On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [126]
In her inspirational romance Promise of Forever, Patt Marr makes sure to draw the spiritual elements of the story into the ending:
His eyes roved her face, looking at her with all the love any woman could ask for. "It's your call, Beth. Do we elope and begin our life today or do we take time before making a lifetime commitment?"
"Will you be upset if I say I'd like to pray about it?"
"No," he said, smiling. "But I wish I'd thought of it first. It's my turn to pray." With her arms around Noah and her head on his chest, Beth marveled at Noah's words of surrender. This joy of being in the arms of the man she loved while he talked to the Lord ... it was all she had prayed for ... and more.
Since the hero's reluctance to put his faith in a higher power has been an issue for this couple throughout the story, bringing this thread into the ending adds a spiritual theme to the conflict resolution.
When you've written what you think is the last sentence, go back and look at the last page. The odds are you've written a stronger ending line five or six paragraphs back—one that is crisp and better suited to the story in tone and subject matter.
EPILOGUES
If either the hero or the heroine has given up something of enormous importance for the sake of the other, or if both have agreed to great changes in lifestyle in order to maintain the relationship, it may be a good idea to add an epilogue to show how things are working out after a period of time.
Another good use of an epilogue is when the story ends with the heroine pregnant—or when the conflict has included doubts over whether the couple can have children—in order to show the new arrival.
But an epilogue should not just show the new couple meeting all the family members and bring everyone's stories up to date. In her single title The Backup Plan, Sherryl Woods uses an epilogue to show that though her journalist heroine has stopped being a war correspondent in order to marry her hero, she hasn't given up the thrill of chasing a story:
Cord paced the back of the chapel, sweat beading on his brow. Where the devil was she? Had this whole wedding thing been too good to be true? Dinah was already twenty minutes late and nowhere in sight. ...
Just then he heard the roar of a motorcycle tearing through the Saturday afternoon downtown traffic. "Dear God in heaven," he said as the candy-apple-red motorcycle whipped around a corner with Tommy Lee driving and Dinah clinging to her brother for dear life.
"Sorry," she said, leaping off the back as it skidded to a halt in front of Cord. "I was covering a story outside of town and my car broke down. ..." "I was hoping to get married sometime today."
Dinah pressed a soothing kiss to his cheek. "Me, too," she assured him. "Give me ten minutes."
... Cord gave her a resigned look. "Is this the way it's always going to be? You're going to be chasing after some big story and nearly miss all the important occasions in our life?"
"I promise I'll be on time for the birth of our children," she teased. "Will that do?"
Though the heroine has given up a great deal for her hero, her attitude here and the fact that she's already established herself in a new job assures the readers that this woman won't resent or regret the decision she's made.
SEQUELS AND TRILOGIES
Even before you finish with the book, you may start thinking that some of your secondary characters are too interesting to leave behind. Do they deserve a story of their own?
It's hard enough to write one book at a time without also planning ahead for a sequel. But if you are intent on continuing your story, now—before the first book is set in stone—is a good time to do some thinking ahead. To prepare for a possible sequel:
• Make sure you haven't included any more specifics about the secondary characters in the first book than you