Where do you put your black moment?I finished a Silhouette Desire this week, written by a multi-published author, and was rather stunned when I reached the last chapter and the characters hadn’t yet had their black moment.
I read on, wondering if there wasn’t going to be one or if the little spat they’d had a couple chapters back was it. Then, low and behold, it appeared. A shocking black moment about 3 pages from the end of the book. I mean it was huge. But by then both characters were so much in love it wasn’t more than a blip and in half a page they were over it and moving on with the rest of their lives, so in love, etc.
Meanwhile, I, the reader, was left staring at “The End” and going, What The F#@$?
The end was rushed. I felt cheated by how fast the hero had a change of heart. The reason for the black moment was never really dealt with by the heroine. All of that’s unacceptable.
I feel cheated. It was as if the author went, whoa, I’m at word 49,100 and I have to finish this book by word 50,000. Or is it lazy writing? Why don’t the editors demand more? If I was an editor and someone turned in a book like that I’d be telling her to back up the truck.
Normally I put the black moment at the end of chapter 9. That leaves 3 chapters for the H/H to struggle through to their HEA. This makes those last 3 chapters torture to write. They love each other. They need to end up together. How do they overcome those obstacles to their love when they’re still committed to those beliefs that keep them apart?
Where do you put your black moment? How black is it?
