Structure As A Writing Lifeline

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When you're stuck, look at the distraction and say, Well, what can the scene actually do? And then it will trigger ideas in your brain of oh, I can do this, I can do that. And the traction is your friend. Even if you're a pantriter, when you get stuck, you go and look at the attraction and go, Well, what's kind of demanded in the story at this point? And it will give you ideas, and then you can keep writing, and then you actually finish your draft, which is the whole point of it.

Why Love Stories Feel Hard To Draft

YA Voice That Stays In Real Time

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, we're talking your romance. And even I wanted to have this after today because I've been getting a lot of questions about how to write what happened between the case. And the question I've been getting the most is some version of Definitely Not Alone. Do all the same thing. And in general, my answer is great gesture. All of those are in consideration. Apply together. You still need a strong protagonist to get stuff the most solid story structure. You need scenes that the character forward sections. There are a handful of things that sit on the point where your characters are supposed to be falling in love with the idea what to put on the page. And when you get there, you can relate to any of that, you're turning the love to regular novel with exactly what we're going to tackle. I'm so excited to welcome Christina Stanley back to the next one. And she just released a brand new book called The Young. If you're in this episode, we get into how to write why reaction scenes of the advice that says how your external plots support. And you try to make your protagonist sound younger and somehow. And that really just means the reader needs to feel like they're inside the protagonist's experience as it's happening. So not hearing about it after the character has grown up, processed it, and made meaning from it.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

But actually while that experience is happening.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

But the narration feels like it's coming from someone older, wiser, and more emotional instead of right after you did it. So to give you an example of what I mean by this, I often see lines that black the moment a little too quick. So stuff like that. Or I didn't understand it then, but that was the day everything changed. It's almost like those narrators are speaking with hindsight and that wisdom that comes from being older and more emotionally subtle. But in young adult, that kind of distance just pulls the reader out of the teenage experience. So to give you another example of what I mean, so you can see the difference, an adult leaning voice might sound something like this. I knew my mom was trying to hide how upset she was, even though it hurt to see her like that. Right. So that version is emotionally mature. The narrator understands the mother's behavior, respects her privacy, and can articulate the complexity of the moment. Now, a more young adult feeling version of that same moment might sound something like that. Mom thinks I don't know she's crying in the bathroom. Like the shower running for 20 minutes is subtle. Like her eyes don't go all red and glassy afterwards. Like I'm just supposed to sit at the kitchen table and pretend my entire life isn't making her fall apart. So same situation, totally different emotional disposition. And what I want you to notice is that the second version feels more YA because the protagonist isn't calmly interpreting the moment. They are reacting to it. I don't want to be a good thing. So there's hurt in that moment, but also irritation, some sort of attraction and self-blame. And the character doesn't have a tidy conclusion yet. They just have the raw experience of watching or observing their mother fall apart and not knowing what to do with it. Now, here's another way I want you to think of it. I'm out. So they might know something is wrong, but they might not know how to talk about it. And it can't be a good thing. Or they might be angry when they're actually just tells you, hey, they might make a joke when they're embarrassed, or they might obsess over one tiny detail because those are the truth is just too much. So that gap is where the voice tends to live and really thrive. And if you're writing or revising for your young adult voice, I don't want you to just ask, does this sound like a teenager? That leaves it. I want you to instead ask yourself is my protagonist experiencing this moment in real time?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Am I giving them too much perspective too soon?

