Jul 18 2009
Six Tips on How to Write Romance
Many books and comics have at least one official pairing in them, either as a main plot element or as a sidestory.
It can be very difficult to write a believable relationship, and it is something that can very easily become cliché and annoying. I have a handful of tips for avoiding the pitfalls of romance writing.
1. Try to be original when you describe how they meet. We’ve seen the Crash Into Hello so many times that it is more fodder for eye-rolling than anything else. Try combining different stereotypical meetings to get something fresh. Perhaps Alice accidentally knocks Bob through an open window, and Catherine runs to help him, spraining her ankle and needing help from Daniel, the creepy guy who never talks. Two words: love quadrangle.
2. On that note, be careful with love triangles, quadrangles and other polygons. If 2+ characters are fawning over the same love interest, there had better be a good reason. Otherwise it makes the object of their affection appear to be a Mary Sue and the other corners of the triangle look pathetic.
3. Try to develop the characters independently before pairing them up. Or at least let the reader see what they’re like when they’re alone. Alice might be a total slob at home, but when she’s around Bob, she’s hardly going to belch.
4. Don’t bring the pairing out of nowhere. If Alice doesn’t turn up before Bob introduces her to his family, it is like introducing her to the reader at the same time. That’s generally not a good idea, because the reader doesn’t know her, and will accept the way she is characterised around Bob’s parents as the way she always behaves. Most people would behave eloquently at a dinner party, and try to hide their flaws. If Alice is introduced there, it may make her look like a Mary Sue. However, if she is shown before the dinner party with her hair messed up and her apartment full of scruffy cats, we will see her true colours and be more interested in her at the dinner party. Will she mess up?
5. If the romance is a main plot point, don’t have the love interest disappear and come back whenever it’s convenient for the characters. If Alice is a superhero, she doesn’t want Bob to knock on her door while she’s fighting ninjas in her living room. It will be much more interesting if he does anyway.
6. If all the scenes they share are simply about how cute they are together, the story will get stale very quickly. There must be some conflict. For example, while Alice is fighting the ninjas, she may yell at Bob to go away. Understandably, he’s going to be hurt by this, and may bring it up next time they speak. Alice has to explain why she was so angry and why Bob could hear her collection of vases smashing. She can’t exactly tell him that she threw them at ninjas sent by the Yakuza.
Originally this would have been a little longer with more detail on two types of romance and more on love polygons, but it ran over the word limit.
I think it turned out pretty well, though. I should practice writing articles on other things to improve my skills. It’s always good to be skilled in many areas. Except biology, I’m never going to be good at that. Haha.
Hmm…
Overall, these are the romances in my books.
Book 1:
Ian/Gabriel and Jazz/Nightshade
Book 2:
Drew/Frostbite and Maya/Remembrence
Julian/Harbinger and Kassandra/Oracle
I’m debating throwing in Connor for the last pairing and make it a triangle. I’m just afraid of how the fanfiction writers will think (Connor/Darren, anyone?).
Note to self – For laughs (and in P’s case mental scarring) figure out every possible shipping and name them (LostSiblingShipping – Connor/Darren, Avianshipping – Ian/Jazz…I’m evil).
- Wings, The Evil One
- Wings
The booze bone is connected to the smoke bone and the smoke bone is connected to the head bone and that’s the word of the Lord!
Biology is simple as pie made from the desiccated corpses of our prehistoric alien overlords!
Some great advice here, and I think the suggestion about the dinner party or parental introduction could be taken to apply on almost all levels. You should almost never show a character outside of their element before the reader sees them inside it.
“Note to self – For laughs (and in P’s case mental scarring) figure out every possible shipping and name them (LostSiblingShipping – Connor/Darren, Avianshipping – Ian/Jazz…I’m evil)”
I’ve done that before. Here are some of the weirdest, and what my reaction would be if I saw fics posted of FF.net:
IsaacxTristram (But… they’re twins! Squick! Also, Atalya and Kamari would go crazy mad and pull out the shotguns)
IsaacxLonnie (Well, they’re not blood relatives, but she’s ten and he’s sixteen!)
