 |
| Donna Reimel Robinson |
The
Need for Conflict
by
Donna Reimel Robinson
If you’re a fiction writer, you’ve probably heard the old
adage, “Put your heroine up a tree and throw rocks at her.” In other words,
give that lady conflict in her life.
Then make things worse, and don’t let up until the end—when everything finally
works out, and she reaches her goal.
Conflict is necessary in a book. If nothing is fighting
against the protagonist, the story becomes dull and predictable—boring. And no
author wants to write a boring novel.
But in real life, we want boring! We want to sail through
life on smooth waters. We want everything to work out, with not a hint of
trouble.
So why does the Lord bring trials and tribulation into our
lives? Why doesn’t He let us have that boring, predictable, easy life?
For one thing, conflict builds up our faith. If we never had
problems in our lives, we might forget that the Lord is taking care of us.
Moses had this concern in Deuteronomy, Chapter 8. The Lord
was willing to bless His people, but when everything was going great, they
needed to beware. Beware of pride, beware of forgetting the Lord.
This is not only a good lesson for us, but for our story
characters as well. Many times an author will pen a character who claims to be
a Christian, but who has forgotten the Lord. This person is trying to run his
own life, but things go from bad to worse. In a Christian novel, this character
needs to turn to the Lord. A change on the inside, not just a change of
circumstances, makes a powerful impact on readers. It could even cause a reader
to think about his or her own spiritual walk.
When my first novel was published, which is the first story
in Tumbleweed Weddings, a reader
contacted me. Several tragic events had recently happened in her life. She
said, “I want to thank you. I just got over some bad feelings I had at God....
Your book has helped me a lot, and I hope you write more about Fort Lob and all
its lovely people. God bless you.”
So bring on the conflict! But don’t forget the Lord. Let
your character realize that without God in his life, there will be no Happily
Ever After.
Tweetables:
Why does the
Lord bring trials and tribulation into our lives? Why doesn’t He let us have
that boring, predictable, easy life? Click to tweet.
Conflict builds
up our faith. If we never had problems in our lives, we might forget that the
Lord is taking care of us. Click to tweet.
A change on the
inside of our characters, not just a change of circumstances, makes a powerful
impact on readers. Click to tweet.
In
Tumbleweed Weddings, you’ll meet the Brandt siblings—Callie, Tonya, and
Derek—who live on a sheep ranch with their parents near Fort Lob, Wyoming. That
part of the country has rolling hills, a sparse population, and tumbling
tumbleweeds when the wind blows. Callie Brandt thinks she’ll be single all her
life until Lane Hutchins comes to town. But there’s something mysterious about
him. Tonya Brandt wants to marry a handsome man, but who is her secret admirer?
Derek Brandt doesn’t want to marry until he’s forty. That’s a problem for
Cheyenne Wilkins who needs to get married right away to fulfill the
stipulations in her grandmother’s will.
This is a collection of three contemporary romances under
one cover, previously published separately by Barbour Publishing.
To read the first chapter, visit Donna’s website: www.DonnaRobinsonBooks.com
Donna Reimel
Robinson is a member of JOY Writers, a local critique group, as well as
ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). As a pastor’s wife, she plays the
piano for their church and teaches a Jr. High Sunday School class. In her spare
time, Donna enjoys sewing and working jigsaw puzzles. She and her husband have
four grown children and ten grandchildren. They live in Denver, Colorado.
To learn more and connect with Donna, please visit”
Website: www.DonnaRobinsonBooks.com
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00J43HJKI
