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I have to admit that, while I'm a sucker for a good romance, I actually detest 95% of romance novels. Romance seems to work better when it is worked into a larger, overarching plot, at least for me. So when I found myself writing a pure romance story (i.e. romance as the main focus of the plot), I was kind of shocked.
Since I have never attempted writing one before, I realized that I had no idea how to put a romance together, so I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of romance novels to try to figure it out. I also checked out the internet, and discovered there are an amazing number of websites dedicated to romance writing tips (most of which I completely disagree with). But instead of finding a common denominator about what I liked, I seemed to find a common denominator of things that irritated me and turned me off to the story (heh - I wonder what that says about me...LOL).
I made a list of things that annoy the hell out of me in romance stories. I tried to keep the list particular to romance stories, so things that plague all stories (like Mary Sues) I left off the list. And I thought I would share my awesome and profound wisdom with you all... :P
1. Characters who would be having sex, should have sex.
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. There are absolutely wonderful stories out there that have been ruined by this. It drives me absolutely insane when I see two characters, totally hot for each other and madly in love, who for some amazingly contrived plot reason, aren't having sex. It becomes especially annoying when characters are about to have sex and get interrupted again, and again, and again. I think this happens because a lot of romance authors are told that unless sex is going to reveal something about the characters or make the situation worse, it shouldn't happen, because it kills the romantic tension of the story. I kind of see their point, but I don't think that the answer is to come up with completely convoluted plot reasons for the characters not to do the deed.
There are legitimate reasons for two characters not sleeping together. But unless the author has established a cultural, ethical, or legitimate plot reason, I tune out as a reader when I see this. For instance, I wouldn't expect for characters in romance set in Edwardian England to sleep together until they got married. I wouldn't expect a shy and modest character to just jump into bed without some thought first.
2. If a character is raped (or abused as a child), then they don't get to be healed by the power of their one true love.
It's surprising how often this shows up in stories. A character will get raped, but because of the love and TLC of their significant other (and some extremely hot sex), everything is all better in the space of an extremely short period of time.
Come on. This kind of horrible abuse takes years to get over, and it is disrespectful to see writers use this as a plot contrivance to create teh drama and teh angst. What I especially hate are stories where a character is raped, but then magically healed by telepaths or the Force, so that ten minutes later, she's normal again and ready for some lovin'.
If an author is going to have a character get raped, then it is that author's duty to treat the material with respect, and actually deal with the realistic consequences. This means that the heroine will not want to be touched by another man, even her one true love, unless she's been through a lot of therapy.
3. Characters need to have a life outside of the romance.
I've read stories where I get the feeling that when the hero leaves the heroine alone, all she does is think about her lover, and wish that he were back with her. She doesn't exist as a separate person with their own desires, wants, needs, motivations, and everything revolves around the other person. This kind of co-dependant behavior is not sexy... it's dysfunctional and creepy.
4. "My love."
Unless they were living a hundred years ago, or so... people don't call each other this. Really, they don't. Seriously, this makes me want to giggle every time a character says this.
5. Characters need to like each other before they fall in love.
I've read some stories where the two characters, are totally attracted to each other for no other reason than the author says so. They are completely shitty to each other, they bicker and abuse each other horribly (because they love each other so much - don't you see) and then they all of the sudden declare their love and we the readers are supposed to believe that these two people are soul mates. WTF?
The characters need to like each other, and see qualities in each other that they like and are attracted to. This doesn't mean that the characters always have to agree with one another, but if the author hasn't shown me some reason for why these two people would like each other, beyond physical attraction, it's hard to get emotionally invested in the relationship. I've actually read romance novels where at the end, when the characters are finally together and all is happy, all I can think about is how these two people will be divorced in a year.
6. Misunderstandings that can be solved by two adults sitting down for five minutes and talking like adults, should be solved that way.
I hate it when misunderstandings drag on, and on, and on. There has to be a better way to create plot tension than that.
7. Love at first sight is boring.
Seriously, it is. At least it is in a romance novel. The whole fun is watching the attraction grow, so skipping to the cream of the story in the beginning completely defeats the purpose.
8. So is OMG! ONE TRU WUV!!!!111!!!!.
This is a huge pet peeve of mine, especially in Kotor fanfiction. Listen, ladies, Carth was married before he met Revan, and presumably he was happy (in fact, it makes it much more tragic if he loved his wife). Revan, is not his ONE TRU WUV 4EVAR.