Peer Relationships Drive The Story

Identity Level Stakes That Hit

SPEAKER_01 6:05

And then lastly, are they explaining their emotions or are they reacting from the inside? And so three quick questions you can ask if you're writing or revising your young adult voice. Now, one last thing I want to call out here is that the YA voice is often emotionally tightened. Something like a text message left unanswered can feel like a rejection. A parent's fake smile can feel like everything is falling apart. And something like a best friend pulling away can feel like the end of the work. Not because teens are silly or dramatic, but because they don't always have the distance yet to know what will matter forever and after. And this is a big part of listening and makes the why a voice work. And you recognize not trendiness, not a character who simply sounds young, but a voice that lets readers experience moments from the inside. So that is a good idea. The second secret is that in young adult stories, peers are the center of the real world. And what I mean by that is peers aren't just side characters. Friendships, crushes, rivalries, chats, lunch tables, management hierarchies, betrayals, alliances. All of these relationships shape how your protagonist sees themselves, and then we have what they believe is possible. They are literally the protagonist's world. Now that doesn't mean that adults don't matter in young adults. They absolutely do. So they're not going to be able to do it. Parents, teachers, mentors, coaches, bosses, authority figures. They can all create pressure, they can all offer support, they can all misunderstand the protagonists, they can all set rules, and they can all stand in the way. But in most young adult models, the relationships that change the protagonist the most deeply are the relationships with their people. As a quick example, if you think about the hate you give, stars parents matter as a bodyguard, but the relationships that drive the jack are with Khalil, Chris, and all of her friends at Williams. If you think about another story like Simon vs. the Homo sapiens agenda, it works the exact same way. And so does a good girl's guide to murder. Pip's investigation lives among the classmates, her friends and of course Robbie. So in all three examples, the adults are around, but the protagonist peers doesn't apply. And surprisingly, this is one of the easiest places for a young adult draft to drive to this course. And I say that because if a parent, teacher, or mentor becomes the most important relationship story, or worse, if the parent, mentor, or teacher start solving the central problem for the protagonist, then the novel can begin to feel less like a young adult story and more like an adult-led story with a teen character in it. So as you look at your own YA idea or your own draft in progress, I want you to think about a few questions. Number one is who has the most emotional influence over your protagonist? Is it the adults in their life or their peer people? Number two, who hurts them, challenges them, tempts them, or helps you. Again, is it either their life in their life or their peer career? And finally, is my protagonist driving the resolution? Or is another time doing that just to be they have the same thing? And if your answer to these three questions are mainly or stop, then that is a sign you might need to shift more weight on the protagonist's channel. Now, one quick note. And it doesn't matter. It just means asking which relationships are doing the deepest emotional work in your protagonist's transformation and then making sure the peers are pulling that weight. So just to be crystal clear, the adults can still be present, they can be supportive, complicated, all of it. But they just can't be the ones who change your protagonist the most or make all of the decisions that drive towards the resolution of your story. Alright, so that is secret number two in young adult stories. Peers are the center of the world. Alright, now moving on to secret number three. The third secret is that the stakes in young adult stories have to finish identity. And here's what I mean. They work because everything feels bigger to the protagonist. Everyone here is a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

It can literally feel like proof that someone is lovable, desirable, chosen, or finally seen.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Something like a fight with a best friend isn't just a bad thing. It can feel like social or emotional death. Something like a failure addition or a rejection letter or a public humiliation, a breakup, betrayal, a secret being revealed, you know, things like that. All of these things can feel like they're not just changing the protagonist's circumstances. They're going deeper than that and changing who the protagonist is. So does the stakes work because they feel bigger to the protagonist. And if you think about it, that's because young adult stakes are usually identity-level stakes. So underneath the external problem, the protagonist is wrestling with questions like who am I if this person doesn't love me back?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Who am I if I fail at the thing I'm supposed to be good at? Who am I if my friends reject down to the remote? Who am I if I want something my family doesn't understand?

