Should she leave him or not?

ZannaPerry · Nov 5, 2007

My hero's wife, who is killed early in the book, cheated on him with her business partner. However, at the beginning of the book she is wanting to give up their affair, and hands over all her notes and files to her lover on the private police investigation they've been working on. She wants to try and work things out with her estranged husband. But deep in her heart, she knows it can't happen because the love between had died a long time ago.

The hero doesn't know she cheated on him, doesn't find out until later in the story, and then he becomes emotionally and physically attached to my main character, and they have an affair (even though the hero's wife is now dead.)

So, to make things go smoothly, should I have the wife just decide to leave the husband? So there won't be any loose ends on her part even in death, and it won't make the reader think that my hero is scum for falling for someone else when the wife decided to stay with him?

Siddow · Nov 5, 2007

Uh, what?

The wife is dead, right? Then the hero is free to romp with whomever he pleases. I wouldn't think a guy is scum if he is able to fall in love again after the death of his wife. Unless I'm the dead wife, and the guy is my husband, of course. He must take a vow of celibacy.

ZannaPerry · Nov 5, 2007

I knew this question was a bit far-fetched. I guess all I'm really asking is if the wife decided to stay with her husband but then is killed off would the readers feel sorry for her when the husband takes on a new lover?

Siddow · Nov 5, 2007

Well, it sounds to me like a perfect set-up to make an otherwise unlikeable character likeable (the wife), and to make the reader hope that the hero (husband) finds a new, more deserving, love.

ZannaPerry · Nov 5, 2007

Suppose you're right. I'll stick to what I have.

THANKS for commenting!

job · Nov 5, 2007

The situation itself doesn't have strict yes/no answer. It's all in how you write it.

I'd think the hero has to have some kind of strong feelings for the woman he's married to. He loved her at one time. There were probably good months or years for the two of them.
You get to define what he feels -- regret, anger, hatred, remorse. But it would be something intense.

His emotion doesn't depend so much on how she's acted, as on the kind of man he is.

Time is also a factor.

A week after she's died -- It seems too early to get devoted to another woman. Death has to be sobering whether it comes to a friend, lover or enemy.
And if it's too soon, the reader might wonder if this new interest is rebound.

But months later --

Life goes on. The hero puts the old relationship -- good, bad, or indifferent -- behind him and finds somebody new.

ZannaPerry · Nov 5, 2007

The new romance sort of springs on the hero out of the blue. They don't hook up right away, more like resent each other from the beginning. I do have written scenes where they almost come together, but the heroine doesn't want to be the rebound girl so she denies the hero. She constantly thinks his wife is still between them, and won't give herself to him until the moment is right.

The hero had fallen out of love for his wife a long time ago because she had pushed him away for so long that he grew tired of it and his career took off to the point he was never home, and didn't care. So, yes, his character changed, and when the MC (heroine) comes into the picture, he's falling in love again when, in reality, has been several years since he felt anything for another woman. Not even his wife.

Khazarkhum · Nov 5, 2007

He was trapped in a loveless marriage and then his wife died.

Why would I hate him for finally finding love?

ZannaPerry · Nov 5, 2007

I don't know. Because the dead wife had changed her mind and wanted to make things work with him. They'd been together forever. She didn't want to give him up yet, and it wouldn't be easy.

But I'm really getting away from the point I am meaning to say. . . I think I know how to begin and end it. The wife dies before she had the chance to make amends with her husband.

Lauglow · Nov 6, 2007

This could be a good way to turn your hero into a truly likable person and strengthen the new relationship. I.e. the female MC can help him overcome this emotional burden, the dead wife is no longer seen as competition, or a harsh lesson on love, etc.

Good luck!

Khazarkhum · Nov 6, 2007

So you think he's tormented by guilt and doesn't want to put himself or anyone else through the guilt wringer, is that it?

Susan Gable · Nov 7, 2007

Suzy, darlin', my advice isn't strictly related to this particular incident in your story. It's a bigger piece of advice.

Stop looking for what WE think should happen in your story, and listen to the story, and especially, the characters. Let THEM talk to you, not us.

You can't write a book by committee.

Ssssshhhhhh. Quiet. Listen. The characters and story are trying to talk to you. Let them. Plug out everything else.

Go write your story the way it wants to be written. Trust your instincts. Go with your gut.

I'm sending you a case of Doubt Demon Be Gone. Spray it liberally before you begin to write.

You can do this!

Go now. Listen to the story. Write. The time for tweaking and doubting is later. Go draft that puppy. And enjoy it.

Susan G.

Robin Bayne · Nov 9, 2007

Susan is right. . . . we hear voices.

Susan Gable · Nov 9, 2007

Inspiewriter said:
Susan is right. . . . we hear voices.

My voice have been quiet lately, and I miss them.

Come back, voices. <G>

Susan G.

CheshireCat · Nov 9, 2007

What Susan said.

Especially that part about not writing a book by committee.

ZannaPerry · Nov 9, 2007

I think I try too hard to read what other people think about it instead of just writing the story first, and then go back and kill myself over it. . . . . . . . . . .

I want my voices back too!

CheshireCat · Nov 9, 2007

You have to write for yourself first. Please yourself. Write the kind of story you enjoy reading.

Trust me, people (agents, editors, readers, critics, your Aunt Sally) are going to be offering their opinions without being asked.

Until then, please yourself. Get comfortable with your own preferences, your style, your voice.

You have no idea how important that is.

Should she leave him or not?

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

job

In the end, it's just you and the manuscript

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Khazarkhum

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Lauglow

Khazarkhum

Susan Gable

Dreamer of dreams, teller of tales

Robin Bayne

~writes for Him~

Susan Gable

Dreamer of dreams, teller of tales

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.