Choosing Sides

Missy here. I'll be giving away a copy of my new release, His Forever Love, today in a drawing from the comments. So please leave your comment and contact info!

I'm reading The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman. In his chapter on conflict, something he said really struck me. He said:

Conflict serves many functions: It involves the reader by requiring him to take sides (and thus sympathize), it creates a rift that paves the way for resolution and satisfaction, it aids in suspense, it can lend a work a sense of direction, and it can be unexpected and thus create unpredictability.

Wow. I loved that first bit—that it requires the reader take sides! I think I’ve talked before about making a character sympathetic. But the way Mr. Lukeman stated this made it really sink in for me.

Here are some examples of characters that have drawn me right in and had me cheering for them.

*From Mary Connealy’s Of Mice…and Murder:

Being named in Great-Grandma’s will was like hitting Bankrupt on Wheel of Fortune. The whole family held their breath while the wheel ticked around and around—or rather, while the lawyer opened the envelope. Then they all heaved a sigh of relief when the wheel stopped on Carrie’s name.

Carrie the heiress. Great.

Clean up the house.

Clean up the yard.

Clean up Great-Grandma’s rap sheet.

“I don’t know why it has to be me,” Carrie grumbled.

The empty kitchen—empty except for the garbage that Great-Grandma Bea had been amassing all her one hundred and three years—mocked her with its silence. (end excerpt while Missy snorts a laugh!)

I just loved that! There’s conflict for ya. Carrie’s an heiress to a mess. I already feel sorry for her. And I love her attitude. And her hero, Nick, is a to-die-for geek (I love those beta heroes). Here’s what happens after he “saves” Carrie from a mouse is and trying to get the nerve to ask her out…

She gave him that wide-eyed-wonder look again. Nick knew he had the social skills of a swamp rat. He’d never held one in his arms before. A woman, that is. He’d had a swamp rat or two in his grasp during Vertebrate Zoology in college.

To be or not to be a science geek or math geek, that was the question. Nick wanted to kick himself. Internal sarcasm with mutant Shakespearean quotes was a really bad indicator of coolness.

Dear God, could I be cool just this once in my pathetic life? … (skip a few paragraphs)

He could do this. How about dinner? Five syllables. He took a deep breath. “How about—”

“Nick, I’ve got to ask you a few questions.” (end excerpt)

You’ve got to love a guy who’s finally getting the nerve to ask her out, and he gets interrupted. :) And I just love his humor.

*From Act Two: a Novel in Perfect Pitch by Kimberly Stuart:

I once had a therapist who blamed my dislike of children on the Korean
War. I was never entirely sure how she made that connection.
Something to do with my father’s inability to serve because of bunions.
Or maybe it was my much-analyzed only-child complex. At any rate,
she left private practice to become a consultant for Montel, and I was left
with my visceral distaste for Baby Gap and Shirley Temple healthy and
intact.

Children unnerved me. They moved like their internal remote was
stuck on fast-forward. I never knew how to protect myself. That particular
winter morning, for example, I was tempted to think the little girl with a
velvet ribbon in her hair was benign, cherubic, even. And the next thing
I knew, she reached over to wipe a cocoa-sopped little mitt on my new
Burberry skirt. (end excerpt)

I had so much fun reading this book. Her heroine bordered on unlikeable because she could be snotty. But I just loved her anyway. What made her sympathetic was that she was at a crisis point in her life and career, and you just had to pull for her. Plus, she was hysterical. She would say and think things that I might wish I had the nerve to say! :) And the conflict is that she’s forced into a fish-out-of-water situation—the New York City diva on a pig farm in Iowa. Great conflict.

*From Courting Miss Adelaide by Janet Dean:

Adelaide Crum stepped to the open door and peered into the judge’s chambers. Her heart hammered beneath her corset. Now that the moment she’d waited for had arrived, her courage faltered. She considered turning tail and scurrying home. But then she remembered the quiet, the emptiness of those rooms. She closed her eyes and sent up a simple prayer. I don’t ask often, Lord, but I’m asking today. Please, let them say yes.

Squaring her shoulders, she crossed the room, then sat on one of the two chairs and faced the four men who held her future in their hands. To fill it with something, she laid her purse on the vacant seat, a seat that mocked her singleness. (end excerpt)

Okay, Janet’s got me feeling totally sympathetic toward Adelaide right out of the gate! I was hooked in the first paragraph, but then that was doubly so when I found out the heroine was painfully single. Haven’t most of us been there? Having to bear some burden all alone? And we definitely choose sides with her against these townsmen. Great conflict setup here.

*And from my new release, His Forever Love:

Time flew backward at warp speed for Bill Wellington when the name Lindsay Jones popped up on his cell phone.

Warm summer evenings studying on the front porch swing. Working together on projects.

Holding hands around The Forever Tree.

But then he hurtled back to the present as he realized there could be only one reason why she would call.

Granny.

He snapped opened his cell phone. "Lindsay, is Granny okay?"

"She's fine. Sorry to scare you."

He had programmed Lindsay's number into his phone when Granny hired her as a caregiver, so he'd assumed the worst. Relief nearly brought him to his knees. He waited for Lindsay to say more, but she remained silent. "Lindsay?"

"I'm sorry. I—" She sighed. "Your granny did take a fall, so I wanted to let you know. She has a mild concussion, and they're going to X-ray her wrist. But the doctor said she'll be fine."

Tension raced across his shoulders and ran up the back of his neck. "How did it happen?"

"She fell off the back porch early this morning while taking out the trash."

Poor Granny. "She's at the hospital now?"

"Yes. They'll probably keep her overnight for observation."

"I'll head down there as soon as I can get a flight."

"Oh, you don't need to do that. I'll stay with her. And Granny Bea didn't even want me to bother you."

She thought he'd be bothered? "No, I want to come check on her. Other than Drake, she's the only family I have."

She sighed again. "Do you need a ride from the airport?"

With all the sighs, it made him wonder what she thought of him. Or did she even think of him at all anymore? "No, thanks. I'll rent a car."

He closed his phone and clutched it in his palm. Lindsay Jones. Smart, beautiful, kind, funny. Since he'd avoided all the high school reunions, he hadn't seen her in nearly fifteen years.

A thrill at seeing her surged through him, then immediately plummeted. He hated the thought of heading home to Magnolia, Georgia, for more than a quick weekend. It would mean facing the townspeople he had escaped right after graduation.

It would mean facing Lindsay, as well. The woman he'd been crazy about from the age of ten, with whom he'd fallen in love in high school.

The woman he'd held hands with around The Forever Tree. And had thought he was destined to marry. (end excerpt)

So here I tried to show a bit of his backstory—which will be fleshed out later. But we see a hint of the unrequited love. And we see he didn’t fit in in the town. Plus, now he’s forced to go to take care of his injured granny and to face the woman he used to love. I’m hoping that makes the reader pull for him.

What about you? Are you characters sympathetic? Do you have enough conflict that your reader will want to take sides? Share with us how your manuscript is going!

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Missy’s new release, His Forever Love, is available now at eharlequin.com and Amazon.com and other online booksellers! Leave a comment with contact info for a chance to win a copy today! Also, you have another chance to win if you visit Missy at the Five Scribes Blog today!