Welcome to the third and last post in my series on important questions to ask when writing fiction. If you missed the other posts, you can find the first one (Big Picture Questions to Ask) here and (More Questions to Ask which covers character development and setting) here.
Today I’m going to cover the important questions to ask when you’re either writing a romance or have a romantic element in your novel. As you all may know, this is my specialty so these are the questions I go through and answer both before I start writing (I answer what I can) and when I pause in the middle of the book to reassess (by this time I know my characters a lot better so answering these questions is a lot easier).
The most obvious question is, of course:
Why should the two protagonists be together?
To answer this, think about how they complement each other, how they blend into one unit. Are there outside forces which would get better if they were together? And here’s a hint: the answer to this question cannot simply be because they love each other because they don’t love each other at the beginning of the book. So this question will have to slowly be answered as their relationship develops.
Why should they not?
This is the conflict to your romance. What is keeping these two people apart? Is it something internal and fundamental to one or both of the character’s personalities—which means they’ve got a lot of changing and developing to do. Or is it something external—Romeo and Juliet—they come from opposing families or other forces which won’t accept them being together.
What do they see in the other that either no one or very few people see?
Now here we get into the heart, if you will, of the actual romance. People who fall in love do not fall in love with another person’s façade, the face they show the world. If they do, that love is not going to last for long once they discover who the other person really is. No, when someone falls in love with another it’s because they see beyond that façade. They see to the essence of the person, what lies below what everyone else sees. Love means that you can relax and show your true self to someone else and they will still love you. So, what is it that your characters see in the other? What part of their essence do they actually fall in love with?
Why do they find each other attractive—beyond the physical?
Naturally, there’s got to be a physical attraction, but there is so much more to a person. It’s that which the love interest needs to find interesting and attractive. Do they love the kindness in the other? Their wicked sense of humor? Their intelligence? The way they snort when they laugh really hard? Whatever it is, you need to know so that the characters can tell each other in those sweet, mushy scenes that readers love.
What does each one need to give up to be with the other?
And finally, this is the big one. For a relationship to be really strong—one to last the ages—each person needs to give up something important to them. It could be their home—moving to where the other person lives. It could be their religion, their job, or even just a habit that is ingrained into them. It can’t be something simple, either. It’s got to be something big, something important, something vital to the person giving it up. Sacrifices must be made for love to be true.
Okay, so there you have it. The biggest questions you need to be able to answer when you write a romance. Now that you think about it and think about how you’d answer those questions, the old stereotype that writing romance is easy, doesn’t seem to be so true anymore does it? There’s a lot more to falling in love than a sway of the hips. For a love to be believable, to be true, the people involved (and that means your readers too) must see deeper to the real person underneath and there needs to be a commitment, an understanding, and an appreciation of who these people really are.