FS101 - Love Stories
By [Mister Saint]



Welcome to the Flipside love stories article. Ah... love... such a broad, sweeping topic. It may well be the most common topic in all of literature, but enough with the spiel. Onward!

[#Section 1: Introduction]
[#Section 2: Subtlety and Development]
[#Section 3: Justify Your Lovers]
[#Section 4: Romeo and Juliet]
[#Section 5: Final Thoughts]



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Section 1: Introduction
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So you want to try your hand at a love story? Okay! The first thing you need to stop and think about is how you intend to use that theme in your story. Do you want your story to be dominated by the theme of love? Will it be a sub-theme? Will it matter to your storyline all that much, or just be a little side dish for your readers?

A quick note: once again, I will not be dealing with 'housewife erotica'. This includes Harlequin-esque romances and sexual romances. I do not consider these forms of writing to be artful or useful, no matter how many books Danielle Steele has sold.

Once you've pondered those questions, you have to ask yourself a few more questions. I will go ahead and lay them out for you, so you can thinking about them as we progress into our amourous foray. ^^

1. Which characters will my story involve?
2. Is this aspect of my story really necessary?
3 Why did this happen to them?
4. What sort of love is it?

Some of the questions seem sort of obvious or unnecessary. However, you would be surprised how often stories contain love themes that add nothing to the story, seem pointless or underdeveloped, or are used simply for shock value or to kill time. Let us sally forth!



Section 2: Subtlety and Development
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Choosing the characters who will fall in love during the course of your story is a fairly simple matter; as the author, you can simply say 'wouldn't it be sweet/useful/ironic if Joe and Shirley...' and be done with it. This is the simplest step, but remember that some hurdles do exist in it. When you choose your characters, you are deciding quite a few things about how the romance will play out. Your characters' social situation, temperament, location in relation to one another, and past history with each other are only some of the factors that need to be considered. Don't worry, though; most of them require little research or extra work to consider.

Once you've chosen your two sweeties (we're going to assume that polygamy isn't the issue here, as it's a totally different beast), you should start thinking about how you're going to show your readers that the two are going to be romantic. Now... there are several ways to do this. There are a few somewhat blunderous methods that we see fairly often, so I'll touch on them briefly.

1. "You saved my life! How can I ever repay you?"
2. "I know we've only known each other a day, but I think I love you."
3. "Oh, I know I've only seen her once, but my heart sings for her!"

Most of the ladies know the problem with these statements. Allow me to elaborate.

1. "You saved my life... thanks. No, we aren't having sex! No! I don't care if you pulled me out of the burning house, what the hell is wrong with you?"

2 "You wha?" *edges away* "Stalker alert!*

3. "Dude. If you've only seen her once, I don't think it's your heart that's singing for her."

Obviously the reactions differ slightly based on the gender roles in the first statements, but I hope you see my point. You must develop your romance between your two characters before they start making out every other scene; development is the art of of dropping hints.

Let's say Joe and Shirley have never met before. Shirley is a hostess in an inn and tavern, and Joe is a local who just returned home from soldiering somewhere foreign. Joe stops in for a drink, and Shirley serves him. You know they're going to be romantic some way. So let's look at two ways to do this; the boorish way, and the right way. ^_^

Boorish

Joe sits down for a gallon of rum with his friend SMBT (stereotypical male buddy type). They talk about the war, share stories back and forth, reminisce, and so forth. Things are going just fine until the hostess, Shirley, shows up. Joe finds himself staring at her, voice stuck in his throat. She takes their orders, but her eyes flick to his occasionally, as if sensing the drift of sentiment. As she walks away to get their order, Joe cannot tear his eyes away from her, and her heart is racing...

Right

Joe sits down for a glass of ale with his friend SMBT. They talk about the war, share stories back and forth, reminisce, and so forth. Things are going just fine until the hostess, Shirley, shows up to take their orders. Joe gives her his best smile and greets her warmly, commenting on how she's grown up since he last saw her before the war, and Shirley spends a few moments expressing her joy that he, a long time friend, had made it home alive. They agree to meet after she gets finished working, to catch up on things, and as she leaves to get the drinks, Joe makes another comment to SMBT about how Shirley has become a fine young woman.

I know, you're thinking 'well! That isn't the only way!' and you would be correct.  I simply point out that in the Boorish example, Joe and Shirley obviously didn't know each other. They simply saw each other and sparks flew. In the Right example, Joe and Shirley already knew each other, and there was obviously some friendly affection there beforehand.  The biggest weakness of the Boorish example is the suddenness of it... real love takes time to develop. Maybe not a great deal of time, but still. The seeds of their love have been planted previously, and made a little more obvious by Joe's repetition of the 'fine young woman' comment. This is called 'dropping hints'.

