On Conflict

A good friend of mine said to me last night, "sounds like a great conflict."

Another good friend several year's ago reminded me that each character needs an external and an internal conflict.

As writers, we must torture our characters.

I never intended to write a series. I hate series. Typically, stories that run in series read like one great big story with very slow pacing. Or perhaps, more so, pacing that feels the same in all the books. And after several books the rhythm becomes predictable.

The friend who reminded me about internal and external conflict wanted a sequel to my manuscript, the one I'm marketing to agents now. I knew in my head what happened next, and in telling her, she became captivated and asked me to write it. So I did. The third volume came purely as therapy when I lost a job and needed to distract my own brain from my troubles.

At that time I had a two-year-old and I wrote 180,000 words in 31 days (July 2007). Whenever my daughter slept, I was at the keyboard.

This is what my experience with a series taught me:

• Each book needs to "up the ante." In other words, the bad things that happen to the characters/ their struggles need to increase significantly with each volume. To keep the reader interested, to keep them guessing, and to make sure they can't predict your writing.

• If the characters change, their internal conflicts must change with them.
• One character should be struggling with a conflict across the entire series. The end of this conflict should signal the end of the story.

If I look at my first book, the following items happen:

• One person dies, one person almost dies
• There is a car accident
• There is a medical emergency (not related to the person who dies or the person who almost dies)
• The reader witnesses two murders.

If I look at my favorite character, he experiences the following in the first book:

• Relationship issues (who doesn't?)
• He *gains* something he never expected he would
• He loses a friend
• He has health issues

In the second book, he:

• copes with losing his importance in his own company
• becomes impotent
• has a bad leg AND a bad heart
• hangs out with the wrong woman
• must rescue his wife and newborn son from a bad situation he caused
• survives a serious house fire

And in the third book, he:

• corrects #1,2 & 3 on the list above
• has an affair
• almost loses his wife
• ends up tortured (literally)

In the end, his wife is the hero(ine), and there is a "happily ever after" ending, but see what they must endure first? Oh, I am so evil.

Dark Secrets

I've been working recently on a new secret for Étienne. It's not exactly "new" and it's not exactly "secret" but it deepens the emotional reaction he has to a friend's suicide at the end of the first book in my series.

Everyone in my fiction universe knows that Étienne was quite the ladies man in his youth-- everyone except his mother. His grandmother, his wife, his mother-in-law, his friends, most of the media. They all know. His older brother often jokes, with a certain jealously, that Étienne's adolescence unfolded like a porno.

Comments like this peppered their conversations in younger days:

“I can’t help it,” Étienne said. “If they would just keep their clothes on I could say no, but once they’re naked, my resolve falls apart and I make love to them.”

“This is what I don’t understand,” Edmond replied. “How do you manage to get them naked without trying?”

That's why everyone was quite shocked when 19-year-old Étienne fell in love with Basilie Saint-Ebène and settled down. He directed all that sexual energy toward his wife and whatever was left over he funneled to clients as flirtation to make them feel beautiful and buy the clothes.

Most of the women in Étienne's life still talk to him. Many of his former lovers are now clients who receive deep discounts. This bothers his wife somewhat-- that he surrounds himself with these women to which he has such emotional bonds.

And then there's Ghislaine. Étienne was 17 or 18-years-old when he met Ghislaine. They were friends and lovers for several years and had a very open relationship. Ghislaine had been the one who cooked the stew for Étienne and Basilie's first date (and seduced Étienne on the kitchen floor the night of). But the antics stopped when Étienne realized Basilie was "the one." And he and Ghislaine parted ways, mostly because Basilie made her uncomfortable. She died in the early 1980s when she ODed on heroine.

That's the established "what was."

But what if Étienne didn't break it off so cleanly. What if Ghislaine loved him deeper than she cared to admit? While engaged, Basilie and Étienne spent a great deal of time apart, on separate continents. What if, occasionally, Étienne visited Ghislaine "for old time's sake."

Now, in the story line, Basilie gets frustrated with her family and shortens her engagement and marries Étienne a year ahead of schedule. The pending marriage is announced in the paper. What if this is Ghislaine's only notice that the marriage has been moved? She'd be livid. And what if, two weeks before the wedding when the announcement appears, she confronts him and he takes he to dinner to talk it out and somehow they end up in bed again.

They agree it's over, afterwards, but Ghislaine misses him and in her search to fill the void, meets new friends-- the ones who introduce her to heavier drugs. And what if Étienne, with his wife still primarily living abroad (after erroneously assuming Étienne would apply for a visa and join her), watches this disintegration.

Étienne and Basilie married mid-August 1979. Basilie left in September, returning for "Thanksgiving" (which of course isn't Thanksgiving for her). What if Ghislaine ODed the first week in November and Étienne blames himself?

Similar to how he feels about his friend committing suicide now... Oh, yes, that sweetens the conflict. Because it's as if he were killing the women he loves... And he can't complete confide in his wife...