Dear Alex,
I’m working on my first romance novel after writing mainstream fiction for several years. I want it to have good structure and I understand there are “beats” that stories have to follow, including the “all is lost moment” or the “third act downturn.” But do my hero and heroine have to break up? It seems so contrived and every romance I read is the same. They meet, they fall in love, it’s good, then they fight and break up and then get back together. But what if they didn’t? What if my hero and heroine met and fell in love and that was the story?
–Shay

Hi Shay!

Changing genres is a big step. In many ways, when you switch genres, you’re a beginner all over again, because the expectations for each genre are different. I applaud you for studying the tropes of romance and figuring out which story beats are universal and which ones are specific to your new genre.

Yes, it’s possible to write about your hero and heroine falling in love and living happily ever after without ever breaking up, or even arguing. However, that wouldn’t be a story. Why? Because stories are about character transformation, and without that all-is-lost moment, your characters would never have any reason to change for the better.

Novels are emotion delivery systems. Readers expect a certain kind of emotional journey when they pick up a novel. They invest their time and they expect the payoff of character transformation. The hero and heroine’s lives have changed through the events of the story and they have gained wisdom and emotional strength along the way. Without going through some kind of trial, the story will feel flat, and readers won’t believe in the happy ending because the characters haven’t been tested, so how does the reader know they can prevail?

At the midpoint of your romance novel, the hero and heroine are happy together. They are intimate with each other on new levels and everything seems good. But seems is the operative word here, because the truth is, neither of them has changed one bit, and it’s only that change that will lead to lasting happiness. When problems come up in the relationship, they’ll fall back into their old ways of coping, because that’s all they know.

Between the midpoint scene and the breakup, your hero and heroine are like ducks in a pond. From the surface, it looks like they’re effortlessly gliding along, but under the surface, they’re paddling as fast as they can. They’re working hard to hide their flaws while pleasing their significant other, and they’re working their butts off to not change. Change is scary and nobody likes to do it, so both parties want to prolong the honeymoon period as long as possible.

But it’s not possible. Not forever. The obstacle that kept the couple from getting together is still present. Whatever wound or false belief the characters had at the beginning? They still have it. And until they overcome those things and truly change for the better, they can’t have lasting happiness.

You complain that “they fight and break up and then get back together” and that’s perhaps part of your confusion. The hero and heroine shouldn’t fight about something trivial. They shouldn’t even fight about the events of the plot. They should fight about who they are. The plot is merely the catalyst. If your baker heroine is fighting with your chef hero about kitchen space, that shouldn’t be what they are really fighting about. Perhaps your baker heroine has a family who always belittled her, and she sees the hero taking over the kitchen as proof that he doesn’t take her work seriously. Perhaps your hero grew up in foster care, never having a space of his own, and he sees the heroine hogging the kitchen as trying to shut him out of his rightful place. The fight can start about who gets to use the oven, but it should end with those other issues coming to light.

Don’t worry that you’re going to put off your readers or make them sad by breaking up the couple. Readers know that their happy-ever-after is guaranteed. It’s why so many of us love reading romance novels! The readers want to see the couple brought to their breaking point because they know that the couple still has some growing to do. The hero and heroine have to face their deepest fear—losing their love—in order to truly be whole. And that’s what makes for a satisfying story.

Keep writing, you’re doing great.
Alex K.

Alex Kourvo is a freelance editor and the author of No Hero Wants to Save the World, a book all about story stakes.

Dear Alex,
I know that all stories need to have conflict. That’s what makes a plot, right? My novel has lots of conflict. But my critique partners say my story is “flat,” and “lacks tension.” They keep talking about story stakes, but I don’t really see a difference between conflict and stakes. As long as I have two opposing forces both trying for the same goal, I have stakes, don’t I?
–Levi

Hi Levi!

It’s great that you’re thinking deeply about what makes a great story, and I’m glad that your critique group has been helpful to you. You’re correct that a story needs conflict, but it also needs stakes. Think of it this way: stakes are what gives conflict meaning.

If you’ve written a story about two boys racing each other home from school, you’ve written a conflict. After all, only one of them can win the race and be first through the door. The other will lose. Perhaps the winner will have first pick of the snacks or he’ll get to the TV first. The winning boy might taunt the loser, but can’t do much more. This is a contest without stakes. The reader won’t really care.

Story stakes are a way to make your reader care.

Let’s reframe that footrace. Let’s say that these aren’t two random boys, but brothers. Their parents are dead and they’re set to be put into foster care today at three o’clock. They’re going to two different households, although the fostering families don’t really care which boy goes where. They’ll take whichever boy gets into their car first. One of the families is nurturing and kind. The other treats foster children like abused servants.

Boris, the elder brother, is cruel and manipulative, and is determined to get to the good family before his younger brother Lars can. Lars has been living with his brother’s brutality for years. If he can just get home before Boris does today, he’ll go to a nicer place where he’ll never have to deal with his brother’s nastiness again. However, if his elder brother beats him home, Lars will be going to a family that will treat him worse than Boris ever did.

Now the race home from school has stakes. Not only is there a life-changing reward for winning, there are terrible consequences for losing. The odds are also stacked against our hero. Lars is younger than Boris, so he’s smaller and weaker. Boris has put rocks in Lars’s backpack and also slipped out the back door of the school before the final bell to get a head start.

Readers of this second scenario will be rooting for Lars to win. At the same time, the reader will be afraid he’ll lose. Worry about the outcome will make them turn the pages faster. As a writer, that is the way you want your readers—interested, worried, and desperate to learn the outcome.  That’s what story stakes can do for your novel.

To give your conflict stakes, first make sure that your hero wants something. He wants it desperately, more than he wants anything else. Spell out the specific reward for achieving that goal. Most importantly, make sure there are terrible consequences for failure. Finally, make sure that this goal isn’t easy to reach. This goal is going to take one hundred percent of your hero’s time, effort, and will to accomplish, and even then, the odds of success are low.

You need to do this work on two levels. There need to be high stakes in the overarching plot of the entire novel. Also, each scene has to have stakes. The hero begins each scene wanting something and uses that scene to try to get it. If you can keep feeding readers those high-stakes scenes, they will follow your story right to the end, so they can find out what happens. And if you resolve the stakes in a satisfying way, readers will close your book feeling happy. And then they will buy your next book.

Keep writing, you’re doing great.
Alex K.

Alex Kourvo is a freelance editor and the author of No Hero Wants to Save the World, a book all about story stakes.