She made one bad call in eighth grade. It wasn’t cruel. It just wrecked everything.

writing flawed, lovable characters in Breaking Character

The thing about this new book—Breaking Character—is that I wrote 18,000 words of it... and then had to throw them out because it just wasn’t working. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was wrong.

Well, I figured it out.

Now I’m back in the saddle, and the book is going very, very well.

But here’s something you have to know about the main character, Cassie:
She is so sad.
She’s despondent.
She’s having a really rough time in high school right now.
She’s lonely—

And, honestly, it’s kind of her fault.

That was one of the things missing from the first draft. She made a bad call back in eighth grade with a couple of her very best friends. It wasn’t mean-spirited. It wasn’t meant to be awful. That’s how it turned out. And it ruined those friendships.

She’s been spiraling into this sort of depression ever since—like, for a year and a half now—and she doesn’t really talk to anyone anymore.

So, you know, raise your hand if that sounds or feels familiar.
I know it does to me.

She’s sad. She’s lonely. She’s depressed. And it’s so difficult. You just want to reach into the book and say, “It’s gonna be okay.”

Because here’s the thing—there is a silver lining.

The genre happens to be romance, by the way.
So everything’s gonna work out.
You just want to tell her: Hang in there. Don’t quit. It’s gonna be worth it—I promise.

But... because it’s a story, because it’s fiction, and because stories have structure... I’m gonna have to put her through hell first.

The cool thing about that, though—something I didn’t really learn until much later in life, right around the time my publishing career was just starting—is that characters like Cassie must have agency. They have to make choices. Deliberate choices. And those choices need to move the story forward.

Everything that happens to her will be a result of actions she has taken. Not because the world is conspiring against her. Not because of some random event. Sure, that happens sometimes in stories—but for the most part, the protagonist must act. She must move the story.

And that’s what Cassie does here.

She’ll be handsomely rewarded for it in the end.
I already know the ending.
I’ve practically written it.
It’s gonna be glorious, and I know you’re gonna love it.

But she has to work to get there.

And I think that’s what’s going to make readers recognize her. Appreciate her. Connect with her. Because she’s a good kid. She made one bad call. And there were consequences. And it sucks. But she’s not giving up.

It’s gonna work out because she’s going to make it work out.

And that’s one of the things I love about... well, pretty much all of my books. Especially the ones with a YA voice. Whether they’re meant for teens or not is a whole other subject—but the tone is definitely contemporary YA, which is how I came up in the publishing world.

No matter what happens, no matter what I put my characters through—
There’s hope.

There’s always going to be hope.

That’s what I want for my characters.
That’s what I want for you.
That’s what I want for me.

So be on the lookout.
It’s called Breaking Character.
I’m going to get it out to you as soon as I can.

Until tomorrow—
Have a good one.

P.S.

Here’s the first book in the series, THE DRAMA DEPARTMENT.