Big Themes Without Preaching

Protagonists Who Are Still Becoming

Putting The Five YA Secrets To Work

External Plot And Fast Romance Setups

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Or who am I if the version of myself that I've been performing isn't the real hinder them. Right? And this is why ordinary events can feel enormous in Younger. The protagonist doesn't have decades of perspective to go off of yet. They don't know that one rejection or one breakup or one mistake, one humiliating moment won't define them forever. Because to them it feels like it's really. And this is just one of the reasons why a story like The Fault in Our Stars works so well. Hazel and Augustus' love feels like love. And the author, John Green, he doesn't hedge the emotion or shrink it with adult perspective. He writes it the way it feels to the people inside of it. And it feels enormous and defining and impossible to minimize. So that's what you're aiming for in terms of why a lot of it is. You want to write each moment like it's the moment, not just a moment. Alright, so your job isn't always to make the external stakes bigger. It's to make the internal need more clear. So think about things like what does this moment mean to your protagonist? What identity is being threatened for your own. What version of themselves are they afraid of losing? And what truth about themselves are they afraid might be real? And when you answer those questions, stakes will start to feel truly YAPES. Not in how big the external problem looks from the outside, but in how big it feels from the inside. Do I need to show things like identity, grief, mental health, sexuality, family, injustice, belonging in that example correctly? Figuring out who you are and what you believe, all of it, right? But because YA often deals with big and emotionally charged subjects, it's really easy for the themes to start sounding like lessons. I can't remember exactly. And that's usually where this idea of preachiness mixes it up so they can't. It's more from explaining them or putting them on the page a little bit too directly. So what do I mean by that? Well, themes start to feel preachy when someone like a mentor character delivers a very literal lesson. Or maybe when the protagonist or their best friend just outright states the message to need or maybe when the story pauses and kind of explains what the reader should understand. I even see this happen sometimes where every single character seems to learn the exact same lesson, and it all adds up to one really obviously. So just keep an eye out for that in your own story. Alright, now you might be wondering what happens if I've done this? What happens if I've made my story a little too proud? Well, the fix isn't to water down your theme. So the fix is actually to dramatize it. So what I would do is I would put your protagonist in situations where the theme will cost them something. So you want to let them make flawed choices, let them believe that things aren't fully true yet, let them wrestle with questions instead of immediately arriving at the answer. So as an example, let's say your theme is about using your voice. What I don't want you to do is have a mentor give a speech about why speaking up matters. Instead, I'd rather see you put your protagonist in a scene where staying quiet protects them that maybe hurts someone else. So and then make them live with the consequences no matter what they decide. That's how you show you clean in a story. So not always a happy ending, always a tidy one, but usually some sense that the protagonist has grown, they've claimed agency, or there is a possible way forward. If they have to do that, as an example, think about the hate you give, right? In that story, racism is. They are part of what makes the character feel developmentally true. Now, what do I mean by this? Well, a teen protagonist is often holding multiple versions of themselves at once. They're holding the child they were, the adult they're becoming, it's about making a delay. And the person they secretly want to become. And that internal tension is one of the key engines in young adult fiction. And I want you to think about Katniss in the Hunger Games as an example. She's a hardened survivor and a 16-year-old who doesn't know what to do with PETA's infection. She is capable of killing to someone and emotionally walled off in a way that Lee's as fragile. She volunteers for Prem with absolute storage and then doesn't know how to comfortly. Every scene in the book shows her being two things at once, and those two things get offered in contrast to the case. I would say what doesn't count. Now, how does this apply to you? Well, if your protagonist is feeling a little flat on the page, then I want you to ask yourself whether you've made them too settled too soon. So do they already know exactly who they are? Do they make decisions with too much adult clarity? And do they have one clean identity, one clear worldview, and one consistent way of responding to pressure? If so, you might need to eliminate a little more contradiction. Let them want two things that don't fit together. Let them perform confidence while feeling terrified. Let them reject help and desperately want someone to notice they're struggling, or let them make a bold choice and then panic about what it means. The goal is to make them unfinished in a believable way. Because that's what neighbors talk to young adult stories for. They're not coming to your story for a protagonist who already knows exactly who they are, but they are coming to your story to experience someone who discovers who they are and helps them get together. Alright, so that is secret number five. Young adult protagonists typically feel like someone who is still becoming themselves. Alright, so let's bring this all together. And if you're if you take nothing else from this episode, remember this. Young adult isn't just a tone or a trend or a marketing label. At its core, young adult is about the emotional reality of adolescence. It's the immediacy of voice, the importance of peers, the identity level states, the big themes experienced through lived molot, and the protagonist who is still becoming a little bit of a couple of years. That's what makes YA feel like one not slang, not having this level details, not a teenage protagonist pasted into an adult feeling story. A young adult novel works when the reader feels like they're inside the experience of being young, being under pressure, and in the middle of becoming someone new. So if you're writing young adult, here's what I want you to do too. I want you to pull up your manuscript or your outline or even just your story idea and run it through these five lessons one at a time. For voice, I want you to ask it simple. Is my protagonist experiencing the moment in real time or are they cleaning it from a distance? For peers, ask yourself who's doing the deepest emotional work for my protagonist's transformation. Is it the people their age or is it adult bodyguard over? For stakes, ask yourself what identity is on the line in my baby's. Why does this feel like the moment to my protagonist and nothing? She's gonna go on to the case. For theme, ask yourself cost them something and reflect the theme, or am I having someone else explain the lesson or the big thing? And for character, ask yourself does my protagonist already know exactly what you're doing. Are they unfinished in a believable way? And if you can answer those five questions, then you've already got most of what you need to write a story that doesn't just feel the protagonist also. So we can't do it. Instead, it will actually feel like YA on the page. And that's the right thing. These five lessons are a checklist where you go through them once and you're done. They all work together. Voice shapes, how the stakes feel, having a change, what the protagonist is wrestling with, the theme shows up in the choices they make, and whether they feel still becoming or already formed shows up in every single line. That's really true. But you don't have to nail all five of these on your first pass through your draft. You just have to know that they're there and keep coming back to them as you write and revise. And if you're someone who's been listening to this episode and you're thinking, okay, great, all five of these secrets sound really good in theory, but I'm still at the idea stage. How do I take all of my ideas and build out the foundation of my story like you talked about earlier? That is exactly what my notes to novel course can help you with. Notes to Novel is my step-by-step program for developing your story before you draft. We work on your protagonist, your structure, your stakes, your scenes, your plot, your theme, all of it. And once all of those foundational elements are in place, all the young adult specific stuff we talked about today will have somewhere solid to land. To learn more about Notes to Novel, go to Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash wake. Okay, so that's the same. That's Savannah Gilbo.com. Slash wait list. It has so that is it for today's episode. As always, thank you for tuning in. I hope your writing is going well. I will talk to you next time. External plot.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

