A Daily Dose of Romance

Ever notice a theme to your stories? You know, that pesky part that essentially makes all your characters core issues the same? Yeah, that theme.

It often doesn’t matter how much time you spend with a book on personality traits. As writers, we often write the same ‘type’ of characters over and over, especially if you write genre fiction. For me, it doesn’t matter if I’m writing a kilted Highlander, an axe-weilding Viking, or a Werewolf (yeah, I write those too), they all have the same core issue - redemption. My heroines on the other hand, tend toward being stronger than they realize.

So what’s the difference from one story to the next? Well, aside from setting and culture. It’s the way the story is told. Sometimes it is the hero’s story, sometimes the heroine’s. It’s the tone of the story, the seriousness of the issue and most importantly, how the issue affects the main characters. That is what makes your story different each time.

If you think about it, two people don’t usually react to a situation the same way. Everyone comes to a hitch in the road from their own perspective and past experiences. And it’s those experiences that shape how they react to the future.

So while you’ll often hear that you shouldn’t put backstory into you writing, you actually need to. Not a huge dump of every character’s childhood, but just those one or two important bits and pieces that affect why the character feels and reacts the way he/she does. Those are the essential elements that allow your reader to connect and empathize with that character. That is what makes the same theme different with each telling of a new story.