Story idea
So I've decided I want to write a romance novel. I know I'm really in no position to write a novel about romance, but maybe that's why I should. Because I know what I want based on what I don't have. I'm pretty confident I know how to write a guy women will fall in love with. I'm not really sure what the conflict will be, but know who my characters will be.
Oh, and I've had some beer tonight so I may not be as clear as I'd like. But I came up with this idea yesterday so the beer has nothing to do with it.
Okay, the main character is a woman, of course. But I decided I don't want her life to parallel mine as it is right now. That's what I always try to do- I try to write from my own perspective and while that may be therapeutic, it's just too hard to gain perspective. But there will be some obvious similarities because, as they say, write about what you know. So the woman is about my age and she's just had a book about her 20s published; a compilation of her journals. Like me in a way, I know. I'm not sure if they're actually PUBLISHED published, or maybe printed in an alumni journal by her old university. Either way, it's the first stroke of success in her life and she's finally pulled out of the rut she's been in for the past few years. Her life now has direction. But she's struggling to handle the success and fame. I guess for this to work, it has to be a major publication and not through her school. But anyway, so she's having trouble handling it all...not that she's SUPER famous, but you know. She just ended a very stale, dead-fish relationship because the guy- who thought she was a dead weight- actually turned out to be a dead weight and all she needed was clarity to see that. I won't focus much on this point because I don't like the idea of a love triangle, or maybe I do. But the breakup will show that she's strong and not a woman just desperate for a man in her life. But she is hard up. So she's on her way to her first reading in California or wherever but, as I said, she's having a hard time handling all the fame and benefits offered by a publishing company, so she decides that she'll take a road trip to get out there and camp along the way. She doesn't want to lose sight of who she is.
But before I go any further on that topic, allow me to establish another point: the story starts off with her talking about a reoccurring dream, much like the dreams I've been having about the perfect man. We come to find out it's about a man she met a few years ago. Of course he's the Jan character except their relationship had a little more depth. But I think I'll still make him foreign, that way the relationship wasn't allowed to run its course so the what-if factor still dangles above her head. It's hard to break off a relationship in the puppy-love stage. It's like blue balls. Trust me, I have experience with this. Not that I have balls, but I broke off a relationship before it's prime and I know how frustrating it is on every level. So this figure in her dream is her ideal man and she knows it's based off of the Jan character (we'll call him Kai), but she doesn't really want to admit it because she understands the ramification of admitting that to herself.
So while on this road trip she meets this guy with curly red hair who's kind of teddy bear dorky. He has copper-red hair and is just nice and honest. He helps her fix her tire on the side of the road and then they meet up again later at a campground (we find out much later he went there because she had mentioned it during their first meeting). They act cordial and friendly while at the CG, but she's a little annoyed by him. She wants to be left alone with her thoughts of Kai because the book she just had published is mostly about him and she's dealing with all these emotions, plus knowing there's a chance he'd read it. Then that night at the CG a raging storm breaks out and the red-head comes to her tent with a flash light and tells her she can sleep in the back of his SUV with him because she only has a small sedan. She accepts because she has no other choice. They spend the night talking and while she thinks he's nice, she's not ready to see him for what he really is.
And that's as far as I've gotten. I'm not really sure what the conflict will be in the story. But I have my characters. I just want the reader to think she's going to go for Kai and not the red head, but I'm not sure how to do that.
Oh, and I've had some beer tonight so I may not be as clear as I'd like. But I came up with this idea yesterday so the beer has nothing to do with it.
Okay, the main character is a woman, of course. But I decided I don't want her life to parallel mine as it is right now. That's what I always try to do- I try to write from my own perspective and while that may be therapeutic, it's just too hard to gain perspective. But there will be some obvious similarities because, as they say, write about what you know. So the woman is about my age and she's just had a book about her 20s published; a compilation of her journals. Like me in a way, I know. I'm not sure if they're actually PUBLISHED published, or maybe printed in an alumni journal by her old university. Either way, it's the first stroke of success in her life and she's finally pulled out of the rut she's been in for the past few years. Her life now has direction. But she's struggling to handle the success and fame. I guess for this to work, it has to be a major publication and not through her school. But anyway, so she's having trouble handling it all...not that she's SUPER famous, but you know. She just ended a very stale, dead-fish relationship because the guy- who thought she was a dead weight- actually turned out to be a dead weight and all she needed was clarity to see that. I won't focus much on this point because I don't like the idea of a love triangle, or maybe I do. But the breakup will show that she's strong and not a woman just desperate for a man in her life. But she is hard up. So she's on her way to her first reading in California or wherever but, as I said, she's having a hard time handling all the fame and benefits offered by a publishing company, so she decides that she'll take a road trip to get out there and camp along the way. She doesn't want to lose sight of who she is.
But before I go any further on that topic, allow me to establish another point: the story starts off with her talking about a reoccurring dream, much like the dreams I've been having about the perfect man. We come to find out it's about a man she met a few years ago. Of course he's the Jan character except their relationship had a little more depth. But I think I'll still make him foreign, that way the relationship wasn't allowed to run its course so the what-if factor still dangles above her head. It's hard to break off a relationship in the puppy-love stage. It's like blue balls. Trust me, I have experience with this. Not that I have balls, but I broke off a relationship before it's prime and I know how frustrating it is on every level. So this figure in her dream is her ideal man and she knows it's based off of the Jan character (we'll call him Kai), but she doesn't really want to admit it because she understands the ramification of admitting that to herself.
So while on this road trip she meets this guy with curly red hair who's kind of teddy bear dorky. He has copper-red hair and is just nice and honest. He helps her fix her tire on the side of the road and then they meet up again later at a campground (we find out much later he went there because she had mentioned it during their first meeting). They act cordial and friendly while at the CG, but she's a little annoyed by him. She wants to be left alone with her thoughts of Kai because the book she just had published is mostly about him and she's dealing with all these emotions, plus knowing there's a chance he'd read it. Then that night at the CG a raging storm breaks out and the red-head comes to her tent with a flash light and tells her she can sleep in the back of his SUV with him because she only has a small sedan. She accepts because she has no other choice. They spend the night talking and while she thinks he's nice, she's not ready to see him for what he really is.
And that's as far as I've gotten. I'm not really sure what the conflict will be in the story. But I have my characters. I just want the reader to think she's going to go for Kai and not the red head, but I'm not sure how to do that.