Over the last year, I’ve read on Facebook and reviews for other authors’ books, readers complaining about the characters not taking baths, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, or needing to stop to pee. *snicker* They’re talking about the hero and heroine doing normal activities that a person will often do throughout the day.
I know sometimes I get so involved in writing the romance or the suspense, I forget to let my characters eat or sleep. So this is a valid concern.
Of course, the knee-jerk response is to say all of that will slow down the story.
In any book that is fast paced, high energy like most of mine, I have to remind myself to let the characters catch their breath, have a little down time. When I’m in edits, I try to make sure they get plenty of food and rest and try to think of other small daily functions I can mention.
Note that I said mention.
Don’t start explaining to the reader how she or he separated the colors from whites, folded the laundry, and placed them in the closet. Unless she’s a psycho serial killer and has a body in the closet and the laundry belongs to her victims, I rather not read about it.
If you want to show that moment of normalcy, you can have the hero changing the oil in his souped up classic Camaro and planning in his head the next raid against the bad guys. Maybe using a wrench to bang on the stuck oil pan in anger when he remembers what had gone wrong with the last mission. You get the idea. The everyday function is in the background. Kind of like, the characters are walking and thinking or talking. You don’t describe each step.
Well, like everything, unless he’s escaping from a killer and clinging to a ledge of a mountain. Then each step will count.
GOODNESS! I can’t help it. There is a good reason I write romantic suspense.
But it’s important to remember that whatever you place in that type of scene, you must have the plot moving forward, a tidbit of information the reader needs to put two and two together then or later. Or prepare the reader for what will come next. Along the way, this is a good time to show characterization.
Anyway, I believe you get the idea. I’ll shut up now.
Jack Drago is a renaissance man. A man’s man when needed but a pushover for women. He’s been used by his lovers, but still loves and respect women. Tattoos all over, head shaved, piercings in all kinds of places, Jack was everything Katerina needed. She knew he was a bad boy who grew up to be the type of bad man to get the job done, in and out of bed.
Carla Swafford, Author 