I have been looking in a variety of directions to help mature and development my writing. My research has started to change the way I look at the stories I have completed, the ones I am working on and the plots I have for future work. So much of what I have plotted, written and thought of is a jumble now and the direction of my ideas is confusing me. It makes sense that while I am trying to develop my author voice I am compelled toward a broader spectrum of characters and plot device.
I have one story nearly finished, and then in a moment I huge change in direction came to me. This would disturb the main characters assumptions about themselves and each other, and drawn in the secondary characters as well. Lines of alliance will be drawn. Where did this come from??? It has stimulated my imagination but there is a lot of re-writing to be done to fit this huge redirection. I know these people pretty well and it will be interesting to find out how they respond to this major alteration to their lives.
It may change the beginning of the story.
I will need to be true to the time period and what would be the expectations and assumptions of the cultural influences at that time. There was a huge difference in what was acceptable in Boston and Billings in the late 19th century.
Another thing that has altered in my writing is the sex. As I have read many stories I find that romance and romantic scenes don’t have to necessarily include graphic sex. In fact I have read books that the graphic sex seemed to be a filler to make up the required page count and adds nothing to the heart of the relationship.
What is romance?