Writing Tips and Reviews

Romance

(I will not be talking about the sexuality of characters or people because I don't give a shit. I'm not going to appeal to America so don't even bother telling me I should talk about it. If you're not straight or whatever then you do you as long as you don't hurt anyone. I'm only going to say that this "name/age/sexuality" is not a bio for a character, I do not have to give a shit about them if I don't know who they are as a person.)

After a year of writing, I've found I suck at romance. I know the steps and I know how it all works, but executing it isn't going to be my forte. I'm an action adventure writer with maybe some romance sprinkled in, but you'll find I won't make a full romance novel anytime soon. So instead of reading my attempt to write romance I'll make a entry about how romance can be done, again, subjective opinion.

Love at first sight...I don't like this trope, I believe real love comes from knowing who a person is and getting to love everything about them. Yuri Lowell is one of my favorite characters because of who he is as a person and what he does to make things right. I didn't just like him from looks alone. Love at first sight is that thing that teenagers do when they're exploring what they like. It's not something that guarantees you'll actually like that someone and they'll actually like you, so the same can go with characters. Characters who fall in love at the first sight of one another isn't all that uncommon and has become a trope because of that. People want things to move forward and fast so they make the characters fall in love and be perfect for each other within the first moments of meeting one another.

If the first meeting is "her heart was pounding from her chest and she blushed until she was red in the face" and same goes for the partner, then sure why not? But the problem occurs when this is treated as "the perfect couple." The two immediately start dating and find that they're perfect for one another. This is rare in real life, this is why dating and courting are things, they make it so that you get to know that person. In story, a male character can be handsome and the female character will fall immediately in love with him, but she doesn't know him. You can write about how they fell for each other and how each time they look at one another their hearts skip a beat and whatever. But are they really right for another?

He could be a horrible person, she could be a horrible person, if you just go by looks it only takes you so far. This is why I believe romance should be taken slowly, in real life and in stories.

Eira Velorum, my Xillia oc, has been long time friends with Jude Mathis. They were childhood friends and spent plenty of time together, so a romance between them wouldn't be out of the ordinary because they've known each other for so long. Vanessa in Tales of Zestiria the World Beyond doesn't auto start falling in love with Sorey, if you don't bring up the role play I won't either, she only finds she likes him when they start to bond over the Celestial Records. Celine Pasca, my Radiant Mythology 2 oc, she hated Guede at first until she started to understand who and what he is, then she started liking him. The only character I could think of that falls under the "love at first sight" trope that I made is probably Khione Isa, my Vesperia oc. She fell in love with Yuri but they didn't start their full relationship until much later when they saw each other again during what would be the game's journey.

Each one of these are different ways of approaching the subject of romance without it being forced. During the role play with Vanessa I felt like she pushed Vanessa and Sorey together, like forced them to love one another while they knew nothing about the other. Sure everyone keeps secrets, but when you don't know who someone is as a person, then can you really say you love them? I know little about Louis from Code Vein but I'll probably ship him with my new Code Vein oc. Not only does he look cool, but he's already shown to be kind and caring. In the demo he's helpful both in combat and shown to take care of his friends. One of his friends even says that he's going to watch the character until he knows you're not going to hurt anyone. Showing that the Revenants there trust Louis.

I'd rather read about a relationship between characters where it makes sense why they fell in love and their relationship is shown to be imperfect. Everyone gets into fights, whether it's from clashing of personalities and/or ideals or some characters getting in the way more than help because of the relationship they have. If it makes sense and not forced, it's fine. Forcing anything to a story makes it rushed and unliked, people hate movies where things don't make sense. Going from point 1 to point 100000 without any context ever is bad writing, people do not fall in love from just looking at one another and get married the next day, because that screws them over until they find out they want a divorce.

In Mysteria X RD, which you can no longer read, Mileena and Ken had a "love at first sight relationship" but it wasn't forced. I didn't shove it in people's throats that they were in love and neither were clingly of the other. The characters reacted appropriately, with Mileena being immature about it while also trying to figure it out, and Ken went pretty fast with what he said, such as "she means more to me than my own life" but he also said things like he'll die to protect his friends. They're in character so they're fine.

Some relationships are one sided, others have a love triangle, and others fall apart. This is how real life works and enough of that realism make it into fiction to make it believable. Unless you're writing the other type of romance, the 18+ I mean. I know about that stuff.

If you want a lasting relationship between characters, don't force it. Start them off as friends, and if you're going to do the love at first sight trope, don't force the characters into having a relationship that would realistically happen after they get to know each other, not before. I don't like reading long paragraphs of how much one character loves another every other sentence, it's why I lean towards the action adventure genre and why I write my romance in little bits. The story doesn't go anywhere if the two characters are all over each other and everyone else is in the background like "what am I supposed to do?" It's why Vanessa and Sorey's relationship in Tales of Zestiria the World Beyond isn't all romance, they still act like friends and the main focus has been on the story arc. Whether it's a dungeon or the characters having free time.

As the show Steven Universe says "love at first sight doesn't exist, love takes time, and love takes work. At the very least you have to know the other person."