Consequently, there are unique challenges to writing angsty romance, particularly when the main character has a painful backstory. In my latest book, Arctic Sun, I had two hurting heroes to contend with, each with a complicated backstory. As a result, I had to dig deep and grow, not only as a writer, but also as a human being. Dealing with sensitive issues that could be a trigger to some like addiction, assault, trauma, abuse, loss, self-harm isn’t easy, and often makes us confront our own past hurts and ongoing pain.
This level of writing-as-therapy isn’t for everyone, and at various points in my writing career, I have deeply needed to write fluffier stories, low on the angst meter, so I don’t want to discount those stories as important and good too. But sometimes challenging stories simply need to be told. We need to tell them for us, for our own hurting parts, for readers who need to see characters dealing with—and triumphing over—situations like this, and to stay true to the story the character has demanded.
Sometimes, main characters with challenging issues come from deeply personal places and other times they involve issues outside our own lived experiences, but I will argue that both situations can benefit from using more beta and sensitivity readers than we might ordinarily use. Because even if we have lived a particular challenge like addiction or abuse, others will have had different experiences, and getting input from multiple readers is almost always a good thing.
This feedback is really important because you want to be careful to not use pain for the sake of pain or to replace plot with gratuitous angst. For example, if you are going to have something bad happen to a character, it has to serve a greater purpose than simply making the reader feel for them. The bad thing has to help them eventually emerge stronger and closer to the happy ending they so deserve. I would also caution against heaping too many bad things on one character just for the sake of making them “interesting” or “vulnerable.” Each part of the backstory needs to serve a purpose, needs to influence the goal, motivation, and conflict for that character. If it’s not intrinsic to who they are, what they want, why they want it, how they act, what they believe (and misbelieve), then it runs the risk of being gratuitous and having the opposite effect one wants. You want readers to connect with the character, and one of the best ways to do this is to ensure that all pain, all suffering, has some purpose that advances the story. Even as they cry, readers have to trust that it will all be worth it in the end.