Guest Blogger: Author Louisa George

Back by popular demand - it's the Romance Author Extravaganza! And I'm especially thrilled to hand over the reins to the gifted Louisa George, who I had the pleasure of meeting in person! Over to you, Louisa!

Hi Libby!

So lovely of you to invite me here today! And so fabulous to have actually met you. In Person. In Anaheim! What a total thrill!

Anyway, on to the blog…

INNER CONFLICT

So, I think I left my muse in the bar in Anaheim. She was being entertained by a mojito cocktail and a lovely waiter called Jason. I’d really like to have her home now, so please send her back if you see her! I’m stuck and I need her help.

So what to do in times like these? When the story has hit a wall and your brain is out to lunch? Sometimes you write yourself into a corner and it seems as if there’s no way out.

What works for me- what ALWAYS works, is going back to the core conflict. Not the silly argument the hero and heroine had in chapter two which meant they had to kiss and make up, or the misunderstanding they had in that last scene about the woman she saw him with who wasn’t his wife but was really his sister…but the CORE CONFLICT of the story.

What is preventing the hero and heroine getting together? It isn’t the visible obstacle, although an axe-wielding murderer is pretty important, but deal with him and you’ve still got to have some kind of roadblock to the romance. You need an emotional obstacle.

The emotional/inner conflict comes from some sort of belief your hero/heroine holds that prevents them from achieving their goal. In a romance it prevents them from finding love.

This conflict stems from something that has happened to them in the past that has formed this belief – usually crystallised by thoughts such as – love hurts/ love can’t last/ you can’t trust a charming man / I am worthless. They are unhealed wounds that shape the character’s way of thinking about the world and their place in it.

So, after the kiss, or after their first night of wild love-making the thing that holds the tension and the pacing of the story is how the character sees the relationship IN LIGHT OF THE CONFLICT.  This is why so many romances have a dark scene after a love-making scene- the hero/heroine cannot believe they are lovable /or that they can trust someone else so they shrug on their emotional armour and put up barriers again. Thus we have the lovely push/pull and will they/won’t they? of the romance journey.

This inner conflict is the key to story because it is key to character. And character is what makes readers invest their emotions in our books.

So, when the chips are down and you can’t see a way forward in your plot, always look to your characters’ inner journey to find your answer.

In my current release, Waking Up With His Runaway Bride heroine Mim strives to keep her independence after a childhood dominated by controlling men and her mother’s addiction. So when ex fiancé Connor turns up to decide her business’s future she fights tooth and nail to retain control of both her emotions and her medical centre.

Blurb: 

Their make-or-break reunion...

Mim McCarthy needs to focus on saving her clinic—not her insufferable yet outrageously sexy ex Dr Connor Wiseman. He might have grown into those cheekbones, but she knows he won’t have forgiven his runaway fiancée so easily! Yet it’s impossible to deny the sparks between them – their fights used to be legendary, but their making up might be even more momentous…

I’m happy to give away one copy – all you have to do is leave a comment!

Waking Up With His Runaway Bride is available in ebook from: 

Mills and Boon

And in paperback (free postage worldwide!) from:

The Book Depository

Visit me at www.louisageorge.com

Or: http://louisageorge.blogspot.com