Writing Romance

Ah! What beautiful questions!

@devastate-lasting Ha! It breaks my heart that you’ve had such a terrible experience with romance! First of all, YA is not true romance. I’m sorry, but almost everything in typical YA novels is trash, if not totally unrealistic. I totally understand where you are coming from, however, and I will simply state that romance–real romance, not the artificial substitute used in YA or even most adult novels these days–is not cultivated over a matter of chapters and is not defined by (1) two characters “falling in love” with each and (2) tons of physical contact.

Also, I have a hard time when it comes to writing the actual romantic parts myself. It is no easy task, and it simply cannot be planned, kiss scenes in particular. The best thing to do in that instance is to just have the two characters interacting with each–maybe they’re arguing, maybe one is crying, whatever–and let things come naturally. If your male MC is a tough, dominant kind of guy, then he’s liable to kiss the girl to get her to shut up and then she’s too stunned to really “describe” the kiss before the guy pulls away. Ya know?

And with school stuff? Oh, yeah. I definitely get you there. That’s probably why I tend to shy away from stories set in a school environment. In reality, it’s all a bunch of superficial crap (pardon my language).

Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that you could always give it another chance. But don’t come at it from a modern-day perspective–you know, where everyone’s got to be good-looking, you’ve got a ton of kissing and hugging and the like, and everything is unnatural, forced, contrived, and rushed. Janette Oke put it the best: “Love comes softly.” When writing romance, it has to be from the heart–yours and your characters. Of course, not everyone has a heart for romance, and I understand that. I think that when you pick apart my own work, I’ve got so many other things overlapping the romance that it tends to fade into the background. (Then it rushes back to the foreground, but that’s not my point. 😉 ) And sometimes even the characters were meant to fall in love–and that’s okay. Romance doesn’t solve everything, but sometimes it’s the missing piece.

I like to think of romance in the same terms Solomon did. As Christians, our duty is not to write porn, erotica, or toe-curling romances that make readers feel “good” or satisfied. Romance, despite what the world says, was meant to mirror Christ’s love for us–and that’s how we’ve got to see all of it as writers and as human beings. Kiss scenes? The tenderness with which Christ wipes away our tears. Words of love? God’s Holy Word–His love letter to us. See what I mean?

So…yeah…none of that probably made any sense. *shrugs* Just want to encourage you–and everyone else–to see romance as something more than a kiss scene or the trash the secular world is putting out there.

@godlyfantasy12 It would be my pleasure to assist you!

For your first question, I would first ask if you ever write from his perspective…if you do, have his crush portrayed through his POV and not revealed to Arabella until later. If not, then reveal it slowly. Maybe he says something strange or looks at Arabella too long. Maybe he’s overly concerned about her. Maybe he just exhibits this really gentle, comforting air that she mistakes for brotherliness, when in reality he’s in love with her. Make sense? Any good reader will be able to catch on quickly, even if there are very few signs. I know I’ve called a lot of stuff just by being obsessive about characters and romance. 😉

As for your second… Did you say conflict? My favorite!!!! If you intend to employ the “love square,” then you’ve got a lot of work cut out for you! First of all, once you’ve gotten all four of your characters’ personalities down, then you’ll know how the two guys will act toward each other. November’s a nice, gentle kind of guy, right? Then say the other fellow’s kind of a jerk (in a good way, of course), or a show-off, or slightly arrogant…or just the polar opposite of November, even if that means he’s dark and brooding.

(Just a tip for everyone here…people LOVE dark and brooding guys. Like, loooooovvvvvveeeeee them.)

Back to what I was saying… November and That Other Guy could be at each other’s necks all the time–mostly because they like the same girl, but also because they’re so different. Arabella could be oblivious to their true rivalry and simply deterred by the fact that they can’t get along. Catch my drift?

I hope this helps! 🙂 If you’d ever like me to read over some stuff for you, just let me know!

@godlyfantasy12 Ah! Perfect! I’m glad that helps, and yes…I would definitely go with a personal conflict.

Just throwing out some ideas here… Grimm and November are probably both super protective of Arabella, so maybe Grimm happens to save her from something (it could be so simple as a fallen tree limb in the way or a something as big as a bullet), which sparks November’s jealousy. Arabella may not even realize that Grimm likes her, so she’s being all thankful and sweet and everything, but November catches on quickly, so he assumes that Arabella likes him too. Oh, yeah. That would definitely work. Then you could showcase both of their protective sides without making anyone look bad. Just step lightly around jealousy. It may blind people, but don’t let your characters act…out of character. With November being such a nice person, he’d probably be more liable to try and talk Grimm out of liking Arabella (or setting him up with the girl he eventually falls for) instead of calling him out for a duel. See what I mean?

Having both of their POVs will make all of that super easy once you get into it, though.

@devastate-lasting I presented a much more eloquent argument to @william-starkey here: (fourth post) https://kingdompen.org/forums/topic/if-you-could-be-a-student-of-any-author-who-would-it-be/page/3/

@godlyfantasy12 Great! I’m glad that works for you!

@r-m-archer Oh, I’m definitely with you on that, girl! Thanks for adding, by the way!

@devastate-lasting It was my pleasure! I just hope it made sense! That is very good news, by the way.

*ducks head* Yeah…going back and reading what I wrote, I started blushing too! In a good way. (I think.) I miss having someone to flirt argue with…I wonder where he disappeared to…

You’re very welcome!