Romance

One of the best ways to draw readers into a book and draw the ‘aww’ factor is to include a romance.   For those intending to include more risque elements, it is far more organic to include sex scenes in the course of a romance than to find other ways to insert one.  (There are other ways to include one, and perhaps one day I’ll write a piece on sex scenes and their uses.  Today’s article is about romance though)

The trick to this, of course, is to make it believable.  I recently watched the new Prince of Persia movie, whose greatest flaw was the limited chemistry between the two leads, who were supposed to be falling in love with each other over the course of the film.   For whatever reason, the two actors had no attraction to each other and it killed the believability of the entire romance plot.

Now, in writing, we don’t have to worry about the visible chemistry between our characters, but we do have similar worries.   We need to portray that chemistry – the small glances, the awkward looks away of the early stages.  The public displays of affection of the early actual relationship.  The comfort level of a developed relationship.  And, often, the twisted mix of comfort and discomfort of a relationship that is dying.

We need to be able to convey all of these things to the reader, above and beyond showing them the actual relationship itself.  This is the ‘chemistry’ that can be missing on screen – and we can lose it in writing too.

Of course, above and beyond the chemistry, we have to show the relationship itself.  There are forms of this I dislike – the ‘I think I hate you, oh wait, I actually love you’ is a horrendously overused cliche.  The sudden ‘oh, we’re in love’ and showing nothing else is, while not entirely unrealistic, not very common in the real world either.

So look at relationships around you when you start writing one.  Consider how they started – consider how yours started.  Most of your characters likely live a more stressful life than you do, and so can jump on things faster.  But conversely, stress can lead to people walking away from interest because things are too complicated at the moment.

Look at the relationship apart from the rest of the story and see if it makes sense.  How would these characters approach it?  The nature of the individuals involved is important – if one of your characters is, amongst her other characters traits, a relatively good catholic girl, she probably isn’t going to fall right into bed with the handsome lead.

Once you’ve sorted out how you think the relationship between the two characters should progress, in the ways that make sense for them, THEN look at how it interweaves with the story.  How would the events that happen to them change the way their relationship takes form?  In the first Mass Effect game, for example, most of the relationships are in a state of ‘we’ll talk about this when things are over’ – and then they realize they’re about to make a suicide attack and hurriedly consummated their relationship so they don’t die without having done so.

In the end, the romance must fit with the story.  It’s ebbs and flows should fit into the arcs of the story, and it shouldn’t overwhelm the rest of the story (well, unless you’re writing a romance specifically).  It also must fit with the characters, and appear real to the readers.

Glynn