We invited author Rachael Thomas to share with us about her latest release, New Year at the Boss's Bidding. There's a Kindle copy giveaway of New Year at the Boss's Bidding!
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Reaching the HEA
You’re almost at the end of writing your book, about to reach the happy ever after, but will it really be what your characters deserve? The temptation for you as the writer to reach that happy conclusion too quickly can leave a reader feeling cheated and unsatisfied. Equally a long drawn out ending where the happy ever after becomes lost in all the whys and wherefores can irritate a reader.
A romance reader expects a happy ever after – or even a happy for now ending, so as writers of the genre we must deliver it, despite the fact that the reader has known from the very first word of you book that it will end happily.
Here are a few things I’ve learnt along the way to help your characters reach their ultimate happy ever after.
1. Know your ending – Work out before you start writing how the characters are going to reach their happy ever after. If you are a plotter, you’ll love this tip, but if you are a panster it will not feel right. It is important to have some idea of what your characters are going to be experiencing as they go on their journey and writing a synopsis before you write the story can be a very useful tool.
2. Love and war - Ensure your characters have had times in their story when they did get on with one another, when it did look possible for that happy ever after – until something else was thrown in the path of happiness that is!
3. All neat and tidy – Throughout your story questions will have been raised by your characters’ actions and these need answering to give the reader a sense of
completion. Don’t wait until the last few pages to pack it all in. Instead filter it throughout the story, but keep that real big issue for the black moment, the point in the book where the reader wonders how your characters will ever come back from that point and reach their happy ever after.
4. The last word – Let your reader see, with dialogue or actions, as the characters work things through for the last time. Resist the temptation to tell them it all ended well and they lived happily ever after – show them, let them be there as those final words are said.
New Year at the Boss’s Bidding
Moretti's by midnight
Jilted bride Tilly Rogers hopes her luck is changing when she's offered a prestigious catering contract for billionaire businessman Xavier Moretti's New Year's Eve party. But then she ends up snowbound alone with her boss…and at his bidding!
It's the end of the year and the end of Tilly's contract, which leaves Xavier free to seduce her at his will. Hardly shy of a challenge, this notorious playboy makes it his resolution to have virgin Tilly crumbling by his experienced touch.
Before the snow settles, Xavier is determined to have Tilly under a brand-new set of tantalizing terms!
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
New Year at the Boss's Bidding
by Rachael Thomas
Giveaway ends January 19, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
It can't be easy to write an intersting book knowing that the reader expects it end only one way... many of my family read this type of book and love them... xox
ReplyDeleteIt makes it so much easier when you love them yourself! Thanks Launna.
DeleteI used to binge read on HEA romance novels, and laughingly called them "potato chip books." Then, I swore off of them for a long time, in pursuit of weightier tomes. Now, I read both. Even though some people think of romance novels as being too formulaic, in that they already know how it's gonna end from the get-go, I say it's like having a whole plate full of delicious eclairs. You know exactly how great they're gonna taste, but why should that stop you from eating them? PLUS, sweet delicious romance novels don't contain a single calorie!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous analogy Susan. I love it - and eclairs!
DeleteGreat advice!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly!
DeleteGreat tips! A poorly executed HEA ending can really make me dislike a book!
ReplyDeleteThanks Meradeth, I totally agree.
DeleteIt must be hard having to deliver what the reader expects. I think I'd have to see where the story took itself, perhaps that's why I'm not an author.
ReplyDeleteIt's only hard if, as the writer, you don't believe in a happy ending. Thanks Jo.
DeleteAwesome thoughts. I take issue with the abrupt, and then it's over kind of endings. My preference is to have decent amount of falling action and end with a sigh.
ReplyDeleteI just love it when I've invested in reading a book and get that sigh at the end. Thanks Cyrstal.
DeleteThose are all good tips for writing stories that end happily ever after. I guess readers are always looking for that kind of ending, but you have to have some kind of conflict before you get there.
ReplyDeleteMost definitely Sherry. Lots of it!
DeleteGreat points about the HEA. I've never written one, but I'll keep this in mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks Medeia!
DeleteGreat advice! I don't write romance, but all my stories have happy endings, too, so it applies.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie. I just love a happy ending!
ReplyDeleteI like happy endings, so when the author lets me savour them, I appreciate it.
ReplyDelete