Heart Breaker

I love the story about the elderly Athabascan woman who was asked how to make moosehide moccasins.  Her reply?  “Well, first you kill a moose.”

In other words, have a seat.  This is going to take a while.

When I’m asked, “How do you write a novel?”  My answer is, “Well, first you break a heart.”

And not just any old heart, but the  heart of the main character.  When an author writes a novel, his/her goal is to tell a story so compelling that the reader doesn’t want to put it down.  That means the novelist must establish a strong connection between the reader and the book’s main character. The only sure way to do that is through emotions.

I might not know what it’s like to live thousands of years ago in the Aleutian Islands, but I can relate to an Aleut woman who loses the man she loves in a vicious raid. I feel the emotional connection, and I want to read her story, live her life, and discover how she finds love again. Because she and I are sisters.  We both know what it is to have a broken heart.(Okay, I admit it. I’m advertising one of my own novels, Mother Earth Father Sky.)

So, if you’re a writer, how do you go about breaking that main character’s heart? You do it by knowing your main character so well that you understand what is at the center of her soul. What is most important thing/person/belief in her life? What is the foundation of his self-esteem? What does he love most? Once you know that, then you’ve solved your problem, because what you must do is take that most precious thing away from her. Then  she’s in the fight of her life as she tries to survive and win back what she’s lost. Suddenly you have a plot; you have a story. You’ve pushed your character off the two-dimensional page and made her come alive in your reader’s mind.

Tell me about your main character. What is at the center of his or her self-esteem? What does he love the most? What will break her heart?

Blessings, Sue