Merry Early Christmas Everyone!
After spending the past few weeks in North Carolina, I've come back to spend Christmas and New Year's with my family. Since I've been back, I created a brief outline for "Her Black Prince", in which I added an additional character to create a greater dilemna for Magnus.
One valuable lesson I learned from writing is that it's important to throw your characters into the worst situation possible in order to generate as much intensity and excitement possible for your readers. This works not only in books, but films and even television as well. Granted, you don't want to torture your character as though they were an animal. That's not excitement. That's sadism. What you want to do is throw them into an extremely difficult scenario that will test the very core of who they are and force them to decide whether they will stand strong like men and women or fall apart like sissies. For example, a man of God lives in a hostile culture where he is given an ultimatum: give up his faith, or watch his family die. He has two choices: lose his loved ones, or lose his soul. What will he do? Will he turn his back on his savior? Will he sacrifice his family? Will he rely on God to deliver him? Will he try to handle this in his own power? Now you have intensity! Now you have excitement! Now you have a "super glue" story, one that will keep readers stuck to the edge of their seats!
Enjoy your Christmas, everyone, and be sure to remember the greatest gift that mankind ever received during this season: Jesus Christ, our Lord!
