I have seen the entire book in its final format. I had been wondering if it would look like a real book. It does. It's not huge. About the size of Elizabeth Berg's books. It is 5 1/4 x 8 inches and has 296 pages. The Microsoft Word version is 310 pages, double spaced, so this gives me an idea of size for future books. Now that we know the number of pages, the cover designer will know how wide the spine is.

CreateSpace recommends printing the interior proof out so you can see what it looks like on paper, but I only printed the first chapter. Then I scanned the rest of it on the computer screen. It looks pretty good. It would have been much longer if I hadn't cut out so many of the subplots. I kept everything and might find a way to use some of it in another book. But, I like the way the book ended up. It contains just what is needed for an interesting story.

Next week, this blog will be a little different. I've taken an entire scene from Where Love Once Lived and divided it into five parts. You'll be able to read one per day starting Monday, May 31, 2010. Let me know what you think about this. I might do it again sometime.

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Time I Saw You

I just finished reading Elizabeth Berg's latest novel, The Last Time I Saw You. This book is not a Christian Bookseller Association pick. It violates all the rules for that. But it is good reading as are all her books. I liked this one in particular because, like Where Love Once Lived, it is about older people getting back together after not seeing each other for many years. It is about a fortieth high-school reunion as told through the eyes of several different people planning for the reunion, attending the reunion, and then what happens afterwards.


Dorothy Shauman, the high-school beauty, now divorced and having a difficult time being alone and with her grown daughter, sees the reunion as a chance to get back together with chief jock Pete Decker. But Pete is having problems of his own. He still has his good looks, but he finds he is with a woman he doesn't like or respect. He wants his wife back, but she has decided to move on.

Lester Hessenpfeffer, the school nerd and valedictorian, is now a successful veterinarian. However, since his wife died, he fears he will never find love again. His office manager talks him into attending the reunion even though he would rather stay home and take care of his patients. Mary Alice Mayhew was never part of the in crowd, and doesn't know why she should go to the reunion. But she's curious about how her classmates turned out. She's been helping care for an elderly neighbor who decides she should go to the reunion and he goes with her.

Candy Sullivan, a high-school beauty, has just learned she has ovarian cancer. Her husband has all but ignored her for years and now he is concerned about her and offers to go to the reunion with her even though he refused to before they knew how serious her illness was. She goes without him.

The author did an excellent job writing in the various points of view. In one place, she partially repeated a scene to show it from another characters viewpoint. The story is about what happens when these characters and their friends and classmates get together again. Elizabeth Berg was born in 1948 and that makes her eligible to have attended a fortieth high school reunion. Since I've been to my fiftieth reunion, I know she is talking from experience. It was a wonderful experience reading this book while thinking about my own reunion. I just wish there had been more follow up on the characters before the book ended. But it was just enough to let us know what happened. I guess I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my new friends.