In Pain and Blood has certainly been a ride and a half. But if there’s one thing I can count on with this story, its surprises.
Take my current struggle with a certain man. Throughout the whole story, he’s been reluctant to even think the big L-word, much less utter it. Instead, I’ve these pieces of dialogue that drip cheese. Whilst I appreciate his enthusiasm, it does leave me wondering if it’s a little OOC. He’s meant to have gone through a lot of bad things, lost a number of people that he cared about. So maybe it’s more a layer thing.
I started thinking about this during a scene that I thought I was finished with. But no, he wanted to add a little more…
You see, he has a tendency to call those he’s friendly with as “my dear” (and “our dear” when referring to said someone to another). And this extends to his lover, because letting them know he’s falling for them would be a bad thing.
You see, he has a tendency to call those he’s friendly with as “my dear” (and “our dear” when referring to said someone to another). And this extends to his lover, because letting them know he’s falling for them would be a bad thing.
But, recently, he’s started calling his lover “darling”.
I relented at first, seeing that it starts in the last five chapters, is only in private and wouldn’t happen often after the first mention (you don’t really have time to get mushy when you’re fighting for your life), but I do wonder if it’s going to sound a little forced by the time I reach the epilogue. So… I don’t know what to do with him right now.
Have you ever had a character run roughshod over your ideas of them? One who’s not the protagonist? I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
Aldrea Alien 
Hmmm, tough call. If the pet name is used often enough, it'll feel natural. I'm not sure about it changing though.
I know in my third book, one character calls another Darling, but it's a dark and twisted thing, and not the love you're trying to portray.
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Either way, he's going to get teased. So far, he speaks it a grand total of two times. Once in the epilogue and the other when it's first mentioned. It may happen one more, during a scene that's panning out to be pure mush anyway.
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