I spent a good chunk of my writing time this weekend revising the first chapter of the next book that I'm working on because, ultimately, I had to answer one question: Is he a jerk?
Deciding this meant that I not only had to examine why this character would be a jerk but also what bringing that character in during the first chapter would mean to the story.
If he's a jerk, which is how I wrote him to begin with, then that means that Morgan, the MC, is in an on-again-off-again relationship with someone the reader won't like, someone who I planned on booting from the story early on. But why? Why would Morgan need to keep going back to him? She's in her mid-thirties and is very confident. She's strong and doesn't mind being on her own. So why keep him?
If he's not a jerk, that opened up a lot more for me to play with, including non-jerky reasons for him to leave the story, which I love. I think it's almost too easy to just have a guy cheat and then boot him. What else would cause him to leave abruptly? Why else would Morgan want him to stay, but it wouldn't work?
Isn't it fun to think about these questions? lol
What I finally decided was that I don't want this character to be a jerk ... for two reasons:
- I have a jerky guy character at the beginning of Good in Theory (which launches on March 12th!). I don't want my books to be predictable.
- Making him into a jerk actually impedes her personal development. If she's already at a point where she doesn't need a jerk boyfriend to make her realize that she's accepting things she shouldn't, then he can be a decent dude.
And decent dudes are way more fun anyway!
With a few tweaks, and a better idea of why he needs to leave the story, I think I have a pretty solid intro to book four of the Soul Sisterhood series! That is, until I reread it tomorrow. 😉