To Love or Not.

[E. Millennium 49]

Good afternoon everyone (or maybe some other time of day for everyone else). As you can tell from the title, this post is about love. 
In my novel, I desire to add some romance between certain characters, but I don’t want it to be too graphical or awful, if you know what I mean. The novel is not a romance so I just want this to be a side thing and not to big because I don’t have any experience with writing romance. So any advice would be great to wether I should even add some romance and how to add it in a healthy way.

Hope that makes sense. Have a great day.

[Zee 1,674]

I don't think you need to create the literary equivalent of those Bollywood movies where the hero and heroine always kiss behind a tree, etc. to keep your story good, clean Christian fiction. Since it sounds like a romance is not the driving force of your story, I think it would be easy to keep "private" scenes out. 
But there's a whole lot more to a romantic relationship than sex, whether it is a brand new one, or one that's been simmering for decades.
To tell the truth, I would imagine you are in greater danger of writing a love scene that seems contrived, or sappy, than one that's inappropriate.

[carolinamtne 4,340]

Touching a shoulder, flashing "that" smile, a "honey" or "sweetheart," little things can imply a romance without getting too deep. 

[Lucian Hodoboc 149]

There are a lot of useful videos about this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+write+romance

 

It really depends on how deep you want your romantic subplot to be. Do you intend to explore the character's feelings from a first person POV?

[PenName 1,599]

On 8/19/2019 at 12:53 PM, E. Millennium said:

add it in a healthy way

This is a great little phrase. I think two characters coming together for a romance is great, but you are right that there are ways to do it healthily. A few thoughts - 

 

1) The romance should not be presented as the "meaning of life" so to speak. God's purpose for our lives may involve romance, but it is not the reason to live and breathe - He is.

 

2) The two characters should be able to interact as friends. By that I mean, they are compatible personally and act as such; they are not just drawn to each other because they both think the other is cute.

 

3) Romance can be written without graphic scenes. Moments where characters support and understand each other emotionally, are shown to have common backstories or complementary character traits that make them be able to learn from and comfort one another, are far more powerful than showing physical intimacy for the sake of showing physical intimacy. 

Edited August 21, 2019 by PenName

[Shamrock 1,448]

All the above post are great advice.

Less is definitely best. Leave it up to your reader to work things out.

[Entoman 67]

I'd suggest trying not to introduce a character just to be the love interest. I think it is better to introduce both characters independently first, maybe they are both attempting to address the problem of the plot from different directions and eventually cross paths in working towards the same goal. In the process of working together they grow close and come to love each other. If the relationship develops around the plot it can be shown and grown in that context while not having to use escalating physical intimacy to do so. 

[suspensewriter 4,970]

Nice advice @Entoman.

 

I was about to give the same, but since you've said it so eloquently, I'll just say, "Yes, me too!"

[calissi.k 27]

I'm thinking tension is good to play with. I see what looks to be a Kylo-Ren / Rey graphic and that is a perfect example. It's not so much that the reader gets what they want all the time (in my opinion) or even quickly, but I think half the fun is if you can drag their interest around with the what-if's of a relationship or romance even if it is never truly realized. It doesn't have to be graphic. Often I think if things go there, to keep interest it has to eventually level up, and it doesn't sound like that is where you want to go. Personally, I don't think artists have to go there, and things are more interesting when there's more thought and intuition involved than graphic elements. 

 

Hope that makes sense. Sometimes takes a few tries for me to clearly get thoughts out. LOL!

[Jeff Potts 484]

My opinion is: all romance should be awkward.

[EClayRowe 823]

On 1/31/2020 at 9:53 PM, Jeff Potts said:

My opinion is: all romance should be awkward.

Yes! Eros is a shadow of agape. 

 

Take a story arc from Dr. Who as an example. The Tenth Doctor loves Rose and Rose loves the Doctor, but if they take the relationship to the next level, the show is over.  Like last season of Who's the Boss over. What do you do?

 

The temporary fix was the alternate timeline, a barrier that the Doctor can't cross or everybody dies.

 

The final solution was a Doctor clone who could marry Rose and live happily ever after while the real Doctor pines after Rose and never realizes that a new companion is madly in love with him.

 

Eros has to be awkward in fiction or it's not worth mentioning.

Edited March 10, 2020 by EClayRowe