One of the interesting things when writing a love story is how to handle doomed love: i.e. love-affairs destined from the start to fail.  The thing is, as the author, I usually know they’re doomed.  Not always, I admit, but usually.  And sometimes I know it several books in advance.

I always knew that Tina and Rosie would break up, for example.  They get together in ‘Haze’, the very first of the Saltbury books, and stay together until just before the start of book five, ‘Red’.  In fact we’ll only see them actually separating in Book 10, ‘Saltbury Tales’, which will come out this March.  Likewise, I knew that Hazel and Rachel’s love was doomed, however cute a couple they were.  Besides, I had much more important plans for Rachel.

I’m now busy with ‘Sofie’ and the course of true love doesn’t always run smoothly there either, but actually writing these affairs is tricky.

In real life when we fall in love, we’re filled with joy and optimism.  Few of us go into a relationship thinking ‘This doesn’t really stand a chance’, and when a character is in love you mustn’t give the game away too soon, however much you know and, indeed, plan that things are going to turn out badly.  Sometimes you can still give plenty of warning, so that the reader knows things will fall apart: it’s just a question of when.  It can even be part of the plot.  We might think of Rachel and Denise in ‘Sisters’.  It was just obvious the two of them weren’t suited.  They were both just desperate to be with someone.  But others come as a bolt from the blue for both us and the characters.

And of course, just now and then, lovers that break apart might get back together again, hopefully having learned in the process.