Fidelity #amwriting

Fidelity is a contentious issue. It’s tricky to sustain romantic tension over a series. It’s easier to follow the Person A meets Person B, loses them, and then wins them back trope in a standalone book. How do you keep up the complications over a series?

One way is to bring in new romantic or sexual partners. However, that brings us back to fidelity, and people have very strong ideas around that. It’s tough to root for Character A to end up with Character B, if that person cheated on them.

I have brought in other people as romantic possibilities or sexual encounters and gotten flamed for it. That’s okay, readers are certainly entitled to their opinions. I stand by my choices, for one very specific reason: my characters were not exclusive or even casually dating when it happened.

That makes a huge difference to me in terms of fidelity. If Rohan had cheated on Nava after book four, she probably would have stabbed him and had Leo help her hide the body. I’m sure Rohan would have had some very definite ideas about the reverse, had they been dating.

Relationships are fluid, complex, and messy. It’s an interesting balancing act to create enough complications that my readers fear for a happily-ever-after, and yet not lose interest in the characters.

How do you feel about fidelity? Is cheating ever okay in books?

Check out how I dealt with it in both my series.

The Unlikeable Demon Hunter: https://geni.us/g1BHd  

Blood & Ash: https://geni.us/BloodAndAsh 

The post Fidelity #amwriting appeared first on Author Deborah Wilde.