It's just enough that they have careers that are kind of uh, but it's not a focus. The focus is a romance. It is full out romance, enough of a tiny external plot to establish close proximity, and that's it. And so there, the inciting incident happens very early in the story because there's not much else in the story. Right. Then we'll go to the other side where we have the bodyguard, where there's a whole external all the way through the story, we get the full story to the end of does she get the stalker or not? Right? That's her goal. So there's more setup at the beginning of what does it mean to have a bodyguard? Who does she work with? And I'm gonna say it's probably closer to the 10%. I don't know exactly, but because it has such a strong external story, you can have more time there. Yeah, and she does a lot of playing with, oh, it's a famous guy, and they're all talking about him in work, and I don't know, you know, this whole thing, and like so it sets it up beautifully, but it's more important to instead of thinking about percentages, and you don't want to really go past 10 to 15 percent because the romance readers waiting for it, like just I want to see them meet. That's what they want. So anywhere before that is fine, depending on on your story.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah, and I find the same thing. I think it's a mistake that writers make sometimes when they'll say, Well, save the cat or whatever version of a story structure they're using, says I have to have XYZ scenes before the 10%, 12%, 15%. And so they inflate the beginning of their manuscripts and they have a hard time doing that because, like you said, maybe they're writing a story that's like the wedding date, and maybe it just needs to get right into it. So with romance, especially, I tend to see, and correct me or tell me if you see the same thing, but sometimes act ones are smaller than other genres because we do have sometimes that condensed beginning. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Absolutely. And there's many commercially successful novels that, you know, on the wedding day is one of them. You're three or four paragraphs in. That's it. She's getting on an elevator, she's got some flowers and a ball of champagne because she's meeting her sister and she meets the guy. Yeah, that's it. And it's written away you just love the character. Like, okay, oh, and there's the guy, and you're now we're in the elevator together, and the elevator breaks down, and there we are. That's it.

Meet Cute To Plot Point One

SPEAKER_01 24:25

And the author still does all the things that a good opening should do. So, like you said, establish the context of both characters and what they do and things like that, but we get right into the meat cute. Super fast. It's important, right? Yeah, it is important, yeah. And this brings us back to the meat cute. So, this we've led up to it. We've had the inciting incident or the meat cute. Now, where do we go from that? So we get to the first plot point.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

