Sometimes as a writer I get caught up in the words on the page and forget what it is that keeps readers glued to a story and turning the pages until well after the midnight oil has burned out. It is the essence of what makes story–interesting characters and compelling conflicts. In real life, I often tend to avoid conflicts, so it is an ironic twist of fate that conflict is an essential part of what I love to do. I often have to go back and rewrite a story, asking myself over and over again like a Wendy’s Hamburger commercial gone bad. “Where’s the conflict? Where’s the conflict?” WTC rather than WTF. I LIKE being Polyanna and have a hard time torturing my characters and have to constantly smack myself. Well all of this was to bring up the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by JR Ward. The lady keeps conflict between her edgy characters and between her good and evil factions wound so tightly that you think you’re going to explode before you finish the book. So I have to say Kudos to her.
Currently I am still in the midst of revisions for my April 09 release KISS OF DARKNESS. I am having to go back through the story and ask that “WTC” question. So if you’re a writer, ask yourself that question with every page, conversation, or scene. If you’re a reader tell me about what shapeshifter conflicts you’ve loved reading about the most.
In my paranormal shadowmen series, my first two heros were werewolves with different conflicts. Jared in Touch A Dark Wolf was poisoned by the damned and had to fight a growing evil within himself that made him want to kill what he’d spent his lifetime to protect–the woman he loves. Aragon in Lure of the Wolf faces a different challenge, failing his brethren, he commits himself to a doomed fate in order to restore honor to his brethren. Only after his path to death is set, does he find love. In Kiss of Darkness, my hero Sam, a human who is infected by vampirism must fight for his soul as he fights his desperate desire to damn the woman he loves to the same fate as his.
It takes time to bring conflicts to the surface, but the payoff is well worth the price.
Happy Hot Summer Reading and don’t forget to share with me so of your fav shapeshifter Conflicts.
Jennifer St. Giles.