Character Love - Romance Writers Weekly - #lovechatwrite

Have you ever heard the term “suspension of disbelief?” It’s one of the few writing analysis terms I remember from high school.

Suspension of disbelief is what a reader has to do in order to fall deeply into a story that they know is imaginary. When we read fiction, we know it is made up. But we ignore that in order to enjoy it. Most of the books I DNF are because I can’t get to that point. I can’t forget that I’m reading something someone else wrote. I can’t even pretend to believe the characters are real.

The reason I bring this up is because of this week’s blob hop topic:

Do you ever (or always) fall in love with your characters?

In order to spends months, often more than a year, writing and revising a book, I have to care about the characters. I have to believe that their story will resonate with readers – but more importantly, the story has to resonate with me. I have to forget they are people I conjured up out of thin air. I have to believe they are real in every way.

So I guess, yes, I do fall in love with my characters. I want them to get their happy ending, to feel love and fulfilment and joy. Even if they only live in one dimension on a page or in an e-reader, I care for them. It is both a privilege and a pleasure.

What about you? What characters have you fallen in love with? Let me know below, then hop over to PG Forte to read her response!

---

Speaking of falling in love with my characters...I hope you love Ginnie and Seth as much as I do!

RELEASE DAY FOR SUSPECT ATTRACTION!
A steamy, later-in-life contemporary romance mystery
 
A silver-haired charmer with a shameful secret. A broken-hearted matchmaker with a guilty burden. And a bewildering disappearance that could wrench them apart.
 
Regina Blynde knows Seth Updike is trouble the minute he strides into Blynde Dating Agency. That’s trouble with a capital T—tantalizing, tasty, and tempting.
 
Resolved never to risk loving someone only to lose them again, Ginnie keeps things strictly professional and matches him with a wealthy widow.
 
Who promptly goes missing.
 
Ginnie’s search for the truth makes it impossible to avoid Seth. And when he sets out to woo her, she finds him too hard to resist.
 
But as the evidence mounts up and mysterious circumstances multiply, Ginnie must face a shocking fact—she’s falling in love with the prime suspect.
 
(Ginnie 54, Seth 51)
 
Amazon-Kobo-Nook-Apple. E-book only $2.99! Paperback now available! Find all retailer links here.

---

POUR DECISIONS is coming soon. Sign up to Read and Review today!

Meet the Martinelli sisters: Rosa, Bianca and Allegra. These partners in wine have just inherited a once-storied winery in the heart of Napa Valley. They’re living the dream, right?
 
Not so fast! Because, as it turns out, not everybody is happy for them. And that includes their Uncle Geno who’d assumed the property would come to him.
 
There are hoops to jump through, barrels to get over, and a mountain of regulations they'll have to scale. But these sisters are crushing it—and we don’t just mean the grapes. They’re making wine, falling in love, and working together to restore their inheritance to its former glory, one pour decision at a time.