Romantic Relationships

OMG like Game of Thrones via Facebook, but spanning multiple fictional universes!

Mine tend to surprise me in an "Oh my god, you love [character]" moment at one point or another. It may be during plotting, may be while I'm writing, may be a viable relationship, may not be possible, may result in one of their deaths halfway through the book. I never plan it out.

Dreity said:

OMG like Game of Thrones via Facebook, but spanning multiple fictional universes!

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Yes! Someone needs to write that program! And the dating one.

TAMaxwell said:

Mine tend to surprise me in an "Oh my god, you love [character]" moment at one point or another. It may be during plotting, may be while I'm writing, may be a viable relationship, may not be possible, may result in one of their deaths halfway through the book. I never plan it out.

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See, I don't like that as a reader. I hate when I invest so much time into a character that I like and rooting for then they bite the big one. It's such a let down. I realize that it's needed sometimes, but it's still a kick in the pants. Especially for romantic arcs.

7luckyclovers said:

See, I don't like that as a reader. I hate when I invest so much time into a character that I like and rooting for then they bite the big one. It's such a let down. I realize that it's needed sometimes, but it's still a kick in the pants. Especially for romantic arcs.

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I have a bad habit of discovering that my favorite characters are the ones who have to die, and it's sometimes dying for love. Hate when it happens, but it's their story.

I LOVE romance; I'm a hopeless romantic. So, of course, I wanted romance in my novel, but I didn't plan any of the hookups. They just sort of happened the way they did. Well, not exactly. I mean, only one couple actually "became a couple" by the end of my novel. Unplanned.

I knew I wanted romance, but I didn't want my book to be viewed as a "girl book" so I focused more on action, and powers, and the big bad. There was only one character from the very beginning who was written as being in love, and it was with the MC (unbeknownst to her, of course, and therefore unrequited). Then as my story unfolded, two more characters fell for the MC, and their feelings were unrequited as well--but that's what happens when no one talks openly about their feelings. Then when the three guys realize they all have feelings for the same girl--well, that's when things get complicated; but again, it's not the focal point of the story. It was more subtle (and a lot of times comical), yet added for minor conflicts between the guys who live and work together. They're torn between camaraderie, what's best for the MC, and just fulfilling their duty.

And then, enter the other females in the story--two of whom fall for two of the guys who are into the MC--and that's when things got interesting, and the "love matches" came about. Although none of them are couples yet, I'd inadvertently laid the groundwork for them to get together eventually. Honestly, I didn't plan any of it; it was just how the characters interacted and it just worked out well. All the while, my MC was clueless--to an extent, but it was more of a coming of age story for her. She wanted to be loved (but didn't realize she had three guys to choose from, who were there all along) because she was insecure. Also, having powers that she considered to be a curse, and didn't know how to use properly--plus, having to deal with demons--finding love wasn't really a priority.

The satisfying part for me, was when readers (females) rooted for their favorite male character and hoped/figured that he was the one the MC would end up with--but came to find out they were all wrong. But to their surprise in the end, they all adored who she does end up with--and he was the one they all despised in the beginning, lol. And all that happened only within the last couple chapters of the story.

*Placing characters in a love match game? Now that would be interesting, lol.

Stringer Greenbrier said:

Pretty much all relationships I write about are based on ones I've had during my life. It's strangely both lucky and unfortunate that they were curious enough in a tragicomedy way to warrant writing about. A lot of the time I'll merge various experiences I've had with several girls into one character and build a story out of that.

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This, plus Gunzen's this.

I do the exact same thing. The sad details of my failed relationships are littered all throughout my work. Here's to hoping none of my exes recognize themself and come at me with anything more lethal than a rolled-up magazine.

I'm only on my first book. But it did start with a romance\sexual tension and built from there.

My entire novel developed from a romantic daydream... a silly wish fulfillment scene involving a very cliched scenario. The novel came about by my curiosity about how this scene came about, who the characters were, where they came from, and what happened afterwards. So I guess the romance was embedded in it from the start

How it turned into an historical crime/conspiracy thriller though, I have no idea...

I created a romance for my MC because I wanted to take something from him. To create emotional conflict for him, and add some sympathy and/or empathy to his person while he experienced even more of that emotional trauma from being thrust in an alien environment. Basically I wanted to make him weak at the beginning so I could then toughen him up. And a good way of going about that is by extracting something dear from someone's life. See how they then cope with that change, along with several others. So that romance was planned before I had even begun writing my novel.

I'm currently writing another romantic subplot, however, this one will be no where near as serious for my MC since she's fated to die, and because she isn't the love of his life, though he will come to appreciate her. He might even come to love her a tad bit. But this romantic interest wasn't entirely planned. It kind of just "happened" as I wrote the lengthy narrative.

I've learned the easiest way to guarantee a couple won't wind up together is to plan on them falling in love. My characters don't play well with my plans. On the other hand, I love seeing where the connections form and then building on that during revisions.