In the aftermath of Valentine’s Day, I was thinking about how most of us say, “But all I want is to be happy!” What about characters in novels? I’m sorry, but happy =boring.
Writing Tip for Today: Sure, we want to be happy, but we want our happiness to be earned. In fiction a happy character has no story. How can you make your character earn happiness?

• Give your character a worthy goal. If the stakes aren’t high enough, even the characters will give up. As we’ve discussed before, strengthen your story by balancing inner (emotional) and external conflicts.
• Keep your character’s feet to the flames. Also known as keeping your character in the crucible, or making sure the character is miserable. Many times, novelists will try to protect their character, whether consciously or not. Make your character suffer.
• Write scenes that complicate the conflict. A novel may appear to be a series of “one darn thing after another,” and that’s how real life can be. But look closer: the best stories complicate the original conflicts, making them deeper and more complex.
• Write emotions. Target emotions by adding elements that no one with a beating heart can ignore. For example, a story with a child or animal conflict at its center or even as a subplot tugs on our heartstrings the way few other things can. Donald Maass calls it “the emotional gut punch.”
• Never too late. Writing is rewriting. Even if you see your novel in the list of things not to do, you can still re-imagine your story. Yes, it may involve as much suffering on your part as the character endures while you revise globally. Just remember that words are like Doritos: you can always make more.