Marketing for Romance Writers Magazine April, 2020 Volume # 3, Issue # 4 | Page 20

JANUARY, 2020
IT TAKES TWO TO TANGLE—
RELATIONSHIPS THAT MOVE YOUR STORY
By: Alice Orr
It Takes Two to
Tangle, in real life
and in storytelling.
But, whether a fic-
tional connection is
romantic or not, the
other person in your
main character‟s rela-
tionship exists, mainly, for the purpose of
moving and intensifying your hero‟s
story.
The second character gives your
hero someone to talk to, moves her
thoughts into dialogue. Which cuts
down on internal monologue that slows
the pace of the story. Dialogue appears
more active on the page than paragraphs
of uninterrupted narrative, and more ac-
tive to the reader‟s consciousness also.
This dialogue must, of course be interest-
ing and compelling.
How do you make dialogue inter-
esting? First, by creating a complex, fas-
cinating story mate to match your com-
plex, fascinating hero. A mate whose
opinions and attitudes differ from those
of your main character. They may be
mates in general, but they debate, irritate
one another, and even openly conflict on
occasion.
These conflicts are usually varia-
tions in attitude rather than violent
disagreements. They force your hero to
articulate her feelings and beliefs. This
allows your reader to know her better
and identify more closely with her, which
is critical to hooking the reader into your
story.
The second character need not be
portrayed as sympathetically as the
hero. This mate character may be in the
process of evolving, with something ma-
jor yet to learn in life. He or she may or
may not accomplish that goal in this
story, unlike your hero who must learn
and grow.
You should also contrast these
two characters in more external ways.
Family and cultural background, life ex-
perience, economic and social status,
physical appearance. These differences
provide potential for fireworks in the
relationship, which may be sexual or not.
Either way, they enflame reader interest,
and that heat serves your storytelling pur-
pose.
In real life, we prefer people to get
along, but, in fiction, too much har-
mony is boring. Conflict in a story rela-
tionship makes that story more interest-
ing. However, you, as author, must un-
derstand what storytelling conflict is.
Banter back and forth between charac-
ters, no matter how clever, is not strong
enough conflict to create compelling fic-
tion.
There must be a crucial problem
between the characters for real con-
flict to occur. The greater the problem,
the more intense the trouble between
them becomes, and intense conflict is the
heart of strong storytelling. These two
characters may basically like, or even
love, each other, but if they get along too
well for chapter after chapter, they lose
the reader‟s interest.
You must create characters with
the potential for legitimate contention
between them. Most importantly, cre-
ate an active hero with the strength to
stand up for herself and what she be-
lieves, and to defy opposition. She is a
person who refuses to remain passive
while bad things happen to her, or to
those she cares about. This portrayal
makes her defiance believable.
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