Writing Romance

 

Today is the first article of Histories and Mysteries' July Extras! I published this Valentine's Day article this February on my defunct writing blog. If you are a writer, I hope these tips will help!

 

A friend said to me that every time she thinks of romance, she thinks of two people grabbing coffee. But an isolated scene about grabbing coffee will probably end up not connecting to the rest of your novel. As I said above, I could care less for romance so writing romance is somewhat difficult and very, very awkward for me to write so this was quite the learning process for me. Below are five tips that I helped me while writing a romantic scene in my novel, and I hope that they will help you guys as well.

 

1. Watch a Movie / Read a Book

Most movies and books have a little bit of romance in them at the least and this is a great way to see the "romantic format" in action. This format can be explained like this:

 

 

Most fictional romances will follow a format like this or a variation of the format. It is obvious that in order to write mysteries, you should probably read mysteries. Or if you are going to write an action scene, you should watch an action scene in a movie. If you are writing a romance novel, read a {clean!} romance novel like those in the Canadian West series by Janette Oak. Watching Hallmark Channel movies is a great idea because the story is predominantly romance-centered and their movies are probably the cleanest romances out there.

 

If you are not writing a romance novel, but only a novel with some romance in it (kind of like mine), you might want to watch different types of movies with a balance between romance and other events. For example, mystery movies like the ones at Hallmark Movies and Mysteries have a good balance between romance and mystery. Action movies like Marvel will have your typical good guys vs bad guys story and sometimes include a little bit of romance in the mix to keep the plot moving along (I'm thinking of Avengers: Age of Ultron). But then again, clean movies are obviously the best options for creating a solid romance.

 

Also, remember that these stories are to be used to inspire what happens in your romance and not to copy make unlimited copies of the romantic format. Like Hallmark Channel :)

 

2. Ask your Parents

Another good idea is to ask your parents. Now, I must admit that this one is a little more awkward of an option. Because this situation ends up taking place:

Me: Mom! How does a guy ask a girl on a date?

Mom: (Gulps) Umm... Why are you asking?

Me: Oh, I just need it for my novel.

Mom: Okay... (Awkward Silence)

Me: So... (More Awkward Silence)

(Even More Awkward Silence)

 

And the question never gets answered. That's why I asked my dad first. Anyways, parents obviously know all the things pertaining to romance and pretty much everything else in life. Parents pretty much always have great advice, and I'm sure they would be glad to answer your questions and rethink everything you said before they go to bed, if they can go to sleep after all of that. 

3. Think from your Gender's Perspective

After all of the advice you get, you still need to think about how the romance will play out in your story. Thinking from the perspective of your gender might help with some insight on this topic. Girls think different ways than guys so it would be a good idea to highlight those differences in a romance. For example, a most girls probably want to receive flowers more than a ticket to a football game. And a guy probably doesn't want to get jewelry for a Christmas present. This will really help with the realistic part of your romance (because every fictional romance has the unrealistic part to it no matter what).

4. Balance the Formula

I talked about the formula in Tip #1. You want to follow the formula to an extent, but you don't want to follow it too closely. If you follow it too closely, it will end up being extremely predictable and familiar. So you need to change more than the character's names, occupations, nationality, era, etc. Hallmark Channel does that, and it doesn't work too well. Another Hallmark movie, "Journey Back to Christmas," is actually a very good example of mixing up the plot. I started watching the movie predicting what was going to happen, and none of my predictions were right. It surprised me, and made a lasting impression among all the other Hallmark movies. Plot twists make memorable stories. I believe that unique story ideas are one of the reasons why large franchises like Star Wars or Marvel are popular. At the least, a good romance has one point of unpredictability that will surprise the reader.

5. Be Realistic

The most important point is to be realistic when writing a romance for several reasons. Unrealistic writing is not only cheesy, but it will mislead a lot of people. For example, many young girls probably grew up thinking that they will have a fairytale romance because they watched the Disney Princess movies. Then one day they realized that it was only a fairytale. And I'm not criticizing Disney or anything because it is obvious that those stories are fairytales, but you can see the point.

Many books show this three-day romance thing between the most beautiful girl and the most handsome guy. It's one thing to put those stories in books that are fantasy or fairytale retellings; it's completely another thing when a scenario like this is put inside a contemporary novel for example. This may be because many contemporary books are known for highlighting problems and solutions in life.

The world already has a problem with living up to perfect expectations, and unrealistic romantic stories create even more unnecessary standards for the youth of today. Unfortunately, there are a lot of those stories out there. A writer's job is to equip the next generation with the truths from the Bible.  Words are powerful, and can make positive or negative differences in our world. That is why it is important to put much thought into what we write.

The quote for today is by Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, this it overflows upon the outward world."