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Aelfsaxa

Aelfsaxa

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Now I'm going to help you with romance. Now, to start, I'll say that I do NOT recommend doing romance unless you're really creative and original. Romance, next to noob stories, has suffered the MOST from unoriginality. Why, and how, you might ask? 90% of stories EVERYWHERE have some sort of romance plot or subplot stuck into it. So apart from being unhealthily overused, most people are also really bad at the genre in general. If you want romance in your story, you better be good at it.
However, when done correctly, which is a rare sight, it can be quite the plot. Do NOT put romance in your story if it isn't even needed. I know hundreds of stories where the author just sticks a clichèd romance plot in there for the hell of it, which is entirely pointless. If you don't need it, don't have it. There are three types of romance plots that people have overused to the point that it's dead to me now. You want to avoid them so you don't come off as clichèd or unoriginal. There's Brock Syndrome, Inuyasha Syndrome, and Harry Potter Syndrome.
If you watch Pokèmon, you'll know who Brock is. If not, let me explain: Brock falls in love with pretty girls two seconds after looking at them. You want to avoid this because it's clichèd, overused, and just not right. Romance is supposed to be about love, romance, and the like, writing in Brock Syndrome encourages falling in love with random people after looking at them for two seconds. This happens in 95% of Hollywood movies as well.
Inuyasha Syndrome is quite easy to guess, but if you don't know who Inuyasha is, let me explain: Inuyasha and Kagome, in the anime, are in love with each other. Everyone knows it. However, their little romance lasts from the first episode all the way to the LAST FREAKING MOVIE, and it's still unresolved. You want to avoid this because dragging out a romance for the entire plot is messy and extremely uncreative. This is the worst kind.

04-Jun-2008 18:58:36 - Last edited on 04-Jun-2008 19:01:39 by Aelfsaxa

Aelfsaxa

Aelfsaxa

Posts: 7,357 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Harry Potter Syndrome, or Random Romance Syndrome, is also pretty bad. In the Harry Potter novels, you pretty much expect Harry to hook up with Hermione. Then, out of nowhere, he ends up with Ginny, a minor character nobody cared about until the last three chapters of the last book, and Hermione got Harry's best friend Ron. Where the hell did this come from? You don't want to have a plot going smoothly only to have this romanctic thing happening out of nowhere for no reason. If the story never needed it, or if something else was expected, don't have it just pop up out of nowhere.
This is the right way to do a romance: At one point, they should declare that they love each other. They can't have known each other for like 3 minutes and suddenly fallen in love either, because seriously, when do you see that in real life? You want to connect with the reader. So, they should know each other for AT LEAST a freaking week. It depends on how much they interact with each other. If they only meet for one hour every week, then it has no place in the story. If they're together somewhere at least every day of a week and they communicate a lot, one week should be enough to set up the romance subplot. Remember, though, to take it at the right pace. Too slow and it'll end up under Inuyasha Syndrome. Too fast and it'll end up in Brock Syndrome. If it happens out of nowhere near the end of the story, avoid that too.
Don't ruin the romance genre any more than people already have. Seriously, the idea most people have of romance these days is "I saw a girl for two seconds and now I'm in love with her." Something like that could work as a little crush, but it can't go any further than that. Who wants to see, "I saw you for two seconds and now I love you!" to which the girl responds, "I don't even know you, let's get married!" That's a really bad plot.

04-Jun-2008 18:58:36 - Last edited on 04-Jun-2008 18:59:35 by Aelfsaxa

Slay Orc 681

Slay Orc 681

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Emotions are some of the aspects of writing that people struggle with the most. However, once you have mastered the proper use of them, you will have an invaluable tool whenever you write.
Going along with emotions are thoughts. Thoughts are something I've noticed that are incredibly often overlooked and forgotten. Your characters do not do every action on an impulse, they also think.
The basics - For emotions, the basics are very simple. Cause and effect. If someone hits your character, your character would become angry or sad. Additionally, some forms of thoughts would rush through your characters mind. For example, if someone hit you, you'd probably become suddenly enraged from adrenniline, your mind would be racing, and you'd probably be thinking "hit back" or "did he just hit me!?" The 'cause and effect' rule also applies to thoughts. Another little trick with this is to make your characters expression mimic the emotion. So if they were angry, their face might contort in anger and they might grit their teeth. If they were embarassed, they might blush and shy away.
Now here comes the easiest way to be able to put emotions and thoughts into your story: Imagine yourself in that situation. You have to pretend you're that character for a moment, and someone just did something. Depending on the character, how would you react? You should know the answer to that, as you created and narrated the character. All that's left after that is to make sure that you put those thoughts and emotions into words.
So, overall, emotions are incredibly simple, but you just have to know how to put them into words and when the emotions would be right. Just remember: Cause and effect, and put yourself in the place of your character.

04-Jun-2008 19:19:09

[#WPO3NUGNZ]

[#WPO3NUGNZ]

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From someone who has read HP unhealthily, I am inclined to agree. Ginny was a major character starting when we first met her, in book 2. The Harry/Ginny romance grew from her initial like of him (she had one of those crushes on your brother's best friend).
The Ron/Hermione one grew from a friendship that was constantly tested by arguments and other things. It became obvious during the Yule Ball of book 4 that both of them secretly liked each other.

04-Jun-2008 19:35:34

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