Loose Change

Romances are traditionally supposed to have Happily Ever After or at least Happy For Now endings.  If they don’t they may be love stories, but genre romance they are not.

Now there are plenty who say that’s too constricting.  And yes, it is a restriction in one way.  But it’s also a challenge.   I’m fairly sure most romance readers do not read to the end wondering if the lovers will be happy at last.  In fact when they discover someone dies or the romance falls apart, they’re often shocked or feel betrayed.  In their contract between author and reader, the romance readers expect the happy end.

They’re less likely to feel shocked or betrayed if they don’t believe in the happy end – but they’re also unlikely recommend the book or buy another one from that author.  That’s the challenge.  How do you create a journey where two disparate beings (or three or four) have sufficient challenge to the relationship to make people read to the end AND create a satisfying ending where the challenges are sufficiently overcome to make readers believe these characters are going to keep their relationship going?

That is where the writer has to do the work.  A good writer  can shake readers’ faith enough to make them read faster but not destroy that faith.  They’ll stop reading if you do that.

Treva Harte

EiC

www.loose-id.com