by Anna Kittrell fromt he October 30, 2023 issue
Tagline: When Ally took on the job as a fortune teller at a local Halloween festival, the true love sh found was something she never could've predicted.
Observations: I wanted to touch on Ally's character arc. She is acting as a fortune teller at the Halloween festival to raise money for a recreational center for local youth. But in comes an old flame from high school, whom she dumped because an uperclassman asked her to prom. She's mortified when he asks for a palm reading. She offers a look into the crystal ball instead. He doesn't let her get away with that. He puts a fifty in her donation jar which pretty much forces her to do the palm reading.
She's scared. She's embarrassed about what happened all those years ago. But she ends up apologizing for her actions. And then she gets the guy! It's never a bad idea to show one or both of your main characters growing and changing in some way. In fact, this could be a good way to spark a story idea. Think of a mistake the character has made and in the course of the story show him/her learning from it or finding redemption, like Ally did.
If you're interested in finding out more ways to get ideas for stories, check out my book on the subject, Story Sparking: How to Generate Ideas for Woman's World 5-Minute Romances. It's available as an ebook and in print.
Photo by PunkToad via Flickr Creative Commons License
