Tara Sue Me on keeping long-term relationships fresh

Tara Sue Me, whose The Collar, book six in The Submissive Series, is out this week, explains how she strives to keep the long-term relationships in her novels interesting.

Tara Sue Me: There's a certain comfort in writing long-term relationships. As a writer, you've been with the characters through their entire journey and they've been in your head for so long, sometimes you find yourself talking with them. In some ways, they're a lot like family. They're comfortable, they're familiar, and they've seen you at your worst.

But there's a downside, too. You have to keep the plot fresh without doing something so out of character, your reader sees it as a desperate attempt for you to keep writing.

When you set books years apart, there are the obvious things that change: babies have been born, maybe someone has died, perhaps a friend moved away. These are the somewhat easy things to write.

Harder to write is the internal change a character has gone through. How has the heroine's relationship with her husband changed? When I wrote The Enticement, which picks up six years after the prior book, I knew Nathaniel and Abby's communication would be much better than it was in the first few books.

"Well, I was sitting here on the couch, trying to be good and not let the glasses fall and after a while I just got bored. Then I tried to imagine what I'd write on the blog about the last hour. I imagined an entry I would call, I was a coffee table. Probably wouldn't get a lot of hits. Seriously, what's hot about a coffee table?"

"I assume you're getting to the part soon where you snorted instead of all this babbling?" Nathaniel said.

"Right, the snort. It was just hearing you say it was time for the fun to begin. I thought, 'Hell, anything would be more fun than this.'"

"Is that all?"

"I may have also thought, 'About damn time.'"

But those are two characters who have been together for six years. In The Collar, I write two characters (Jeff and Dena) who were together, separated and are now trying to find their way back together. They experience growth, but it's a different kind.

"We've got to talk about it sometime," Jeff said.

"I know." Dena looked down and brushed her hands against the papers in her lap. "I just wasn't expecting it to be quite so soon."

"It's been years."

"I know," she whispered.

"My childhood was mostly horrible. I hope you can't say the same for our life together."

Her head shot up. "You know that's not the case."

He needed the truth. After all they'd been through, all they'd meant to each other, surely she owed him that much.

"Then why did you leave me?" he asked.

"For a hundred reasons at the time, and now it's hard to remember just one."

"Why did you leave me, Dena?" he asked again.

For these two, the growth occurred while they were apart. They weren't ready to discuss the tragedy that tore them apart after it happened. It was only by living apart that they reached the place where, years later, they could discuss the past and deal with it.

One of the best things about character growth is it never stops. Or at least it shouldn't. As writers, our characters should continue to grow. The hero you meet on page one of the first book should be vastly different from the guy at the end of the third.

I'm not a big outliner. I like to write by the seat of my pants. But even then I always start out knowing the beginning and the end of the story I'm working on. For me, it's pivotal I have this information, so I can be assured the character growth is seen.

Long-term relationship characters are my favorite to write. I think it's because they know each other well and there's an intimacy that is sexy as hell about that.

About The Collar (courtesy of NAL):

Nathaniel and Abby are struggling to navigate the challenging waters of their own relationship, when they get a surprising phone call from their partners in play, Dena and Jeff, who are in need of a helping hand…

Seven years ago, blonde, beautiful lawyer Dena Jenkins was tired of her carefully controlled life. Desperate for something exhilarating to help her escape the pressures of her demanding job and her senator father, she joined a steamy, local BDSM club as a submissive. There she met brooding Dominant, Jeff. The attraction between them was undeniable, and, despite Dena's doubts, they couldn't stay away from each other.

Except, as the years have passed, their blazing connection has proven difficult to maintain. Dena and Jeff have a history they'd rather forget, but Dena can't let go of the past, and Jeff is ready to move across the country to give her space. Now, to save their passion, they'll have to rediscover what it means to trust each other—and give themselves to each other completely…

Find out more about Tara Sue Me and her books at tarasueme.com.