Wednesday's Writer's Tip - The Reward

The book has come to the end and the hero or and the heroine are ready for their reward. What they receive should be appropriate and a little bit of a surprise. All through the story you've kept that goal in mind. You keep asking yourself what the focus character wants. He or she has experienced that dreaded black moment when they are convinced the goal is gone forever. This usually follows the climax and should be played out for all that can be dragged out of this moment.

How do you as the writer reward the focus character for all the pain and agony he or she goes through. Well, you give him or her what they desire. But the goal may not always be what they really want. The hero or heroine might want revenge on the bad guy. He or she may want him dead and the chance comes to kill this person or to harm the villain in some way. But the realization comes that by doing so they are becoming the same as their opponent.

Sometimes beneath the stated goal there is some deeper thing the focus character wants. Right now I'm working on a story where the hero believes he wants a family and that appears to be his goal. What he really wants is the love of a particular woman. So what I'm struggling with is how when things look like this is a shoe-in, how to make him realize that and he might have the family he wants but will he have her love or is what's happening two lonely people forming a family without love.