Off with her head!

Let me sit up my story here in simple terms, not a tell all, but enough to get your take on things.  I do like keeping some secrets, ;).

The story I'm working on, is one of a 3, possibly 4, book series, and it's basically all the crap that happens in  real relationships, and sorting through the bad to see if there is any good to hang on to, that will make the relationship worth keeping.  I happen to believe that people come into your life for a reason, and that you can love more than one person.  It's your typical, love isn't always enough kind of story.

I'm a romantic at heart, I cry at stupid commercials and movies that I've watched a million times like The Notebook or Titanic. I can't help it, that part of me is a girl through and through. But I have many pet peeves with romance novels, funny huh. The characters are always perfect in every way known to man, and any of their supposed flaws are mostly pathetic. It bugs me when the couple can't stand each other, they fight their feelings until they accidentally but magically touch and boom they scrog on the floor only to complain later that it was the other's fault. Ugh come on give me a break, does that really happen? Cause I don't know of anyone that has gone through that, nor have I ever heard of that happening, to the extremes that you find in a most romance novels. And once they finally admit they love each other in a dramatic aha moment, everything goes peachy perfect. Gag me. Another thing I've always hated is that normally there is only one villain, and its typically a jealous ex girlfriend out to ruin the new relationship. It makes for a dramatic twist but you always see it coming. Or at least I do. And it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what happens next. Yes this happens every day, and some women do the same things leaving no guessing game for what is coming next, but some people are creative, and it is rarely creative in a book.

 
For the most part its fairly easy to write about realistic people and situations, except when it comes to the villain.  I don't know about you but I know many bitchy, conniving, backstabbing women.  And the idea, for me that there is only one, in the majority of books, is weak and less real.  Yeah I know its a fantasy, but I like to read the stories that are as real as you can get and one bad girl/guy in one book just doesn't feel real to me.  But its hard to bring in multiple bad guys and not take away from the story somehow. 

Do I make one horrible spoiled brat, taking all the peices from some I know myself and mold them all into one?  Making her one hell of an overly dramatic character?  Just like everyone else does...

Or do I add more than one and hope that the story doesn't wander away?  Which always happen when you have too many characters to keep up with.  You have things thrown at you from every direction, not just one, you aren't surrounded by perfectly kind and generous people at all times.  But its not a constant attack of people either.

This one character that I created was supposed to be one of a few, except I kept writing about her only and she became this horrible drama queen that even soap operas would cringe at.  I've taken her out three times, and when I bring her back it's always the same thing.  Way too much chaos and way too many tantrums.  Its because I have yet to create anyone else like her.  But I can't, I've tried and they just fizzle out and I can't get more than a mention or two taking them straight to the chopping block.  I'm not sure why, but she seems to be THE villain of the story and its something I do not want.  She doesn't do the typical steal the boyfriend thing, although she does affect the main girls relationships in a HUGE way.  But its like I can't write a scene with her without her attacking everyone around.

I'm stuck, because I can't tell a story about a real relationship without some truth behind it.  No relationship is perfect, there are things you can either live with or you can't.  One huge factor in the strength of a relationship is outside influences.  For some strange reason I keep writing about only one that I've come up, and I'm throwing everything I know into her making her impossibly fake.

Today I'm going to delete another huge chunk of the story that has this chick stealing the show....again.  I know doing this brings me closer to getting it right but ugh I'm so stuck on how to fix it that I'm considering leaving a giant hole with the words FILL IN LATER WITH BS CHARACTERS.

Any ideas??