Small details serve as excellent hints. Little things, like Joe leaving slightly larger tips for Shirley at the tavern, or Shirley dropping by to bring Joe a sandwich wherever he works, can communicate to your readers the growing sentiment between them. Not every love will be star-crossed (I'll get to that in a bit) and depending on the characters it may not take so long to build the romance up. Just remember that sudden love will not feel as real to your readers as would a well developed romance.



Section 3: Justify Your Lovers
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Coming straight off of the heels of the last section, this section will be about making sure that your lovers are at least somewhat realistic.

Start off by asking yourself if your development is sufficient. It doesn't have to be a lot, just enough to get the point across... especially for shorter stories or poetry. Next ask yourself if your lovers know why they love each other. For the man, he'd better feel protective of his girl, know every detail of her face, know her favorite song, her favorite flower. He doesn't have to sing every time he sees her, but he must long for her company even when she's just out of the room on some level. For the woman, there'd better be some particular trait of her man's that strikes her fancy; maybe the way his eyes sparkle, or the way he smells. She should see him as someone she could spend eternity with. But whatever you do, make sure; if your characters can't say exactly why they love each other without saying 'we just do' then you need to step back and reevaluate the romance.

The next question to ask yourself is more literary. As yourself what role their romance plays in the story. Does it dominate the storyline? If so, focus on it, bring it to light. Your plotline does not necessarily have to be centered around their falling in love, but it does need to be heavily affected by it. 

Let's say that Joe and Shirley have been dragged into the plot of a terroristic wizard, who wants to stop their country's warring nature by eliminating several key leaders. For a story where love is the main theme, the outcome could be based on their combined power being necessary to avert a doomsday spell, have to stop him together and so forth. For a story not based on that theme, one or both of them could try their hardest to stop evil wizard guy, while the other prepares for damage control or what not. The differences can be quite large, so try to keep it in mind.

What's next? Oh my GOURD this is a long article. Alright. As yourself: does this matter to my story at all? If they didn't fall in love would it change the way things worked out?

I'm a fan of having everything happen for a reason in stories. In David Farland's The Lair of Bones there were so many loose ends that were either vaguely explained or not explained at all that I literally wanted to throw the book through the window. Characters were getting hit by trucks, it was madness.  The point is that many things that happened in that story happened for no apparent reason, or at least never a good one.

Have their love mean something to the story. It doesn't have to be massive. But if Shirley takes an arrow to protect Joe, fueling Joe's fire for bad-guy ass whoopin', it's something. If Joe was gonna whoop their asses anyway, and goes to do so no matter what Shirley does, it kinda seems like their relationship has no purpose. If Shirley takes said arrow, and Joe doesn't really react to it, same result (plus he's a piss-poor lover). This part is more opinion than the rest, though.

Finally, for justifying... consider the details. Social status, family fueds, religious convictions, whatever... have all the necessary hurdles been jumped? 

Let's look at the final section for the answer.



Section 4: Romeo and Juliet
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Okay, okay. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet breaks about half of the rules I mentioned up there. Let me explain to you why the most well-known love story in classic literature can get away with it.

Romeo falls in love with Juliet on the spot. They're referred to as 'star-crossed', or fated, lovers throughout the play, which means that they were born for each other. Star-crossed lovers, according to the play, generally have tragic fates... and they are allowed to love because they don't have time for development. The entire point of the play is to chronicle the troubles they faced for their sudden and societally dangerous love (Romeo being of the family Montague, and Juliet being of the family Capulet, two feuding noble families). The entire story hinges upon their sudden romance, but still manages to explain it well.

Since Romeo and Juliet failed to properly jump their love-hurdles to begin with, the consequences the characters suffered were dire. For those who have read the play, 'O happy dagger!' and 'O, true apothecary," should get the point across. For those who haven't... read it. *grins* Today, tomorrow, just do it. When I was in school I hated that mushy stuff... now, it's practically one of my favorite works.

Tangent over. The two of them faced horrible troubles with their families, were forced to marry in secret, and forced to part, and to go to deadly lengths to escape with their lives together... it does not end well. It's a tragedy, people. But yeah, I hope you see what I mean here. Without hurdle jumping, you run into all sorts of consequences, including but not limited to: the spark leaving the relationship quickly, trust not really being there, family/territory disputes, lack of faith in one another, hostility growing between one another over traits that they did not know the other possessed. So jump hurdles, please! For the sake of all involved.



Section 5: Final Thoughts
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Romance is widespread, and available to every single person in this life. You can use it liberally in your stories, or not at all, but remember that its ease of use has allowed many writers to kick its good name into the dirt. Use it carefully, use it respectfully, and it can create a moving story that fills the readers' eyes with tears and their hearts with contentment. Use it carelessly and thoughtlessly, and your readers will know it immediately, and think you suck like a the employee of the month at a harem.