After the meat cute, you typically have a one of the characters has an internal reaction of oh no, I'm attracted to him, but we can't be connected because he's my father's business partner. I don't know, something, right? Like there's some reason we can, you know, or he used to be married to my best friend, or right, you know, something he's just arrogant, whatever it is. Or I just don't like him, or he just bought the whole downtown core, and my little business is gonna go out of business. You know, so many ways to do this. So one of them at least has to have a reaction that is both, oh, I so like this person, but I so don't want to like them. Yeah. Reasons why we can't possibly be together. And here's where you can reveal character flaws. So in the wedding date, Alexa, the main character, she is extremely insecure. And so she can't believe that this hot guy in the elevator is actually gonna like her. And so everything he does, she interprets of no, no, no, no, that's no. And so that's what takes the romance through the up and down rolling, and you learn that right after the Meat Cute. Yeah, that's what she's struggling with from and slowly her backstory comes out as to why she feels this way about herself. But the character flaw is there in their reaction, and you show the reader, and in a romance, you can have a very well, you can have a sequel scene, right? It doesn't have to be a scene that is full of action that they're doing something. You can if you're writing a romantic thriller where you know they met in a like a car crash or something, and then they're running away from bad guys in that. So you can, absolutely, but in a straight up romance where you don't have that story, the reader likes the internal, but they're still doing something. So they are, you know, they're going to a party but having these thoughts, they're buying their groceries but having these thoughts. There's whatever motion they are. And in in this case, she's got to go and buy a dress for this wedding that she's gonna be his fake date for, which is the trope used there. Yeah, right? So that's her action. And then how am I gonna look in this dress? And I can't wear a dress, everybody else is gonna look so good, and I'm not gonna look, you know, that's sort of her insecurity. And so you want to show how at least one of them is whatever their character trait is that's gonna hurt the romance.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Yeah, and I love how you keep saying it's interpreted through the character flaw or that inner obstacle, because I think that's another thing that a lot of romance writers downplay, where it's like you literally interpret everything through that flaw because it is that is how real life works.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Of course it is, right? Everybody has an insecurity about something, and when you go into situations where that insecurity is brought forward, and you're vulnerable, you can't get away from it.

Act Two: Reactions And Agency

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah, yeah, it lives inside of us, unfortunately. It's just there, we all have it. Yeah, okay. So then we lead up to plot point one, which is when the you say attraction is admitted. So we talked a little bit about what that looks like, and then what happens after plot point one? So now we're in act two officially.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Right. So now we're in act two officially, and this is where you want to show some resistance to the story goal, and you link that if you can to your external plot that you know I can't be professional, be a bodyguard, and be so attracted to this guy. So I'm just not gonna be so attracted to this guy, even though every time I look at him, I think, oh, so cute, right? And so there needs to be a hesitation in there, and here, this is where your external plot really helps you. Because how do you write enough scenes between plot point one where one of them is at least attracted? Maybe it's both, but one for sure, to your middle plot point where you're gonna change the direction of your story. And so, in between plot point one and the middle plot point, your character is still reacting a lot. So instead of making a plan of this is how I'm gonna get this person to be my spouse, they're just reacting to things. And if those reactions can be linked to the external plot, so something happens in the external plot, and you know the character doesn't like it, makes them less attracted. Okay. And then the next thing is something else happens. Oh, but the character loves it, makes it more attractive. Look, they saved that puppy from that eagle that was flying by to pick it up or something, right? Oh, I like that about him, right? So you mix those in. So you have the person kind of making goal attempts to be with the other person, they fail, they succeed, they fail. So that by the time they get to the middle plot point, there's still a bit of a mess in relationship with this other person.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah. One thing I see a lot is there's writers when they get to this section, they struggle with agency, especially in romance, because they're like, well, this is all about fun and games and the characters falling in love. And I think it's more obvious when you're looking at a story like The Bodyguard because we know what her external goal is. But what does that look like in a book that's more like the wedding date?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yeah, and there, okay, so I want to make a comment on structures, including the fictionary structure where we have these are all the scenes basically that you need in a novel. In every novel, you could have all of them, you could have some of them, right? And also you can put them in different orders, or you can make them part of the same scene. It doesn't have to be a separate scene or a separate chapter. What you're looking for is the general function of what you need in there. So you need a goal attempt of some kind, right? And if you write your story and then go look, is it all there? That's great. I hesitate when people are like, well, it says here to here to here. Well, it's art.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Yeah.

unknown 30:30

Right?