IsaacxWill (They ARE close, and it’s a plausible pairing, but they’re both straight)
IsaacxAtalya (Tristram would kill him and Kamari would be less than pleased with her so-called best friend)
TristramxAmy Belle (They haven’t even met!)
LonniexThat Boy She Beat Up That One Time (Aw, troo wub! Wait a second, that’s just random!)
Finally: EveryonexEveryone in a crazy harem fic. (DO NOT WANT! I’d be like O_O and not touch that fic with a pole that extends to the end of the universe)
Haha. I was discussing crazy pairings with a friend the other day and looking up the pairings to see if there were any fan sites. Thankfully, the craziest pairing, when searched for fansites, has only three results: LxCake. Seriously, a detective in love with a slice of cake.
Oh, I just thought of a new crazy pairing:
KlementexAtalya (Tristram would kill Klemente and go on an angsty rant about how she betrayed him, possibly bursting into tears at the same time. Aw, he’d look so cute if he cried. Excuse me a moment.)
ME: Hey Tristram. (Grabs his arm)
TRISTRAM: Uh, hi. What are you doing?
ME: (Snaps arm)
TRISTRAM: ARRGH! (Bursts into tears) WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!
ME: Awwwww. Atalya, get in here, your boyfriend is hurt.
ATALYA: Huh? (sees him) Oh my God! What happened?!
TRISTRAM: SHE happened!
ATALYA: (Kills me, cuddles Tristram)
Aw, poor little crazy genius badass baby. Haha.
Let’s see…*whips out shipping list*
Canon Shippings:
Flightshipping – IanxJazz (Since they both can fly)
KissBattleshipping – DrewxMaya (One of the more memorable moments is when Drew kisses her – in the middle of a fight against her no less)
Powershipping – AndraxJulian (They are some of the most powergul characters in the series)
Non Canon Shippings:
Twinshipping – DarrenxPierce (This one has to come up sometime)
LightningRodshipping – MegxPierce (Those crazy writers would interpret them as a love-hate relationship)
Friendshipping – MegxIan (They could interpret Meg’s dislike of Heather as jealousy…)
LostSiblingshipping – ConnorxDarren (Six year age difference, but they did train together a lot and shared one particularily sad scene)
Blackshipping – JazzxPierce (They are the darker members of the team…)
TrueTwinshipping – AndraxElle (They do like shipping twins tgether, those weirdos)
Mind Breaking Shippings (For P, of course):
ScarletxAnyone (Squick. He’s 47, people)
Book2!ScarletxAnyone (Now he’s 21…and younger than the old team. Double Squick)
PiercexTrash Can Lid (His favorite weapon)
IanxJazz (Not so bad at first glance, but Jazz is in her black fox form. Or snake. Or horse. Whatever you find Squickiest)
*rereads list*
What goes through my mind…
I must go send this list to P. Between the explanation of what a “lemon” is and the list of Fangirl/boy breeds and how to avoid them, he’ll be insane by the end of summer. Hee hee hee…Yes, I like to torment my friends. Don’t you?
- Wings
It’s kind of hard for me to torment my friends, because most of them love to discuss fandom related topics. I do love to annoy them with constant Doctor Who, references, though. Haha.
I just thought up a really random pairing:
IsaacxHoodie (Sure, it protects his identity and all, but it’s just a piece of clothing! Haha)
I have seen quite a few random crack pairings, like RyukxApple. God, I found a link to a fic, read half of it and then scrubbed my brain with bleach. Apples do not work that way! Haha.
One of my favourite types of pairing is the Takahashi Couple, aka Tsunderes in Love. They yell at each other and embarrass each other, and in the most extreme cases may end up physically fighting. Otani and Koizumi from Lovely Complex fall into this category, and I love the way they fight but still care for each other.
