Beauty and Brokenness

I write romance. Whether as the main binding of my novel or a smaller thread, romantic elements are a staple in almost everything I write. I love…love. Why? Oh, there are so many reasons. The emotional high, the subdued gentleness, the tender service, the transforming power.

Love makes a difference - 

Especially when we add the element of God’s love into our fiction.

But what makes these ‘love stories’ so meaningful? What changes our stories from a simple, two-dimensional fairytale-like story to a tale that brings our hearts to life or inspires us?

Well, I’ll venture an answer.

Brokenness.

Every major character we bring onto the page has been broken in some way. Even the highly adored Mr. Darcy was broken!  Yet, he is a most loved character BECAUSE he was broken, and then we got to watch love turn him around :-)  (However, Mr. Knightley might very well be perfect. Just sayin’ J)

In a world of broken things, we have little use for perfect people. Perfect people, if you've ever read them, fail to grasp our hearts and emotions as well as the broken ones do. Why? We can relate with broken people because we’ve all experienced some element of brokenness. Big or small, we know the sting.

In fact, I’m pretty sure we struggle with some form of brokenness on a daily basis.

Think about some of your favorite book characters? What made you fall in love with them? Perfection?

If you’re like me, these characters captured your heart because of their growth through brokenness.

Whether in romance or other fiction, brokenness is a key element in character development.

Brokenness provides the wound which only love can heal.

Now, I’m not quite singing along with the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, but I am saying, as we create powerful characters, we are taking them from a place of brokenness to a place of healing by the end of the story.

Isn’t this what usually happens in most stories? It’s one way conflict and the character arc work together.

Can brokenness be beautiful?

Why do we love happy endings?

Because on the other side of brokenness, love brings a deeper joy.

How different the story of Cinderella would be if she traveled to the Ball with her stepmother and sisters, caught the prince's eye, and was swept away to marry him. Sweet story, but depth? Beauty of the ending?

Not quite as poignant, right?

What about if Rapunzel crawled down from the tower and went straight to the castle to find her parents?

What if Angel in Redeeming Love tossed away her old life as soon as Michael Hosea walked into the brothel?

Sweet endings, sure, but we get something EVEN BETTER.

We get the 'conflict', struggle....the brokenness to make that ending all the more beautiful.

This idea is fresh in my mind as I finished edits for my December release and am currently working on edits for my February release. Both of my heroines were significantly broken in the beginning of the books. One was aware of it. One wasn’t. What makes each of their journeys more powerful is the way their brokenness shapes them in the beginning of the books and the way love transforms them by the end. It’s a constant battle between living in brokenness and learning to live in love.

What a beautiful experience. Both realized the sweetness of love in a deeper way than they would have without the brokenness to frame their vision.

Love changes things.

Especially God’s love.

In our writing, in our lives, the power of God’s love transforms broken pieces of a life and places them back together to make a masterpiece…more beautiful than before. At the heart.

So tell me – what are some great ‘broken’ characters you’ve read? Written?

Are you like me? Do you think broken characters are more beautiful?

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As a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Pepper Basham enjoys sprinkling her Appalachian culture into her fiction whenever she can. She’s an award-winning author of both contemporary and historical romances, mom of five, speech-language pathologist, and lover of chocolate. She resides in Asheville, North Carolina with her family. She is represented by Julie Gwinn and her debut novel, The Thorn Bearer, released in April 2015. Her first contemporary romance novel, A Twist of Faith, released in December. You can connect with Pepper on her website at www.pepperdbasham.com, Facebook-  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pepper-D-Basham or Twitter at https://twitter.com/pepperbasham

The Story in the Detour

Has life ever thrown you a curve ball? Ever felt like you were thrust off course?

The detours God puts in our path don’t usually take us on a road that is wide and paved and easy. Most often those detours not only intrude on our plans, very often they derail us down to the core and challenge who we really are. What we believe. Where our strength really comes from.

Often times when I am writing a story there comes a point (okay, sometimes more than once) when I feel like the characters or the plot starts to veer in a dangerous direction. Someplace uncertain. Scary. Not what I had planned at all. How will I find my way out of that mess? How will the characters navigate the challenges without completely falling apart.

Whether in real life or in fiction, this is where we test our metal and see what we’re made of. THIS is where the story really lies.