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Sometimes come after the middle plot point instead of before. That's okay. As long as it's not, you know, after you can't have something after the climax because the story's done. But you know, there's flexibility in those beats.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

And you see it in lots of novels when you, you know, I do a lot of, and so do you. You when you pull apart books and you analyze them, right? Like, oh look, they put that here, but it's here. Or they put that later.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

I can kind of understand a reason why they might have done that too. So yes, and they'll be story reasons. Yeah, being intentional about why we do what we do. So let's pretend we're like looking at a story about the wedding date, and we're in act two, they're fake dating, right? Yes. And so the goal is to fake date and not get caught, not have feelings for each other, right? So the goal is maybe a little more, um, how do I want to say this? Like not broad in a bad way, but it's like there's more to the goal than in the bodyguard, where it's like they have this external goal and I can't fall for him. Easier for my external goal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Yeah. So much easier. So on the wedding date, it goes through. So the basic premise is that his best friend is marrying his ex, and he's the best man, and he really doesn't want to be there and he doesn't have a date. So he convinces her, come with me to this wedding, right? So then she agrees, okay, and so you've got your plot point one, they're gonna go to this wedding. Well, now the whole negotiation starts of, well, what does it mean coming to the wedding? Like, are we staying together? Are we, you know, there's all kinds of things around it. How's she gonna get clothes in time? The wedding's that night. How is she gonna get there? Then he has to introduce her to her friends, and and some like her and some don't. Then she knows that he's upset about being there as the best man of his exes and his best friend, but that's how life turns out. So suck it up, buddy. But she can see when he's uncomfortable, and so she, you know, sneaks under his arm and he puts his arm around her, and then she's like, Oh, oh, that feels good. And then, no, nope, nope, it's a fake date, fake date, fake date, right? So she does a brilliant job of getting them close, but then what she does is, oh, he works in a different city, and he's a doctor, he's a pediatrician. Who doesn't like that? So he's gotta leave. So now they're separate, right? So, and then they have to figure out well, can they meet? Can they get back together? She's got a career, he's got a career, and they're trying to see each other. And so, even though there's no strong external story, they have lives that are pulling them apart. And between plot point one and the middle plot point, it's all about how they can spend time together because they both really want to spend time together and they're trying to figure it out. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah. And I'm so glad that you went into that example because that's exactly what I wanted you to say, which is that the goal is to like be a good wedding date, right? And it's to be that without developing feelings or causing problems or whatever. And so as she it goes for that goal, which you said, getting the dresses, being introduced to friends, whatever, fulfilling that goal of being a good wedding date, the feelings develop. So I think sometimes when writers hear things like that, they're like, oh, it can be that simple. And it's like, yes, that's what the story is about, you know? So that was the perfect example. Okay, so then we're at the midpoint, and this is where the stakes are raised, the nature of the relationship shifts, and then we come away from that, and there's a reaction.

Midpoint Shift And The Road To Breakup

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Yes. So here are your reactions going to depend on what you do in the middle plot point, right? So in the bodyguard, Hannah is more in love with Jack because she got to know his family and she loves his family, and his mom loves her, and she's totally uh oh, really captured. And so she's still trying to figure out okay, I mean, he's a famous movie star, he's not gonna be interested in me, but uh-oh. So she has very strong feelings she wants to stay together. So her reaction is around that and how she's gonna protect herself and still do her job. And I mean protect herself, protect her feelings because she doesn't believe that you know this can work. Yeah, he would be interested in her little bodyguard person. So in the wedding date, Alexa's best friend says, you know, he's cheating on you, and Alexa believes him. So her whole thing now is to get away from him and stop this whole thing and break up. And so it's two ways to lead to plot point two where they break up. And one is in the bodyguard, full out, she's falling in love with him, and plot point two is really gonna hurt. Yeah, the other is wedding date, she's already in love with him, right? And it's the painful process to plot point two where they actually break up.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah, she knows it needs to happen, and then it happens and it hurts, and that's awful, and of course it's the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

We all know this. It was they should not have broken up, but they didn't.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Yep. Okay, so great. So now they're broken up. This is the end of act two, typically. Now we go from that breakup, we have another reaction, and I hope listeners are hearing a pattern. There's a lead up and there's a reaction. So, what's the reaction like after that second plot point? Typically, the all is lost, usually a breakup.

