This past week a friend of mine lamented her recent purchase of two romance novels. Her problem with both of them was the lack of conflict. It seems both stories had an external problem to work out, but internally… nada. The couple was clearly on the road to HEA, regardless. Their only problem was the external plot needed to be resolved, but as a couple, they were good to go. She asked me if this type of story was the norm now. After all, she’d picked up two books and they both had the same sort of setup.
As a reader, I understood what she was saying. I’d also noticed that some of the romances I’ve picked up over the last year or so lacked a “black moment.” I find that so odd. If there’s no question that the couple is going to end up together, where is the story? If the focus is entirely external plot, is that even a romance anymore? (internal conflict and black moments don’t apply exclusively to romance, but I’m talking about romantic fiction here). I’ve always thought external conflicts were important because they bring internal conflicts to a head. Sink or swim. Do or die.
My friend’s question tied into an issue I’d had with a book I’ve been trying to write unsuccessfully for months. Over the last few years, my stories have gotten progressively “darker.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to switch things up when I started the new book. Both for my sake and for readers. While I believe that an author needs to consistently provide a signature experience for their readers, I also believe that familiarity breeds contempt. I think it’s important to surprise yourself and the reader with something new within the framework of the author’s promise to the reader. (which is really another blog post altogether…)
I spent weeks trying to come up with the first chapter. It took me months to roll past the 100 pg mark. I began to dread facing that book every day, because it was a pain in the arse to write. Nothing flowed. It took me far too long to realize that by working so hard to make the book “lighter”, I’d gone too far in the other direction — there wasn’t enough internal conflict. The external plot was there, but there was a lack of internal GMC (goal, motivation, conflict) for both characters. (there was also a lack of a “ticking clock”, but that, too, is worthy of its own blog post.) I was bored because the characters weren’t growing. They were just going through the motions. In order to root for someone, they have to be working toward something. Otherwise, it’s like going to a football game where the winning team is known to all and the players just hang out on the field until the time’s up. Sure, they may be horsing around and getting to know each other, which would undoubtedly be fun to watch, but is there a story there?
The discussion about conflict spilled over to our chapter loop, where some writers agreed with my friend about missing romantic conflict and others disagreed, saying that they disliked angsty books and felt that black moments often felt contrived to them. Candy Halliday wrote a blog post about real-life black moments, because someone had pointed to black moments as the reason why they don’t read romance. For me, though, I don’t think conflict = angst.
So I was wondering… Can you give some examples of conflict that wasn’t angsty? How do you feel about conflict in the books you read and write? How about black moments, do you think they’re contrived?
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