I’ve shared recently about an unexpected twist in our family plan. Life plan. Survival plan. Now, it’s hard to see a baby as anything but a blessing. Especially when the circumstances are so miraculous (God is quite the storyteller, is He not?) But what could be seen as a life-threatening detour, is really an incredible adventure. An amazing story of God’s work in my life. A challenge that is testing me in so many ways and proving that my story isn’t yet over. That God’s plans, however different from my own, are ALWAYS for my good, even when the road is rocky and uncertain.

I'd love your perspective: What adventures in your own life have been birthed from an unexpected detour? Or when you write, whether you're a plotter or a pantster, do you venture into those unknown fissures of uncertainty, or do you stick to the roadmap you’ve meticulously planned? And in which instance did you find the beating heart of your story?

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Amy Leigh Simpson writes Romantic Suspense that is heavy on the romance, unapologetically honest, laced with sass and humor, and full of the unfathomable Grace of God. She is the completely sleep deprived mama to two little tow-headed mischief makers and wife to her very own swoon-worthy hero. Represented by the oh-so-wise and dashing Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Inc.

Ramping Up the Story Conflict -- How to Keep Your Readers Turning Pages

How do you manage conflict in your stories? Are you using tension to keep your readers turning the pages?

Recently, I paid for a critique of my WIP so I can get an idea of areas I need to improve. One of the most helpful pieces of criticism I received is that I tend to wrap up the conflict in my WIP too quickly... sometimes even by the end of the same chapter that conflict is introduced.

See, I know I need tension in my story for it to operate properly. I always spend time brainstorming challenges and problems for my characters, and I try to match those challenges to the emotional areas the characters most need to grow. My problem? I don't like conflict. I feel bad making my characters squirm! I'll gladly introduce a series of setbacks for them... but seeing them suffer on account of those setbacks? Well, that's a different story.

But I realized, through this feedback, that when we back too quickly out of conflict, we cheat our readers out of a deeper emotional resonance in the story world. A character shouldn't go from an internal struggle to a state of peace within only a page or two. Readers need to see that struggle really developed before they can be moved emotionally by its resolution.

Do you have a tendency, like me, to introduce a problem, and then move on too quickly? Maybe you're afraid you'll forget to resolve the obstacle, so you do it before you have a chance to forget. Maybe you don't like writing scenes where your characters are struggling. Maybe you're just ready to get on to the next part of the story.

Here are three easy tricks you can use to ramp up the tension and keep your readers guessing.

1) Even in a romance, include red herrings. Your characters should not be successful at everything each time they attempt it. If your character is a teenager learning to drive, have her run over a few curbs and maybe even slam into the garage--hey, don't we all have those stories in real life? If your character is looking to solve a crime, consider giving her some bad information--a false clue that will send her in the wrong direction. By challenging your characters in this way, you'll also challenge your readers' expectations of what comes next, and you'll hold their interest. Make these distractions/setbacks as organic and believable as possible. The more believable they are, the more likely your readers will buy in and then be surprised later.

2) Look for opportunities to expand conflict in each scene, particularly in your chapter endings. Do your chapters end with a zinger in the middle of a conflict? While everyone loves turning the pages in the middle of a heated scene, be sure you don't use chapter breaks as an excuse to back out of conflict development. Are your characters having a verbal spat? Let's see it on the page. Is one of your characters running from someone and having to hide out? Let's see how she manages. Look for spaces in each scene where you've shied away from showing the actual conflict, then find a way to fill in those gaps and ramp up the tension. There's nothing I hate more, as a reader, than finding myself invested in a particular conversation or circumstance, only to find it's cut off prematurely by a chapter break.

3) Surprise, surprise, surprise. As readers, we may like characters who are predictable, but rarely do they challenge us. Fiction has the secret weapon of imagination-- use that to your advantage. Be tricky. Lead your readers to believe one thing, then surprise them with a twist--being sure you plant subtle clues all along. Suspense and mystery are not the only genres that benefit from the element of surprise. When you're sitting down to write the black moment in your romance, consider whether your readers will be able to anticipate what's coming. If they can, ask yourself what your characters might do that defies that expectation. Surprised readers are interested readers, and often the most satisfied.






Remember that like a bow and arrow, the tighter you pull the threads of your story, the further it will reach. It may take time, editing, and practice, but well-developed conflict is worth all the effort to your readers.







Can you think of any examples of stories with excellent use of tension? How do you stir up the conflict in your own writing?

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Ashley Clark writes romantic comedy with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story hour. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.