Extremes

And when I fall off,
it will be into another world.

You know what makes a story really REALLY good for me?  The fact that characters go to extremes.   No Quiet Novels for me. Nosiree!

Characters who are pushed to their limits.  Life-and-death situations (either figurative or literal).  Their lives changing irrevocably (or at least the threat, if they Don’t Do Something Right Now!!)  The destruction of the world around them (figurative or literal). Characters making the Hard Choices.  Characters failing to make the hard choices and having everything go Charlie Foxtrot.

I like to see characters faced with a choice, where both of them are gonna result in Very Bad Consequences.   (Ah, sweet dilemma!)

For me, the beginning of a good novel involves the earth shattering for the characters.  The end of a good novel involves the characters dealing with the consequences to my satisfaction.

This stuff is intriguing.

Yes, even in frothy Regency romances.

Humans are extreme characters.  Just look at all the World Records people make’n’break every year.  Look at our sporting pursuits, our court cases, our facebook pages.  There is nothing tepid or half-way about Humanity.

Why should our stories be any different?