{"id":1009,"date":"2021-11-06T21:24:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T21:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2021-11-06T21:24:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T21:24:06","slug":"the-trouble-with-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/the-trouble-with-hope\/1009\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hope Appleton has a mind of her own. There\u2019s nothing remarkable about that sentence, until I tell you that Hope is a character in the novel I\u2019m writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could say I only have myself to blame. In a way, you\u2019d be right. But in my defence, you should always create well-rounded, authentic characters with clear motivations. I\u2019ve certainly achieved that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My agent isn\u2019t very sympathetic to my plight. You see, the deadline for delivering this manuscript has been and gone. Twice. If this novel is not on her desk by Monday, my contract, and therefore my career, is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s my synopsis. Hope falls in love with a dangerous serial killer called Luke Steiner, whom she must kill in order to save herself and scores of potential victims. Only she has the power to destroy him. But it breaks her heart in the process, and she lives out the rest of her days lonely and sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, I know, boo hoo. You probably feel sorry for her. Believe me, if you knew her, you wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given Hope\u2019s mission, I could hardly make her a shrinking violet. I endowed her with supernatural powers, fearlessness and fierce independence. Frankly, she\u2019s a serious badass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therein lies my problem. I\u2019ll give you an example of the kind of thing I\u2019m dealing with. In one chapter, Hope was meant to go on a coffee date with Luke. So I set to work foreshadowing the coming drama with ominous clouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope looked out at the gathering storm. \u2018I know what this means,\u2019 she sighed, and promptly cancelled the date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hey! I\u2019m the writer!\u2019 I slammed my fist on the table. Everyone in the caf\u00e9 stared at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caf\u00e9? What the hell was I doing in a caf\u00e9? Thunder roared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just then, a handsome man swaggered towards me. Luke. I leapt up from the table and ran home as fast as I could, ignoring the magnetic pull towards him. Hope cackled like a witch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has sometimes felt as though I\u2019d never finish this novel. I think that\u2019s always been Hope\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband, Rob, is my rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Never give up hope,\u2019 he says. \u2018You can do this.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m finally starting to believe him. It\u2019s Sunday evening and the end is in sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hope cut a lonely figure, wandering the moors alone forever. THE END.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lean back in my chair and stare at the screen, my heart soaring. Novel complete!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind howls around the house in a tortured female voice while Rob and I sip champagne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, I awake early to check over my manuscript. But something\u2019s wrong. There\u2019s a new line at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Then she met Rob and they lived happily ever after.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob is nowhere to be seen. His clothes and his car have disappeared. I run down the street in my nightgown, calling his name. But it\u2019s too late. He\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Never give up hope,\u2019 whispers the wind, whipping my hair into my face. \u2018Never give up hope.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hope Appleton has a mind of her own. There\u2019s nothing remarkable about that sentence, until I tell you that Hope is a character in the novel I\u2019m writing. You could say I only have myself to blame. In a way, you\u2019d be right. But in my defence, you should always create well-rounded, authentic characters with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[379,581],"tags":[586,585],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-november-2021-never-give-up-hope","tag-hope","tag-trouble"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-gh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}