Musical Chairs

Creating ‘musical chairs’ relationships in ensemble stories such as my Women in the Sun novels is a definite temptation—and one best resisted. I am sure you know what I mean by this. Couples break up and switch around love interests. We become invested in our characters and want to see how a new combination would work out. Such explorations can be intriguing.

The popular sit-com “Friends” did this with their characters. They shuffled relationships around a few times before landing on the final versions. That wasn’t the only show to do it, of course. It is almost a cliché with comedies of that sort.

And so, best avoided in our fiction, as much as we might like to see so-and-so with such-and-such. There are better and fresher ways to explore relationships. We shouldn’t be afraid to bring in new characters and allow former love interests to fade away, as they tend to do in real life. I admittedly have no idea who my characters will wind up with a few books down the line (assuming I get to write those books). I’ve left their futures open-ended. It would be far too tedious to write about them if I knew everything that was going to happen!

I admit to being guilty of just a little of the musical chairs approach. It seems possible Ronnie’s former boyfriend, Alan, is going to have a relationship with her best friend, Joey. Or will all that foreshadowing go to waste? Beyond that, your guess is every bit as good as my own.