Does the past stay back where it's supposed to be - in the past?
I lost my innocence with a man I loved deeply. However, he wasn't free to be with me. No, he didn't have a wife or a girlfriend at the time. He was surrounded by shadows: the shadow of his father's drinking problem, his father's mental and physical abuse of his mother and his father's mental abuse of him.
It wasn't long before he tried to escape the stalking shadows and joined the US military. This, in turn, left me feeling bereft. Sure, I understood why he had to go. He loved me, but who would want to stick around and sink lower in that miserable mental muck. It still didn't help that I was left with two empty arms and a lonely heart.
I tried to move on, all the while saving a petite piece of my heart for him.
~*~
The past holds relevant facts that guide and motivate our actions, whether we want them to or not. As a writer, you need to use this information to your advantage. A "past" should guide and motivate your character's actions, whether they want them to or not.
It doesn't matter whether it's stated directly or only implied to the reader. The important thing is: what sort of romantic past (and other parts of their past) have you created for your character?
**Has love always gone wrong for this character?
**Do they keep loving and leaving people?
**Are they affected by the romantic problems or hang-up's of another character that is close to them?
**Think about taking things from your own passionate past - you know, that whole write what you know thing.
Take a moment and think about your character and what type of "life" they lived before they walked into your story. Knowing your character's "past" will help you keep them fleshed out, make it easy for your readers to identify with and it makes them more "real."
~*~
In case you're wondering, he and I didn't end up together, but losing him affected every single romance I had after him. It also might have given me a hankering for men in uniform, and may have led me to the man I had four children with, and am planning to spend the rest of my life with.
Yep, seventeen years married and counting...
I lost my innocence with a man I loved deeply. However, he wasn't free to be with me. No, he didn't have a wife or a girlfriend at the time. He was surrounded by shadows: the shadow of his father's drinking problem, his father's mental and physical abuse of his mother and his father's mental abuse of him.
It wasn't long before he tried to escape the stalking shadows and joined the US military. This, in turn, left me feeling bereft. Sure, I understood why he had to go. He loved me, but who would want to stick around and sink lower in that miserable mental muck. It still didn't help that I was left with two empty arms and a lonely heart.
I tried to move on, all the while saving a petite piece of my heart for him.
~*~
The past holds relevant facts that guide and motivate our actions, whether we want them to or not. As a writer, you need to use this information to your advantage. A "past" should guide and motivate your character's actions, whether they want them to or not.
It doesn't matter whether it's stated directly or only implied to the reader. The important thing is: what sort of romantic past (and other parts of their past) have you created for your character?
**Has love always gone wrong for this character?
**Do they keep loving and leaving people?
**Are they affected by the romantic problems or hang-up's of another character that is close to them?
**Think about taking things from your own passionate past - you know, that whole write what you know thing.
Take a moment and think about your character and what type of "life" they lived before they walked into your story. Knowing your character's "past" will help you keep them fleshed out, make it easy for your readers to identify with and it makes them more "real."
~*~
In case you're wondering, he and I didn't end up together, but losing him affected every single romance I had after him. It also might have given me a hankering for men in uniform, and may have led me to the man I had four children with, and am planning to spend the rest of my life with.
Yep, seventeen years married and counting...