Grand Gesture Then A Satisfying Ending

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah, so somebody's devastated. Now it could be there's a misunderstanding, and one of the characters doesn't even know it exists, and the other one is like, well, now we're broken up, and you know, you can play this so many ways. But at least one of the characters is devastated. Usually both at some point, it can be a total misunderstanding, but they're devastated. And with that comes, you know, how am I never gonna see my person? How am I gonna disengage from this person? How am I gonna get my life back on track because I put my career on hold to be with this person? Whatever it is, they start trying to figure out how am I gonna cope with this? And then here comes the grand gesture between plot point two and the climax. One of them has to make an effort to get back together because if they don't, there's no romance. Right. Somebody has to do it, yeah. Be either character, it doesn't have to be the point of view character, it doesn't matter, one of the characters has to make a huge effort to get the romance back and going, so then you can have the happily ever after moment in the climax.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah, and talk a little bit about how this relates to the inner obstacle and that character flaw, because usually one or both has to overcome that to get to this point, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Yes, and so if you look at you know, the bodyguard, she thinks that her famous guy she's bodyguarding, got engaged to somebody else, a famous, beautiful, perfect actress. Everything she's not, everything she's not, and then when she realizes he doesn't actually care about her, the actress, he loves Hannah, the protagonist. That's her moment of understanding that I am worthy. And that book has an epilogue where I don't know, it's a couple years later, maybe, and and she starts it like, so I know you're at you want to know what's it like being married to a famous movie star. And that's her, and she talks about, like in the you form of, and the character talks about what it's actually like and what her life turned out like, and how she realized that what love is, and love is these things, and this is it doesn't matter, a beautiful actress. He loves me because of these things. And so at some point, and it can be this is one of those variable things before or after the climax, but really close, there's an understanding of their self-worth that allows them to have this romance.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yeah. Okay, so then we've got the grand gesture. We're back together at the climax. This is another hard part I find that writers are like, what do I do after this? Because the story's over. And a lot of times I find romance writers will cut the ending short instead of letting us like linger in those feelings. And it's like, no, readers really want to linger. That's why we have epilogues, sometimes two epilogues. Yeah. Talk about like the reaction to the climax because it sounds like it should be simple, but it's actually one of the trickier parts.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

It is because you're bringing the reader to a point where there's an emotional resolution. It's way easier to go, well, Savannah murdered the bad guy, and that's okay. Like, that's we're good in a murder mystery story, Savannah. But you know, you were cranky yesterday and it just happened, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Full disclosure, I did not murder anyone.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

That's good. No, there was none of that. Yeah, so it's about doing that emotional reaction, and you'll notice like the two epilogue thing. If you notice the Bridgerton series, yeah, the original version had one. Right. And later she went back at the second one because her audience was like, We need to know more.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Yeah, what's this? What happened to this couple?

SPEAKER_00 39:10

There's a pattern right now where romance novels are doing a short resolution in the main story because the romance is over, and then there's an epilogue. And so the reader knows it's an epilogue. Readers aren't patient. If you finish off the romance and then keep going, they'll be like, okay, but the story's over. If you show them the romance, they've got their happily ever after, or in an epilogue, lots of patience for that. And so it's easier. What happens in the epilogue and romances is subplots are closed off. So, you know, what happened to Jack Stalker and the bodyguard, for example. And, you know, any of the subplots that are left open, epilogues are a great place to do it because the reader will get impatient if you do that too much in the main story. This is the romance. They want that. Right. But you still need to close off on things. So an epilogue can be used for doing that. It can be used for where did they end up? Two years later, five years later, ten years later, whatever the important thing is. And so epilogues are very handy in a romance because you can do the reaction to the climax, show that they've got their happily ever after moment, whatever that means. And then you want to have a closing image, which is usually something very romantic, and go to your epilogue and finish all the other stuff that needs to be finished.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Yeah. And I find that a lot of writers too, in in this section of the story, they'll be like, Well, all the advice says I need conflict, and what do I do after someone has got their hiply ever after? And in most cases, you tell me if you disagree, but I'm like, we don't need conflict really in these ending scenes, or it's like good conflict. So, you know, love interest is saying you can choose one of two amazing dates, and that's conflict, you know. Right. But it's feel-good conflict.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Yes, you don't have to have conflict after the climax. Just the same as you don't have to have an exit hook. So every other scene up to the climax has to have an exit hook of why would the reader read the next scene?

