Braids: Pulling it all together

Sometimes I think I’ve bitten off more than I can comfortably chew.

The biggest problem I’m facing with my romance novel is deciding how to structure it so it’s interesting and makes sense. Romance novels don’t contain just one story line (or at least the interesting ones *I* like don’t). The romance is the over-arcing story, but the hero and the heroine must also grow and be challenged and become worthy of each other. At the same time, they’re having to move through the steps of intimacy in a believable way. All this just so the reader can travel an interesting route to reach the Happily Ever After.

Figuring out a logical and plausible sequence for all this is a complicated puzzle for which I find I have few tips and even fewer strategies. I love solving puzzles, but this is a new type and I’m struggling to see how to weave the patterns.

I’m currently trying to lay down my story threads in a pattern called braiding, where you interleave the elements from one line with two others. This is making a little more sense from an analytical point of view, but I still feel stuck in how the middle is supposed to play out.

I think I have a few gaps in my strands and I need to fill those in before I can easily weave everything together and not just have a tangled knot in the middle.

I am going to solve this. Must. Solve. Puzzle. I’m off to re-scatter the pieces and see if any new strategies or fits become obvious.