So emotional

I've been stuck in a scene for two days. Has that ever happened to you? It's the weirdest thing. It felt as though I wasn't connecting with the characters so they wouldn't let me move forward. Very frustrating.

In the scene, the hero confronts the heroine about an issue that's very personal and important to him. At first I thought I'd have the hero appear slightly vulnerable. Halfway through the scene, it began to read like a Puffs facial tissue commercial. I appreciate a hero who's in touch with his feelings, but this was a bit too heavy-handed. It was making me sick.

When revising the scene, I decided to give the hero a temper. Three quarters through the scene, I realized the hero needed to be dialled back a notch or 12. If someone - man or woman - spoke to me like that, I'd smack them really hard and that would be the end of our story.

What to do? What to do?

Finally, I realized the reason I was writing in circles is that I was focussed on the very personal and important issue rather than having the hero react to the heroine. There are two characters in the scene. I needed the hero to react to the heroine in order to move the story forward.

That's my lesson learned.

Patricia