Realistically, people can fall in love with all different kinds of people. I don't buy the soul mates forever thing in life or in fiction. Maybe I'm just jaded about this, I don't know. But when I see it in stories, I get bored.
9. Heroines need to act like adults, and not like complete flaky twits.
Personally, unless written very well (such as Bridget Jones' Diary), I find it almost impossible to identify with stupid, flighty, female, co-dependant characters. There are a lot of heroines in romance novels, whom I just want to smack and yell "Grow the hell up!" at.
10. If a hero is not a nice man, then stop writing fluffy romances about him.
This happens in kotor2 fanfic, a lot. Atton is not a nice man. He has some deeply scary mental issues that are unresolved in the game. He is also a complete and utter horndog. So if an author wants to write a fluffy romance featuring Atton, they need to do some serious character development before I'll believe that this man 1) actually can love the Exile, 2) actually does love the Exile and 3) that he is capable of having a functional relationship.
Anyway, that is the extent of my awesome wisdom. :P
Since I have never attempted writing one before, I realized that I had no idea how to put a romance together, so I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of romance novels to try to figure it out. I also checked out the internet, and discovered there are an amazing number of websites dedicated to romance writing tips (most of which I completely disagree with). But instead of finding a common denominator about what I liked, I seemed to find a common denominator of things that irritated me and turned me off to the story (heh - I wonder what that says about me...LOL).
I made a list of things that annoy the hell out of me in romance stories. I tried to keep the list particular to romance stories, so things that plague all stories (like Mary Sues) I left off the list. And I thought I would share my awesome and profound wisdom with you all... :P
1. Characters who would be having sex, should have sex.
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. There are absolutely wonderful stories out there that have been ruined by this. It drives me absolutely insane when I see two characters, totally hot for each other and madly in love, who for some amazingly contrived plot reason, aren't having sex. It becomes especially annoying when characters are about to have sex and get interrupted again, and again, and again. I think this happens because a lot of romance authors are told that unless sex is going to reveal something about the characters or make the situation worse, it shouldn't happen, because it kills the romantic tension of the story. I kind of see their point, but I don't think that the answer is to come up with completely convoluted plot reasons for the characters not to do the deed.
There are legitimate reasons for two characters not sleeping together. But unless the author has established a cultural, ethical, or legitimate plot reason, I tune out as a reader when I see this. For instance, I wouldn't expect for characters in romance set in Edwardian England to sleep together until they got married. I wouldn't expect a shy and modest character to just jump into bed without some thought first.
2. If a character is raped (or abused as a child), then they don't get to be healed by the power of their one true love.
It's surprising how often this shows up in stories. A character will get raped, but because of the love and TLC of their significant other (and some extremely hot sex), everything is all better in the space of an extremely short period of time.
Come on. This kind of horrible abuse takes years to get over, and it is disrespectful to see writers use this as a plot contrivance to create teh drama and teh angst. What I especially hate are stories where a character is raped, but then magically healed by telepaths or the Force, so that ten minutes later, she's normal again and ready for some lovin'.
If an author is going to have a character get raped, then it is that author's duty to treat the material with respect, and actually deal with the realistic consequences. This means that the heroine will not want to be touched by another man, even her one true love, unless she's been through a lot of therapy.
3. Characters need to have a life outside of the romance.
I've read stories where I get the feeling that when the hero leaves the heroine alone, all she does is think about her lover, and wish that he were back with her. She doesn't exist as a separate person with their own desires, wants, needs, motivations, and everything revolves around the other person. This kind of co-dependant behavior is not sexy... it's dysfunctional and creepy.
4. "My love."
Unless they were living a hundred years ago, or so... people don't call each other this. Really, they don't. Seriously, this makes me want to giggle every time a character says this.
5. Characters need to like each other before they fall in love.
I've read some stories where the two characters, are totally attracted to each other for no other reason than the author says so. They are completely shitty to each other, they bicker and abuse each other horribly (because they love each other so much - don't you see) and then they all of the sudden declare their love and we the readers are supposed to believe that these two people are soul mates. WTF?
The characters need to like each other, and see qualities in each other that they like and are attracted to. This doesn't mean that the characters always have to agree with one another, but if the author hasn't shown me some reason for why these two people would like each other, beyond physical attraction, it's hard to get emotionally invested in the relationship. I've actually read romance novels where at the end, when the characters are finally together and all is happy, all I can think about is how these two people will be divorced in a year.
