Happily Independent After

Recently I read a sample of a romance novel, and had an unexpected realization: I didn't want to read about the heroine falling in love with the hero. In fact, I didn't want to read about the hero at all.

I'm not knocking romance. I've enjoyed many romance novels over the years, and I'm sure I'll keep reading them. However... This novel had a compelling plot about the heroine and her goals, and at the end of the sample I was eager to read about how she overcame the obstacles to reach her goals. Having bought the book, I expect to speed-read through the romance scenes to get back to the heroine's journey toward the career of her dreams.

You're probably familiar with the acronyms HEA (Happily Ever After) and HFN (Happy For Now) as standard romance plot resolutions. Reading that sample made me realize that right now I'm craving HIW (Happily Independent Woman) stories that feature women and happy endings that have nothing to do with finding a romantic partner. Or, to be more inclusive, HIA (Happily Independent After) stories about people realizing their full potential on their own, where success isn't measured by whether you have a significant other.

That's my current craving, and I'll keep it in mind as I plan out the plot lines for the characters in my novel. By habit I tend to pair everyone up, and I want to make sure I portray happily single characters, too.

It's odd to remember that Silbrith and I were nervous about adding romance to the Caffrey Conversation AU. By now most characters are in romantic relationships. We're not planning to split anyone up, so please don't stress about that. However, I would like to make sure we have a few happily single characters, too. That's another topic for next year's writing retreat.