The Lightbulb Moment

Have you ever had one of those lightbulb moments when everything that is wrong with your wip suddenly becomes very clear...even too clear. I had one of those moments this week. I realized why I don't have enough conflict in my wip--my characters are too much alike. Both workaholics, neither of them wants to get married. I was finding it difficult to keep the conflict going. But since I've had this moment of clarity, I've determined the changes that I need to make to my characters to make it work. It's going to mean some rewriting (ugg), but better to fix it now than to have it rejected for the very same reason.

I have to credit this moment of insight to Trish Wylie's blog. Right now she's blogging about the process that she uses when starting a new wip. She mentioned that she wanted her heroine to have a job that would make her committment phobic hero uncomfortable -- a kindergym teacher. It makes a lot of sense. If the hero and heroine are very different it makes for good conflict. Seems simple enough...so why did it take me so long to figure out that my hero and heroine weren't fitting the bill?

Have you had one of those light bulb moments with your wip?

Marcy