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

After the climax, well, the reader knows the story's over. They're reading it to close it, they're not reading it to more excitement. And the other thing after the climax, so before the climax, every scene takes the love interest closer to or farther away from their happily ever after. Up, down, up, down. And you want that up down, so it's exciting. After the climax, they're together.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

That's flat.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

It doesn't matter in it because that's what readers want. Yeah, we want to experience. Yeah, we want those emotional echoes and we want to feel all the you know swoony feelings of love. So let us linger. Yep. Okay, well, I love that. So again, listeners, you can go grab Christina's book, which we will link to in the show notes, and read more about these scenes that link the key scenes or those story arc scenes, as well as examples. You have plenty of examples in there, which I love. You also have a section that talks about like writing blurbs from one point of view or two point of views, which I know is a big struggle for romance writers. So I love that part. But any like last parting words of wisdom for romance writers on structure?

SPEAKER_00 42:13

On structure, yes. Use structure to trigger your imagination. So if you look at, let's say you're stuck between the middle plot point and plot point two, and you know you should have three different external pressures, use that to figure out well, what could they be? So when you're stuck, look to structure and say, well, what should this scene actually do? And then it will trigger ideas in your brain of, oh, I could do this, I could do that. And structure is your friend. Even if you're a pantster, when you get stuck, you go and look at structure and go, well, what's kind of demanded in the story at this point? And it will give you ideas, and then you can keep writing. And then you actually finish your draft, which is the whole point of it.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Yep. I love that as the parting final words because I agree that structure can make you way more creative than you ever could imagine. So lean on it when you get stuck or when you need, you know, a guide. Like this episode is a great guide of how to plot out your romance. And Christina's book is a great guide for that. And then do what you want, do what's best for your story after that. So thank you, Christina. Again, we will link to everything, where to find you, and all that in the show notes. But thank you so much for being here. And we'll have to have you back for whatever next book and genre you dig into.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Savannah.

Key Takeaways Plus Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 43:27

So much fun today. All right, that was quite the masterclass in romance structure. Now, before you go, I want to recap the biggest takeaways from this conversation because Christina packed a lot into a small amount of time. The first important thing we talked about is that every key scene in your romance has a lead up scene and a reaction scene. The lead up shows your character's motivation and the reaction reveals the trait that's going to help or hinder their happily ever after. If you've been wondering what to write between your big plot points, that lead up plus reaction pattern is your answer. The second key point which That your external plot exists to create forced proximity. Whether your characters are sharing an apartment, working the same job, or one is bodyguarding the other, the external plot's job is to put your characters in the same place so the romance can actually happen. As Christina said, your readers aren't coming to a romance for a brand new premise. They are coming to see and experience how you are uniquely going to tell the story. The third key point, and this is the one I want you to write down, is that your character interprets everything through their character flaw. The meat cute, the first kiss, the grand gesture, all of it. Whatever insecurity or wound they're carrying, that is the lens that they're going to see their love interest through. And that's really where your internal arc lives. It's also what's going to make your romance feel real instead of formulaic. Alright, so those were my top three takeaways from this episode. If you liked this episode, make sure to grab a copy of Christina's book. It's called Secrets to Writing Romance, and we will link to it as well as where you can find her around the internet in the show notes. Now, if today's conversation has you wondering where you are in your own writing journey and what to focus on next, I want you to head to savannagilbo.com forward slash quiz. When you go to that link, you'll find a free 30-second quiz that gives you a personalized playlist of podcast episodes and resources based on exactly where you're at right now, whether that's starting a first draft, stuck somewhere in the messy middle, deep in revision, or getting ready to publish. Like I said, it only takes 30 seconds and it's the fastest way to figure out what to start working on this week. And lastly, if this episode was helpful, the best thing you can do is leave a rating and review wherever you listen. Not only do I love hearing from you, but it also helps more writers find the show. So if you have a few seconds, please leave a quick rating and review. Alright, so that's it for today's episode. I hope your writing is going well and I will talk to you next week.