6. Misunderstandings that can be solved by two adults sitting down for five minutes and talking like adults, should be solved that way.
I hate it when misunderstandings drag on, and on, and on. There has to be a better way to create plot tension than that.
7. Love at first sight is boring.
Seriously, it is. At least it is in a romance novel. The whole fun is watching the attraction grow, so skipping to the cream of the story in the beginning completely defeats the purpose.
8. So is OMG! ONE TRU WUV!!!!111!!!!.
This is a huge pet peeve of mine, especially in Kotor fanfiction. Listen, ladies, Carth was married before he met Revan, and presumably he was happy (in fact, it makes it much more tragic if he loved his wife). Revan, is not his ONE TRU WUV 4EVAR.
Realistically, people can fall in love with all different kinds of people. I don't buy the soul mates forever thing in life or in fiction. Maybe I'm just jaded about this, I don't know. But when I see it in stories, I get bored.
9. Heroines need to act like adults, and not like complete flaky twits.
Personally, unless written very well (such as Bridget Jones' Diary), I find it almost impossible to identify with stupid, flighty, female, co-dependant characters. There are a lot of heroines in romance novels, whom I just want to smack and yell "Grow the hell up!" at.
10. If a hero is not a nice man, then stop writing fluffy romances about him.
This happens in kotor2 fanfic, a lot. Atton is not a nice man. He has some deeply scary mental issues that are unresolved in the game. He is also a complete and utter horndog. So if an author wants to write a fluffy romance featuring Atton, they need to do some serious character development before I'll believe that this man 1) actually can love the Exile, 2) actually does love the Exile and 3) that he is capable of having a functional relationship.
Anyway, that is the extent of my awesome wisdom. :P
From:
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Point taken. Between you and Deej, I'm going to have to amend the "my love" rule to characters don't get to call each other "my love" every five seconds... You damn people... challanging my assumptions...sheesh! LOL :P
Re: sex and the romance. I dunno...I really do have this belief that sex, while great, is not the end-all be all culminating thnigie. There's no rule that says every culture in the Star Wars galaxy has hang ups about it either. Many may not. I picture the Fleet as kinda like Starship Troopers, or Peacekeepers in Farscape. People have sex. It passes the time. I suspect half the Padawans in the Jedi Temple were making out in the bushes in the Meditation Garden...they just didn't talk about it, because it was against the rules. Much like boarding school or summer camp.
Okay, now you need to write that, because I find the idea of the padawans making out in the meditation gardens so damn amusing, that someone needs to write it.
And I agree, sex doesn't have to be the culmination of two people's love for one another in a romance, or that every time they have sex, it should become the focal point of the story. Focusing too much on sex irritates me as well *cough*Laurell Hamilton*cough.* I've actually read romance novels where there is so much shagging going on that I get bored and start to skip past those parts.
I kind of figure it's going on between two lovers unless the author tells me otherwise. And if the author is telling me otherwise, when the two people are consenting adults with no real reason not to be doing the dirty, there better be a damn good reason.
You know, a bad cheating Morgana could be good. I thought about having them have an imperfect marriage, only to create a Morgana that would be in contrast to Pris's, who's pretty much canon. Decided against it though because I didn't want to suggest that moral fabrication that Revan is better than Morgana was. Because whatever Morgana did, obviously she didn't sack worlds.
I could see Morgana cheating on Carth, or a less than happy, rather bitchy version of her. I doubt that their marriage was perfect. Hell I know their marriage wasn't perfect, because nobody’s marriage is perfect. It's just that if people are going to try to attempt doing that, they need to be really careful not to pull the whole "Morgana was such a bitch, omg Revan is Carth's one true love" bit, and that would be really hard for most authors to do.
However, I think you could get away with doing the bitchy version of Morgana in your fic, because your version of Revan is hardly saintly herself, so I don't think that it would come across as Morgana wasn't worthy of Carth, but Revan is. Besides, you have a real knack for taking ideas that I would never try to make work, and making them work fantastically well, so I'm sure that it would come off the way you intend.
From:
no subject
There is actually that one line in the game that Dustil says on Korriban...I think? Something about 'mother not waiting for you' -- that does suggest a certain crack in the veneer, maybe. But it's kind of like, how much sadness does poor Carth really need? (Okay, I am the wrong person to ask that.)
Go read that fiction I just linked ya. Wow, speaking of Telos...