I am not sure what is going on here (I think I do) but whatever the reason, it is not a trend in writing style that I am loving a whole lot. Why? It is all about planning! Let me explain!
Throughout pretty much my last round of books in my TBR pile, I have seen the same thing happen. In the first couple of chapters, the author sets up a pretty good storyline. I'm hooked. The characters are great. Their chemistry is great. I see a pretty dang good potential storyline building.
AND THEN...
The author takes off on a completely different direction. Something in one of the characters "history" derails the entire story. Let me make up a story idea for you to show you what I mean.
Heroine gets the job as the head of some major division in this huge corporate company. She has worked hard for this and this is a game changer. Enter hero who is placed in charge of the same company in a bit higher position than her. Sure, let's throw in a back history when they both competed against each other at Harvard Business College. Now, the are back at it again,
So far so good. Not fancy, but we see where this is going to go to. Standard Rom-Con approach.
AND THEN...
She reveals to her best friend that this job, although it is great, is getting in the way of her real dream of working for a NPO to take care of food deserts and food insecurity.
And now the entire story is focused around this and not the fun competition between the two of them.
The issue is that you got us hooked on wanting to see how this past history and competition between these two play out, but the author changes course and now wants to spend the entire novel hyping up their personal new social cause.
We have to remember that each CAN be good storylines, but CANNOT be done together.
When you get ready to start your story, decide on a plot line, decide on a thesis, and stick to it. If you come up with something that is going to take you off target, write it down for a later book.
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