WHAT MAKES ROMANCE REAL?

I’d love to hear from readers as to what makes the romances in the books they read seem convincing and satisfying? This topic has been often debated among writers of my acquaintance. For a long time, (remember, I’m not 20), readers loved to read about powerful heroes who demonstrated their love by looking stoic and being harsh. Seriously. I never really got this one, but it was undeniable. Just ask anyone who read Harlequins back in the day.

Now, we have a lot of romances being written about very, very rich men–some of whom need to demonstrate their love(power?) through dominance. This is often a wounded hero, which we saw a lot in in older Harlequins and even bigger books. Heroes could get away with bad things, could be scarred (although hot!) if they had a terrible experience or two to make readers feel compassionate toward them.

Of course, change was and is a big thing. This can go both ways, but basically if we see a bad, but engaging hero or heroine (think television’s main character on House) and is changed by love, it makes the relationship seem real and valid.

When I refer to what makes a romantic relationship real, I’m asking what helps you as a reader feel convinced that this character is truly in love with their matched character? Whether or not we’re talking about the fantasy genre, something involving the paranormal, a historical or a now-and-here contemporary: readers have to be convinced that these two characters care for one another deeply. At least, that’s what most writers of romance are going for.

Here are some ways to demonstrate love (please let me know about other ways I’m missing).

Because of his/her love…..

1. Hero/Heroine gives up something highly cherished or sought after.

2. Hero/Heroine helps their loved character face and disprove a fear.

3. Finding him/herself in the reversed role of their conflict, Hero/Heroine truly understands and accepts loving mate.

4. In order to save loved character, hero/heroine gives up something important to him/herself thereby proving to him/herself that he/she is in love.

5. Hero/heroine demonstrates by action that he/she is different from lovers in loved character’s past.

 

Of all of these (made much less clear by his/her pronouns), the first seems the most powerful…but that could just be me.

Readers, tell me how you know a character loves another character! Be the first to email me about this and win a copy of my book, Wild Woman!