"mercuryfoam;c-17622291" wrote:
"lone_cat;c-17621482" wrote:
I'm not denying my villainy. My cat likes to sit in my lap as I write, and I occasionally take breaks to pet her and laugh maniacally as I torture my characters with my army of merpeople. >:) That movie gave me nightmares for a week. I can just hear my merpeople making that creepy throat noise as they crawl toward you.
You're another one! I see the pattern here. ... *Looks at Yimi and her cats, looks at lone_cat's avatar* Yes okay. I think we know who to look out for next. :lol: And you just had to make your mer people make that throaty noise. Oh man. I can picture it vividly. I'll let you know if I get any vivid mer people hybrid crawling zombie dreams. :joy:
So this is why my husband doesn't want me to get a cat! It all makes sense now :D
"mercuryfoam;c-17622297" wrote:
Topic: Writing romance.
What are your thoughts on it? What makes a good romance? How do I write a believable romance? Any inspirations I can go read up on? Owh and please don't spoil your stories! I'm shipping almost everyone's cast and I want to see it play out. :love:
This is such a good question, although I was already clutching at straws when Yimi mentioned the subject. I can give you a general answer that's not necessarily specific to my current story (if anything it's probably more related to my previous one).
I don't hugely plan romance, I kind of just see how the characters respond to each other when I throw them into situations together to figure out if they have something to connect over, chemistry, and of course, potential issues. More often than not, who does and doesn't end up developing romantic feelings towards each other is as much of a surprise to me as anyone reading :D
Probably the most important thing to me is that regardless of who is involved in said romance acts in a way that's true to who they are as an individual. I like my characters flawed (did you know? :D ), so of course they would carry said flaws into relationships, whether romantic or other kinds of relationships. So in that way I don't see romance different from writing any other types of character interactions.
What makes a romance believable is such a case by case basis, since there's so many different ways romantic relationships can start - they can develop slowly over time or there can be instant attraction, just like in real life. So I don't think there's necessarily a formula. I guess one key element in making believable is conveying why the characters are romantically interested in one another, but that's such a hard thing to pinpoint, because feelings are irrational. So definitely at the start of a relationship, or even leading up to a relationship, you have a lot of freedom.
Once the relationship becomes more established, I suppose it becomes a question of how said couple would (or wouldn't) work through issues/conflict/just life in general, and whether they continue to be a plausible couple as they grow and change in time - some people grow more alike over the years, some grow apart.
But I don't really know if you were necessarily referring to established couples by romance, or if you just meant the parts leading to a relationship that are the more traditional focus of romance stories. Because I don't know whether making a longterm relationship work is something that's considered romantic. Depends on who you ask, I guess :)