A Writing Choice

Okay, a sensible, writing-based blog entry today. None of that getting distracted by the you-know-whats that I work with.

I’m still working on Chloe’s Education, but now I’m on the ‘home stretch’ so to speak. I can see the finished first draft in my head—I just need to get it out of my head and onto the screen. But… I’ve got another of those choices to make. You know the kind—what would the character do. Or should that be “what should the character do”. I’m not going to go into details, but I’m talking about my hero, Adam, of course. He has an… opportunity. And I can’t decide if he should take it or not. It won’t really affect the ending of the story either way, but the choice he makes may well affect how the readers look at him for the remainder of the story. So my dilemma is this, should he do what I’d expect a 19 year old young man to do when presented with this opportunity (ie, take it) which would almost certainly mean that the readers think a little less of him. They might see him as weak. Or I could take the option to keep him the ‘hero’ and turn down the opportunity. It’s one of those dilemmas that as a writer, I hate. Do what’s best for the character so that the readers continue to like him, or try and stay true to what the character would do if he were a real life, flesh and blood person-even if it means he’s just that little less likeable.

I think I know what I’ll do. I don’t even think that when you weigh it up I have much of a choice given that the story may well be marketed as an “Erotic Romance”. But still, I guess it means I’m still human if I’m thinking about these things rather than just mindlessly following the formula (even if I do follow the formula in the end).