Hello everyone,
Long time no see! Here in Florida, we are experiencing a lot of winds and rain; fortunately, North Central isn’t being hit as hard as was initially predicted. Praying for those who were hit hard in parts of South Florida.
Today I’d like to discuss writing romance scenes, or relationships in a series; not necessarily romance genre, but anything with romance in it. What makes it bad? What makes it good?
Sparks vs. no sparks
The bad: Speaking just from experience in writing and reading, one thing that pops into my mind is: when the romance pops up out of nowhere. For me, I felt uncomfortable and amused when I read about Harry suddenly fancying Ginny in the Harry Potter series. It felt too out-of-nowhere. There had not been a lot of interaction between the two characters, and there weren’t a lot of scenes that were sparking with chemistry, even after they got together.
The good: So, what makes a scene spark with chemistry between the two characters? Is it witty, cutting dialogue? Is it sensual energy and dropped hints? Think of Outlander or Pride and Prejudice. Throughout the story, we see the two characters’ attraction to each other slowly building. A conversation that was once disinterested, hostile or just friendly suddenly becomes something more. A character starts noticing another, how they move, how they look, how they behave. An attraction begins. And either through character point-of-view changes or showing, not telling, you know that the other character is attracted to the main character.
Questions start to pool in your mind. Will they get together? WHEN? Will one of them admit their feelings for each other, and who will do it first? Or will obstacles to the romance get in the way?
The reason the romance in Harry Potter fell flat, for me, was there was none of this. It was just…there. Ginny was funny, we knew that, and she was pretty. She became a more important character, yes. But then out of the blue, suddenly after Quidditch, Harry has a monster of jealousy growing inside of him, as he watches Ginny with Dean? It just…it sounded cartoonish to me. It wasn’t built up. It had no spark.
And that’s just 1 example of bad and good in romance. There are so many other things that make a good romance scene or book relationship! And there are so many famous romances in history and literature, so it’s evident it keeps capturing our attention.
More of what makes a romance good or bad
Over on Reddit, romance readers and writers have a lot to say on this topic:
“The audience has to engage with the characters, be interested in them. At the very least the protagonist. Other major supporting characters have to play well against that protagonist, compliment or contrast in interesting ways, support or oppose in interesting ways. It all starts with the protagonist.” – Donna201299
“…the romance has to develop more or less naturally and fairly slowly. Not head-over-heels “I’d die for him/her” love-at-first-glance. Nor should it be “Gods, I hate the dude, I’ll be glad I never see him again” one moment, and then just at the end of the book “I realise I’ve always loved him after all”. Without any hint for the change or any chemistry between the two characters.” – Selweyn
“…one of the things I try to aim for is an understanding that the relationship isn’t the only thing that the characters have at the end that they didn’t at the start. I’m a big believer that romance novels should basically start with the premise: ‘Here are two people. Why can’t they be together and happy right now? How do they change in order to make it so they can be together and happy in the space of three hundred pages?’
“The best books usually have some sort of personal growth along the way, ideally for both but definitely for one of the characters. Otherwise you’re liable to get to the point where the romance is a sticking-plaster solution to their problems, where one of them is trying to ‘fix’ the other — and that never ends well.” – Portarossa
Example romantic scenes
Here are a couple examples of ‘swoon-worthy’ scenes in romance. And I may write more in another blog post about what makes good or bad romance writing.
From a classic:
“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.”
Wentworth’s letter to Anne Elliot, from Persuasion by Jane Austen
From a contemporary novel:
We don’t kiss right away. Instead, there’s a moment when we just look at each other, the moment where, if this were a movie, the music would start. And surrounded by all of my careful details, everything still just a little more perfectly placed than it would be in life — the plants that cascade down the wall in their charming pots, the deep-sea curtains and the colorful jars, the fairy-tale sofa with its gold vines and plush cushions — and Ava’s movie-star face, her Clyde Jones nose and her freckles and her beautiful green eyes, this could be the scene in the movie that everyone aches for. The moment where the thing that you wish for becomes the thing that you get.
from Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour
When we tip our faces to the side, we do it in the perfect movie way — no awkward repositionings, no pressed noses. I swear: I can hear the music swelling.
But then.
Our lips touch. The imaginary music goes quiet. The room is only a room and we are the miracles. Her mouth is warm and human and soft, her hand presses hard and insistent against my back, her breasts press against mine. My hand grazes the delicate line of her jaw; there’s the whisper of her hair against my fingers as we kiss harder.
I find it to be a favorite thing of mine when a novel has a romance; but, I honestly don’t read romance novels much. Maybe that is weird. I guess, I find the plots and writing kindof shallow sometimes for some romances, but when it’s part of a bigger story – a fantasy novel, say, or a historical romance – then I enjoy the flare that romance adds to the story. Almost every story I’ve written has a romance in it, even if it’s not the main part of the story.
What do you think? What makes a good or bad romance? What makes one sizzle and another flop? Have you written any romance, yourself?
Until next time,
Chaitanya
Typing Madly 