Setting backfires - deliberate arson

October 3, 12:34 PMRomance ExaminerSally Painter

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Just how do we get those sparks of magic flying in our romance books? Is there fire between your hero and heroine? Does the air crackle between them? Can the reader feel the heat?

I have three major backfires I try to ignite within a story. They are set to stop the out-of-control-wildfire raging between the hero and heroine.

Backfires pace the story so it doesn’t flame out of control and burn itself out before you are finished telling the story.

It is a fine balancing act to build passion without it raging past you and burning the manuscript to ashes. So a little backfire is necessary in the early part of the story.

I usually set this first fire just after the hero and heroine meet. Sparks fly and the love fire is ignited between them. This is the fire that will burn to the very last word in the manuscript.

As the scene unfolds, the fire threatens to jump the first embankment when the sexual tension between the hero and heroine intensifies.

It is the place in the story, I call the big tease. It takes our readers to the very edge of all the senses until the backfire roars out of nowhere to restrain it.

The backfire drives the inferno into containment. By denying fulfillment of the sexual stirrings between the hero and heroine, this first backfire douses the flames momentarily. These emotions smolder, hiss and struggle.

This technique is seen by the reader as an untimely interruption, a chivalrous act on the part of the hero by stopping himself, or the heroine’s fear. My favorite backfire is a realization by either the hero or heroine which immediately creates an internal conflict between them.

This last type of backfire does require greater effort as a writer, but usually results in a more rewarding story.

Small backfires will continue until the first time the hero and heroine make love. Then the second backfire is set. It, however, has a different purpose.

This one stokes the flames instead of keeping them under control. This fire will drive the story and the characters in a different direction. It forces them to go where they did not want to go and hopefully where the reader had not expected them to go.

The second backfire comes blazing in the guise of the hero and/or heroine reacting to the conflicts their bond has brought with it. It is too easy to make our hero or heroine a victim. This is the point in our stories where one or both make a decision, a choice, a reaction to circumstances. It is that dark moment; the point where each character must stand up and be counted.

I use this backfire to drive a wedge between the hero and heroine. They are madly in-love, but are unable to be together. This can be accomplished by a sudden sense of duty, ideals in direct contrast of each other, original conflict escalating and a host of other internal turmoils which are valid reasons the two of them cannot be together.

It is this backfire which will carry the tension, the desire, the inability to live happily ever after to the end. It has to be a strong fire, capable of maintaining its flame. This insurmountable obstacle is going to test their love. Will they be able to literally go through the fire and be tempered into the steel?

We all know they will do just that, but how they will do it, is what makes our stories exciting. True love will conquer all! Once our hero and heroine have gone through the fire and arrived on the other side, I like to set one last backfire.

This is a burn-off. When farmers reach the end of their growing season and all of their crops have been harvested, the last thing they do is burn off the fields. Just like these farmers, we have tilled the land, planted our seeds, nurtured them, grown them into a crop and harvested them. Now, just like the farmer, we need to set the story to flame.

The final backfire burns away everything we’ve planted. In this process, we reveal to the reader where it all started and what it all means. We tie up all the loose ends.

Our hero wins the heroine. All secrets are revealed and all conflicts resolved.

All backfires merge with the main fire between the hero and heroine to become a single flame of love. And that is what makes a happily ever after story’s flame eternal.