I have a workshop tape from the RWA conference in NYC (’03)called “Inside the Editor’s Mind” with Leslie Wainger. The purpose of the workshop was cold-reading synopses and letting the writer know what kind of things run through an editor’s mind while reading them. After beginning the synopsis for a ghost romance, Ms. Wainger offers the following:

“…I still need an emotional conflict. It can’t just be he’s dead and she’s not…”

Is that not a great, and very telling, quote?

The new ms, which for a bizarre reason has the working title of LIDS, has a sort-of vampire hero and very-much-not vampire heroine. This in itself is a conflict, of course. Although, it might be less of a conflict than usual because I’ve blended a lot of different mythologies to come up with a different kind of vampire. (*cue Vic Mackey*) This could be good (Ooooh, he’s unique!) or bad (That’s not how vampires do it! –thud–).

It’s a romance, so you know going in that the vampire guy and the non-vampire girl are going to live happily ever after. Do paranormal lovers even consider her lack of sharp canines a conflict? Not so much, probably.

At this point I know what’s pushing my hero and heroine together, but I have yet to unearth what’s pulling them apart.

Besides the fact that he’s sort-of dead and she’s sort-of not.