I was motoring along, unfolding some of the plot, which was fine, when I came to a stop. Hang on a minute – remember this is a romance! Now that he’s stopped thinking she is one of the bad guys and she’s stopped thinking he is remote and stand offish, isn’t it about time hero and heroine spent some quality time together?
The only one who was going to give them that quality time was me – and I had the backdrop of the French Riviera to do it in, so there was no excuse for getting on with it. But I needed to get back under the skin of the characters to make it happen.
This meant I spent a happy morning excavating family trees, reacquainting myself with the things in their backgrounds that have made them who they are and how that will bring them together. In other words figuring out their problems. And how to resolve them. Wheels within wheels, because they still have to sort out the crime caper I have dumped them into as well.
It’s complicated stuff, this writing lark.