I’m going to put Isaac and Kamari together as a Takahashi/Battle Couple, but with Kamari as a Tsundere and Isaac as a Nice Guy who is wary not to push her Berserk Button (but ends up doing so anyway, resulting in a Megaton Punch) but there will be moments to show that Aw, They Really Do Love Each Other.
Wow, that was the most Trope heavy thing I have ever said. Haha.
Hey, Whovian. If you have more ideas about love polygons, would you like to try an article on those specifically?
“If you have more ideas about love polygons, would you like to try an article on those specifically?”
Yes, but I really have to get this homework out of the way. I’d rather be writing an article about love polygons than a feature article for English class, but I’ll get around to it soon, I’m halfway done. I even managed to twist it into something interesting.
I’m writing about a lack of positive role models in the popular teen fiction books. Needless to say, Twilight gets a mention. I just hope my teacher doesn’t judge me on my dislike of Twilight, because she loves it. I’m also going to mention that characters who are Mary Sues aren’t good role models, because they create an impossible standard that may discourage readers.
On that note, can you think of any other character from other books who aren’t very good role models? I’m stuck. Thanks!
Hi, I just finished an article about love polygons and emailed it.
Thanks. I’ll get right on that.
Ah, an article sent by the Gods. I’m in the middle of a romance scene in my novel right now and completely stuck on it.
Set back in the year 1796. The characters, Brooke and Ivy, meet at a Regency ball. Brooke’s sort of the annoying, arrogant type at this point and Ivy’s quite haughty. She says no when he asks her to dance and he’s so put off that she refused him that he tries everything he can to get her to dance with him. Finally they do, and they get to talking… and that’s right about where I lost it. One: Ivy can’t be too flirtatious because her family are there and she’s engaged currently, though she doesn’t love the man. Two: They could be overheard at any minute and thus, can’t talk about anything too serious.
Any thoughts? Playful banter can only go on so long.
This was really helpful. I have a few relationships in my story, not all are the same. I have:
Pyra & Ultra Atom- She’s white, he’s black. I wanted to do an interracial relationship and chose these two characters because it opened up a lot of story ideas. She’s the boss’s daughter and a fashion model. He’s a single father with a rough upbringing. I want to touch on his thoughts that she’s too good for him and her feelings meeting his daughter for the first time. Also, how his family would feel with him dating a white girl.
Onyx-He’s dating a civilian and is also gay. Its a BIG twist on the Clark Kent and Lois Lane type of relationship.
Lastly, Ouickstrike & Hornette-Quickstrike has a budding crush on Hornette. I wanted to use them to bring an uncomplicated youthful relationship to my story. Its the only relationship that just seems to work. That way the readers don’t feel like all my characters can’t get a break when it comes to love.
“This was really helpful. I have a few relationships in my story, not all are the same”.
I have a few, too. One of the main relationships is between a white American boy and an African-American girl, one is a close friendship between an African-American boy and a Canadian girl, one between an Indian-Australian girl and an English boy, one is a relationship between two white Australians and the main character’s parents are a Japanese man and a white Australian woman. Okay, make that a lot. Haha.
I try to keep a diverse set of characters without letting it turn into a group of tokens. I’ve countered a few stereotypes and added different elements to them so they’re more three dimensional. I didn’t create them based on race or religion, I thought of the characters first and then randomly chose a background for them, later adding extra things on top, like clothing and accent.
I’ve implied a couple of other relationships, mostly between minor characters. Those are the relationships that don’t really matter to the story, so I’ll let readers decide if they’re heterosexual or not. Haha. I’m not against any pairing of characters, as long as it’s not incestuous, paedophilia or otherwise morally wrong. If it doesn’t make sense, like the characters never meeting or something, then I’ll just shrug and say “whatever makes you happy”. Haha.