Two dogs. One bone.

I’ve started a new wip (work-in-progress) and while I’m excited and have a lot of angst and conflict planned for my characters, the core conflict between my hero and heroine doesn’t feel strong enough to carry the entire book. Or at least it’s not fleshed out enough for me to see it. So I started looking around for ways to define that backbone and nail it down. (Ouch, that sounds painful, doesn’t it?)


Insurmountable Odds

The mantra, "If your hero is a fireman, your heroine had better be an arsonist" came to mind. One source attributed this saying to a Sandra Brown workshop. Not that my characters are firefighters or arsonists, but the analogy seemed to fit. I understand the logic behind the above statement, but without some plot details, where do you go from there? Maybe she’s a “former” arsonist? Or someone pressed into torching buildings against her will? Whatever the reason, the reader knows the truth and can root for her, but the hero doesn’t. The idea is to make the conflict seemingly insurmountable for your main characters, but figure out how to actually surmount those obstacles by the end of the book.

If your hero is a rich Roman aristocrat, your heroine better be a Jewish slave.

That’s from A Voice in the Wind, by Francine Rivers. If you’ve never read A Voice in the Wind, it’s awesome. By reading that one-liner , you’d never believe the two could get together. But they do. Torn by her love for a handsome aristocrat, a young slave girl clings to her faith in the living God for deliverance from the forces of decadent Rome.

Redeeming Love, also by Francine Rivers:

If your hero is a devoutly Godly man, your heroine better be a fallen woman.

This is the retelling of Gomer and Hosea from the Bible. Gomer is not a godly woman, and Hosea is a prophet. He buys her off the auction block, not once, but twice. Okay, the Biblical story is about Jesus loving us so much that he purchased us with his blood to save us, so it’s a story within a story, but telling the story again in a new era is even more poignant. Francine does a masterful job of taking an insurmountable premise and bringing these two characters together by the end.

If your hero is a rancher, your heroine better be a vegetarian.

I love this frome Buffalo Gal! Mary Connealy is a master at developing plot premises with characters so far apart we wonder how in the world she’s going to pull it off. The premise of Buffalo Gal is a vegetarian and a cattle rancher go to war and fall in love. I haven’t read Buffalo Gal yet, but I’m already scratching my head trying to figure out how these two will end up in love. But if anybody can make it happen, Mary can!

If your hero is a conscientious objector, your heroine better be a Civil War widow.

Another book that does a wonderful job of setting up two characters who are far, far apart in their ideals is Always to Remember, by Lorraine Heath. For refusing to pick up a gun for the Confederacy, Clayton Holland was branded a deserter and imprisoned during the war. When he returned home to Cedar Gove, Texas, he was given a coward's welcome, spurned by everyone in town. To Meg Warner, Clay's presence was a constant offense: a betrayal of the cause for which her husband and brothers died.

As punishment, she commissioned Clay, a talented sculptor, to create a memorial to honor Cedar Grove's fallen heroes, hoping that every name he carved into stone would carve remorse into his heart. But as Meg spent months watching Clay work, she began to see strength instead of cowardice. And she discovered that a hero could be found in the most unlikely of men. That passion could be sculpted from a heart hardened by bitterness. And that sometimes--like courage--whispers instead of shouts.

If your heroine has sworn off men, your hero should deliberately pursue her.

Camy Tang’s Only Uni: She wants to stay away from guys because of her new Corinthian Rules for life, and he's deliberately pursuing her to make her fail her rules. On the surface, this sounds more subtle than the above scenario, but it’s as life-changing and important for the heroine in Camy’s story. I don’t want to give away the plot points, but read Only Uni and you’ll understand the importance of the heroine’s determination to stick to her rules.

Some romantic movies with Insurmountable Odds:

Pretty Woman
Far and Away
Gone With the Wind


Two Dogs. One Bone.

This is another bare bones plot premise coming from a different perspective. Your two main characters, (hero and heroine in a romance) want the same thing and somebody’s not going to get what they want. Or are they? Again, you’ve got to resolve this to where they share the bone by the end, at least if it’s a romance. Or maybe they both give up the bone for the greater good of someone else. Just like in the insurmountable odds above, the reader’s got to be rooting for both the hero and the heroine.

One ranch. Two owners.

In Marrying Mariah, my 2004 Golden Heart winner, there’s one ranch and both the hero and heroine believe they own it. It wouldn’t be much of a romance if one ends up with the ranch and the other rides away, would it? So either they end up with the ranch together, or even someone else ends up with it.

Julie Lessman supplied me with her pitch for A Passion Most Pure, saying she wasn’t sure if it fit a simple formula: Rival sisters with strong faith—one in God, the other in herself—turn the head of a heartbreaker who proposes to one and falls in love with the other.

This story is somewhat more multi-layered than a tradition romance so we get two for one. Not to compare poor Collin to a bone, but we could say that Faith and Charity are fighting over Collin. Another layer to this book is the insurmountable issue of Faith’s faith in God vs. Collin’s lack of faith. One or the other must give in from their stance at the beginning of the book.

Two gals. One guy.
If your heroine is a devout Christian, your hero better be an unbeliever.

A few movies with two dogs, one bone:

Princess Bride: the princess is the bone
Pirates of the Caribbean: the Black Pearl and the treasure are the bones
Shrek works for both Insurmountable Odds (Shrek and Fiona) and two dogs, one bone (Shrek and what’s-his-face both want to marry Fiona.

I’ve outlined two basic premises, the “if he’s a firefighter, she’d better be an arsonist” where total opposites meet in the middle, and the “two dogs, one bone” idea of fighting over something tangible.

One other thing. A great story will have more layers than just one. I’m sure if we get into a discussion of Pirates, (and we probably will! lol) we’ll discover several layers, but I’m looking for that main thread that is woven all the way through the book. The backbone, remember? That’s the thread you’ll come back to over and over throughout the book, and the one that the reader wants to see resolved satisfactorily in the end.

What are some other catch phrases that might jumpstart story ideas? Also, what books or movies fit into one of these categories?