Stuffing Square Characters into Round Actions/Reactions

Writing a book (in my case a romance) is sometimes fun and often hair-pulling-out frustrating. It's a wonder I didn't go completely bald years ago!

My current work-in-progress (WIP) is finally to the point where the characters want to tell their own story. And they want to be together and stay that way. I'm actually having trouble keeping them off each other. I think I finally realized that all that peripheral stuff is cool, but what Jolie and Rafe really want is to follow their animal instincts. Well, of course what they really want is love, but right now it's physical attraction they're fighting. The emotional stuff will come later, though they kick and scream to avoid it. And all that other stuff that they do from chapter to chapter and scene to scene, the part that isn't about love and sex, had better be leading them through an up and down, great romantic ride. Gosh, I hope I have enough of all that to occupy them so that I don't turn this into an erotic romance! This is supposed to be another Home and Family type story.

I wonder why it seems to take me about 90 pages, and one 90-page rewrite, before I understand that the romantic conflict (why these two characters can't be together) should always be obvious and up front in the story. Hopefully it got ingrained in my brain this time, so I won't work for so long on the next story.

I like it when the characters finally start to mold themselves (with my help, and my critique partners') into what they should be. That's the magic of writing. We writers manipulate and manipulate. Quite often, I catch myself trying to squeeze a square character into a round action or reaction, or so it seems, and they just won't fit. Someone reads it and goes, "What the heck? Why is he so mean?" or "When did she decide to be wimpy?" Then I know it's because I'm trying too hard to accomplish what doesn't need to be done. All that *needs* to be there are characters who love, who dream, who are passionate about their feelings, who are endearingly obstinate, and who are right for each other in ways they don't even know yet.

Sounds soooo easy. Trust me, it's much easier to synopsize the process than it is to work through it.

Well, that's it for now. Back to Rafe and Jolie. They're wanting me to hurry up and get to the fun stuff.