Also, like any good literature/fiction, everyone sees the story differently.

And Elisabeth, I agree with you that the MH line/guidlines are hard to figure out. But, the only way to get there is to keep trying.

Barbara

Elisabeth, we love a bit of contention! I think we can drive ourselves crazy trying to work out what the “Rules” are and then apply them religiously to our stories. The danger there, for me anyway, is losing my voice and losing the story ‘cos I’m so busy making sure I’m ticking off the boxes!
The internal conflict, I think, has to be the source of the relationship block, the things that need to be resolved so they can get together. It’s often the deepest darkest secret stuff than no-one wants to ever reveal to another person. The characters may only hint at it in their thoughts, or the clues will be there in their reactions to situations. Early on in the story, the external situation probably will dominate, but we need to have those clues and hints there, alluding to the internal conflict that must be the driver for the black moment.
Anyway, that’s what I’m trying to do, with varying degress of success, in my WiP! Must go read today’s post as I think this is probably just what Jax is talking about today.

It was the lack of conflict BETWEEN the hero and heroine which has me bemused, as we are told in the writing guidelines to have the hero and heroine not only meet as soon as possible, but start revealing clues about the internal conflict which will keep them both apart as soon as possible so the reader is given a hook by which to judge the characters actions.

But I can’t see any signs of conflict BETWEEN the hero and the the heroine anywhere in Lucy’s first chapter.

That is why I made my (contentious?) comment about MH guidelines being so fluid that they are not particularly helpful to us wannabes.

Cheers,
Liz

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for the excellent post. This is very helpful for me. There is so much detail, I am going to have to print it out and keep it for reference!

I am looking forward to seeing you published as well!

If I could comment on Lucy’s chapter, I saw the heroine’s internal conflict as that she wasn’t the type of person to just take a plane flight with a total stranger. Plus, was she really such a person that her sister had to put her up on the internet as a “damsel in distress?”

Lucy did a great job of putting it in the chapter without throwing it in the reader’s face.

Now, I may be wrong about what I saw, but I bet each one of us would have different impressions.

Keep up the great work, Lucy and Jackie!

Barbara

Did you get the inspiration for “Bid for Love” from James Blunt?

As writers I think we pay more attention to the ‘negatives’ than to the ‘positives’, as it’s the constructive criticism that makes our work better, rather than the praise – but you must have noticed that you got more praise than you did criticism. Yay!

I guess this is one of the points about external v. internal conflict. If internal conflict is what I think it is (and heaven knows I’m no expert) then it’s likely to be a pretty big deal to the character concerned and not something you’d be all that willing to share with someone you’ve just met. I reckon this builds the tension. The more they get to know each other as the novel progresses, the more their internal conflicts matter and the more they have to lose.

My Chapter 1 (I’d thought!) had hints about my heroine’s inner conflicts. As it was all from the heroine’s pov there was no opportunity to go into the hero’s backstory/motivations. Chapter 2, on the other hand, does, I hope, shed light onto this!

Phew, it’s lucky a chapter isn’t a story, eh?!

Lucy King/Roberts (who has no idea how to backlink either)

I can see now what MH meant about Kate living in a vacuum, which I didn’t get before.

And I do – now – understand Kate and Alex’s conflict stemming from the protest situation.

However I would not have thought either of these two points were beyond the scope of a rewrite.

I still loved the sparkle and wit of your writing, and will be very disapointed if I am not buying a “Jackie Coates” story soon.

And now I am going to add something quite contentious.

I absolutely loved Lucy Roberts 1st chapter as well, BUT nowhere at all in that chapter did I see ANY conflict at all – external or internal – between the hero and heroine. Just humourous, sexy banter. There was some backstory for the heroine, but none at all for the Hero. He was living in a vacuum in that chapter, as far as I could see.

Which leads me to despair at times. It seems to me that although there is a set of rules for wannabe writers to follow, the editoral staff dispense with these when it suits them. Which in turns means that trying to meet their criteria is very hit and miss.